What Is the IMDb Rating for Hereditary

Hereditary, the 2018 horror film directed by Ari Aster, holds an IMDb rating of 7.3 out of 10 based on user votes across the platform.

This score positions the film solidly in the upper range of horror cinema on IMDb, reflecting a strong level of viewer appreciation for what many consider a landmark entry in elevated horror.

The 7.3 rating indicates that while Hereditary found significant favor with audiences who took the time to rate it, the response was more measured than near-universal acclaim, suggesting the film has its vocal supporters alongside those who found it less impactful.

What makes Hereditary’s IMDb score particularly interesting is the notable gap between how critics and general audiences responded to the film.

While the movie earned a 90% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a 87/100 score on Metacritic—both representing critical consensus that the film is a sophisticated, well-crafted work—the 7.3 IMDb user rating reveals a different story about mainstream audience preferences.

This divergence is common in horror cinema, where critical appreciation for psychological depth and innovative storytelling can exceed popular satisfaction.

Table of Contents

• Understanding Hereditary’s IMDb Rating in Context
• The Critical-Audience Disconnect Explained
• How Hereditary’s Rating Compares to Peer Horror Films
• Practical Guidance for Using IMDb Ratings When Choosing Horror Films
• Why Hereditary’s Rating Divergence Matters for Horror
• The Role of Director’s Intent in Rating Interpretation
• Future Perspective on Hereditary’s Rating Legacy
• Conclusion

Understanding Hereditary’s IMDb Rating in Context

The 7.3 rating on imdb places Hereditary among the platform’s more respected horror films, though it falls short of the 8.0+ range occupied by films like The Shining or Parasite.

To contextualize this score, consider that IMDb’s ratings are generated by millions of individual votes weighted by the platform’s proprietary formula, which accounts for voting patterns and user reliability.

For a horror film released in 2018 to accumulate a 7.3 across such a large sample size indicates genuine, sustained appreciation rather than an inflated initial reception.

The film’s IMDb categorization as Drama, Horror, and Mystery reflects its genre-bending approach—it’s not positioned purely as a jump-scare thriller but rather as a character-driven psychological horror with mystery elements. This hybrid categorization matters because users rating horror films are often different from those rating dramas, and Hereditary’s appeal cuts across both audiences.

The 7.3 suggests the film found traction among drama-oriented viewers who appreciated its narrative complexity alongside traditional horror fans drawn to its atmospheric dread.

The Critical-Audience Disconnect Explained

The gap between Hereditary’s critical reception and its IMDb user rating reveals something fundamental about how different groups evaluate horror.

Critics at major outlets praised the film’s technical execution, thematic depth, and willingness to subvert genre expectations—qualities that don’t always correlate with entertainment value or enjoyment for general audiences. Some viewers found the film’s slow-burn pacing and focus on family trauma more exhausting than engaging, even if they acknowledged its craftsmanship.

This disconnect carries a practical limitation: if you’re considering whether to watch Hereditary based on its rating, understanding the source matters enormously.

A potential viewer seeking sophisticated, challenging cinema would find the critical consensus (90% on rotten Tomatoes) more predictive of their satisfaction than the broader IMDb score. Conversely, someone looking for straightforward horror entertainment might actually find the 7.3 more accurate to their likely experience.

The CinemaScore grade of D+—a metric measuring opening-night audience reactions—further underscores that casual moviegoers often leave the theater frustrated with what critics celebrated.

How Hereditary’s Rating Compares to Peer Horror Films

Positioning Hereditary’s 7.3 among contemporary horror releases provides useful perspective. The Witch (2015) earned 7.1 on IMDb with similarly strong critical praise (91% on Rotten Tomatoes), following an almost identical pattern of critical versus audience response.

Meanwhile, The conjuring (2013), a more conventionally entertaining horror film, scored 7.5 on IMDb while receiving lower critical scores (79% on Rotten Tomatoes).

This comparison shows that IMDb ratings and critical ratings measure different things: critics value innovation and artistic merit, while IMDb users factor in immediate visceral satisfaction, rewatchability, and whether the film delivered the kind of experience they anticipated.

The horror subgenre most similar to Hereditary—psychological horror that prioritizes dread and ideas over scares—consistently shows this rating pattern. Films like Midsommar (also by Ari Aster, 2019) scored 7.1 on IMDb despite 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, and The Babadook (2014) earned 6.8 on IMDb with 98% critical approval.

This example is instructive: The Babadook’s near-perfect critical score but relatively modest IMDb rating tells you the film’s effectiveness depends heavily on your tolerance for slow-burn psychological tension.

Practical Guidance for Using IMDb Ratings When Choosing Horror Films

If you’re using Hereditary’s 7.3 rating to decide whether to watch, consider what aspects of horror cinema appeal to you most.

If you value technical filmmaking, metaphorical depth, and films that linger in your mind days later, the critical reception (90% on Rotten Tomatoes, 87 on Metacritic) is a stronger predictor of your satisfaction than the IMDb score alone. These sources suggest a cohesive work where nearly all professional critics found merit.

However, if you value immediate entertainment, jump scares, clear resolutions, and characters making sensible decisions, the lower audience reception metrics (7.3 on IMDb, D+ on CinemaScore) warn that Hereditary may disappoint. A practical approach involves reading user reviews specifically from IMDb voters, not relying on the number alone.

Hereditary’s reviews reveal a split between viewers who found it devastating and brilliant, and those who felt manipulated or bored.

Unlike a pure numerical rating, reading five-star and one-star reviews on IMDb often provides more useful information than the 7.3 summary score—you can identify whether critics’ complaints (slow pacing, minimal action, reliance on family drama) align with your personal preferences.

Why Hereditary’s Rating Divergence Matters for Horror

The gap between Hereditary’s critical acclaim and its audience reception highlights a critical limitation of treating any single rating as definitive. IMDb ratings work well for consensus films where most viewers agree on quality, but they struggle to represent polarizing films that generate strong reactions in opposite directions.

Hereditary is precisely this type of film—it produces passionate advocates who view it as a masterpiece and equally passionate detractors who view it as pretentious or overwrought.

A warning worth noting: don’t extrapolate from Hereditary’s 7.3 that all 7.3-rated films offer similar experiences. The numerical rating masks the fact that some films earn 7.3 through broad moderate approval, while others—like Hereditary—earn it despite extreme polarization.

The film likely has more one-star and ten-star ratings than films with similar 7.3 scores but less divisive reputations. This pattern is common in horror and explains why IMDb’s rating alone cannot be your sole decision-making tool, especially in genres where artistic ambition and audience comfort levels diverge sharply.

The Role of Director’s Intent in Rating Interpretation

Ari Aster’s deliberate approach to filmmaking—favoring sustained tension and psychological deterioration over conventional scares—helps explain why Hereditary’s critical and audience ratings diverge.

Aster wasn’t attempting to make a universally entertaining horror film; he was making a horror film about grief, family dysfunction, and supernatural intrusion designed to work primarily on viewers who engage with its thematic layers.

This intent matters when interpreting the 7.3 rating, because it suggests the film succeeded at what it attempted, even if what it attempted wasn’t designed for maximum broad appeal.

The 7.3 IMDb rating, viewed through this lens, becomes a moderate score that reflects a film achieving artistic success without chasing mainstream popularity—a perfectly respectable outcome for ambitious cinema.

Future Perspective on Hereditary’s Rating Legacy

As Hereditary ages, its IMDb rating may shift slightly, though such changes typically stabilize within a few years of release. What seems certain is that the film’s critical reputation will remain strong—an 87 on Metacritic represents a threshold that rarely diminishes significantly over time.

Whether the audience rating on IMDb rises slightly as the film gains viewers seeking it out intentionally (rather than encountering it blindly in theaters) remains to be seen, but the pattern suggests it will likely hover in the 7.2-7.4 range long-term.

For cinephiles evaluating Hereditary’s place in contemporary horror, the combination of strong critical consensus, technical achievement, and moderate audience appreciation creates a clearer picture than any single score could provide.

The film has secured its place as a significant entry in horror cinema, even if it remains more respected by critics than beloved by casual audiences.

Conclusion

Hereditary’s IMDb rating of 7.3 out of 10 represents a film that achieved genuine appreciation from audiences while generating notable divergence between critical and casual viewer response.

The score reflects a well-executed psychological horror film that succeeded with critics (90% on Rotten Tomatoes, 87 on Metacritic) while proving less universally satisfying to general audiences seeking more conventional entertainment. Understanding this gap—and what drives it—is essential for determining whether Hereditary will align with your personal preferences.

When evaluating whether to watch Hereditary, treat the 7.3 as one data point among several. If you appreciate slow-burn horror that prioritizes atmosphere and thematic depth over conventional scares, the critical consensus suggests you’ll find significant value.

If you prefer clearer narrative resolutions and more active horror elements, the audience-skewed ratings (7.3 on IMDb, D+ on CinemaScore) honestly warn that the film may frustrate you. The rating itself is neither an overestimate nor an underestimate—it simply measures something different than critical reviews do.

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