At this point, just two days away from the film’s wide release, the Hereditary hype train is at full steam. Our own A.A. Dowd, who saw it at Sundance, gave the film his stamp of approval, calling it “pure emotional terrorism.” It’s managed to disturb Edgar Wright, Barry Jenkins, Elijah Wood, and every A.V. Club staffer who has had the chance to see it. The man behind the madness is writer-director Ari Aster, who is making his feature-film debut with the horror sensation. We spoke with Aster, as well as stars Milly Shapiro and Alex Wolff, about the process of making the film, and why they hope it scares the crap out of you.

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