Ari Aster reveals he wrote a prequel to 'Hereditary'

In recent days, the American Cinematheque's annual Bleak Week celebration held an interesting question and answer session with Ari Aster about his filmography: Hereditary (2018), Midsummer (2019), Beau is Afraid (2023) y Eddington (2025), all produced and distributed under the independent studio A24 label.

About his debut feature, the acclaimed HereditaryAster revealed interesting information when he confessed that he has written a script that explores that universe, however, the plans to make it are not clear at the moment.

In statements collected by GoldDerby, the filmmaker said:

“I wrote a prequel. I never feel like it's the right time. It's a prequel, not a sequel, so I don't know where this is going”.

Hereditary (The Devil's Legacy in Latin America) revolves around the Graham family. When matriarch Ellen passes away, her daughter Annie's family (Toni Collette) begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about his ancestry. The more they discover, the more they try to escape the sinister destiny they seem to have inherited.

In addition to Collette, the cast included Gabriel Byrne, Ann Dowd, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro and Mallory Bechtel.

The acclaimed horror project marked Aster's debut as a feature film director and screenwriter. At the time, it became A24's highest-grossing film, with a global box office of $90 million. In June 2018, after the premiere of Hereditary in theaters, Aster spoke for the first time about the possibility of making a sequel, saying that he had “An idea that is extremely unorthodox. I would only do it if I could do it that way. It would be very strange and crazy.”

Both Hereditary as Midsummerand films by other filmmakers such as Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman, Nosferatu), are usually described by critics and part of the audience under the term “high horror”, a movement that Aster rejected and clarified that he never used:

“I hate the term high horror, especially because it's a label that was given to me that offended fans of the genre. 'Who do you think you are?' I didn't say it, I didn't say it.”

Aster recognizes the footprint that Hereditarand left in the genre, but feels that it belongs to the same tradition as the classics that influenced it:

“I guess I see their influence here and there, but this movie has so many influences that I also see things that make me think yes, they are in the same tradition as mine. Rob [Eggers] did the same. The Witch “It was before me.”

Kevin Scott Frakes, Buddy Patrick and Kars Knudsen, producers behind The Witch y Splitthey produced Hereditary.

The filmmaker took the opportunity to recognize the incredible moment that independent horror cinema is experiencing this year, with the successful releases of Obsession of Curry Barker y Backrooms of Kane Parsonsin particular, who are dominating the box office around the world.

“This is a very interesting month with Curry and Kane. I hadn't seen Kane's shorts until he came out Backrooms. It's really interesting. He's 20 years old and what he's been doing in Blender, I think he's clearly following a vision. I'm excited to see it. “It's very exciting.”