We share a lot of fears. Pain, violence, alienation, isolation, heights, clowns, etc. Lots of people are afraid of those things. But if there’s one aspect of the human condition that scares the hell out of us — all of us — it’s the unexpected loss of a loved one. Some people think clowns are hilarious and that heights are actually pretty thrilling, but the sudden loss of a parent, a sibling, or a child is a truly terrifying prospect. And I challenge you to find someone who disagrees with that assertion.

And while most horror films are content to dabble in the simpler fears (like being stabbed) the braver and more audacious ones try to tackle some decidedly more disturbing material. Which brings us to Hereditary, a remarkably refined and confident horror film from first-time feature director Ari Aster. In the simplest terms, it’s a wonderfully creepy haunted house story. But since there are lots of wonderfully creepy haunted house movies out there, there must be something that elevates Hereditary beyond the typical horror fanfare.

And boy is there.

Hereditary opens with a shot of a treehouse that somehow comes off like an optical illusion before the camera swings around and we slowly zoom in on the interior of a dollhouse. Already, the astute Mr. Aster is messing with our heads as he sets his tale of domestic dread inside an ever-spiraling maze of misdirection. We learn that an old woman has passed away and that her daughter, Annie Graham (Toni Collette), is having a hard time dealing with this situation, only not in the ways you’d expect. She’s more stressed out and guilty than actually heartbroken. (And soon we’ll find out why.)

Annie is supported by her low-key, loyal husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) and — eventually — by her young daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) and teenage son Peter (Alex Wolff). But it doesn’t take long for the viewer to realize that this family is not actually in mourning. At least not any sort of mourning we normally see in movies. It goes beyond simple estrangement; we gradually get the impression that whatever went down between Annie and her late mother was more than just a typical family tiff.

And then things start getting weird. At first, it’s just some standard haunted house stuff: curious noises and mysterious visions lead to horrific accidents, shocking revelations, and all sorts of fantastically presented horror goodies that I won’t even come close to spoiling in this review. Suffice to say that, plot-wise, Hereditary feels like a brittle, fascinating family melodrama that’s been dropped into one of the most meticulously crafted “haunted house” movies ever conceived. Like the classic Poltergeist brought haunted houses into the contemporary suburban realm, Hereditary takes some very familiar genre trappings and modernizes them in the most compelling and enjoyably disturbing fashion.

Astute horror fans are of course well aware of the amazingness of Ms. Toni Collette. Between her work in Krampus, Fright Night, and The Sixth Sense alone she’s proven that she can bring warmth, wit, and humanity to the weirdest of horror tales. And here she delivers a force-of-nature performance that is simply staggering in its emotional intensity. (I’d call it an Oscar-worthy performance if the Academy bothered to watch indie horror films, so instead I’ll just say she’s amazing and move on.) As Annie’s calmly controlling husband, Gabriel Byrne is also great, but here he’s asked to play a character who barely seems to matter in his own house. It’s a quiet, subtle performance, but an excellent one all the same.

Character actor extraordinaire Ann Dowd pops up halfway through the film to play a small but integral role (she has a history with Annie’s late mom) but the less said about that thread the better. But voluminous praise is due to actors Alex Wolff (as Peter) and Milly Shapiro (as Charlie); not only is it difficult to find young actors this plainly talented, it’s even harder to get them to play “horror” so damn well. Wolff and Shapiro are asked to deal with some intensely scary material, and both of them deliver strong, intense, top-notch performances.

One is often willing to overlook a few minor technical missteps when analyzing independent horror features from brand-new directors, but fortunately, that won’t be necessary here. Not only has Aster proven himself to be a very crafty writer/director, but let’s just say he also “crewed up” really well. The cinematography (by Pawel Pogorzelski) is smooth, graceful, and eerily evocative of the horrors to come. The production design (by Grace Yun) is cold and sparse and (yes) creepy. Composer Colin Stetson provides a darkly ominous backdrop to all the freaky family turmoil. Oh, and the editorial team deserves high praise as well. Hereditary is not a short movie (it’s actually just over two hours long) but it’s so confidently constructed that it frequently seems to fly by at an expeditious clip. Plus it’s all off-kilter, which is cool. Most movies of this sort deal with a normal family in a scarily extraordinary house. The Graham family is not at all normal — in fact they’re all a bit weird in their own way — but then that just adds another interesting wrinkle to the arcane proceedings.

But what’s most striking about Hereditary is its ice-cold approach to a fractured family dynamic and how well it commands the viewer’s attention. Its approach to horror is equally frank and powerful; moments of shocking violence occur with very little warning, the story is littered with specific little details best described as “subtly off-putting,” and the film’s matter-of-fact presentation of angst, shock, and trauma are nothing short of chilling. It bears repeating: it’s borderline astonishing that something this multi-dimensional, dramatically hefty, and enjoyably scary could come from a first-time director. It’s clear that this guy grew up watching the thrillers of Nicolas Roeg, Roman Polanski, and John Carpenter, yet Hereditary never feels like an homage, a knock-off, or a loose remake of a horror movie you’ve seen six times. As any horror fan can tell you, it’s not easy to breathe new life into the old haunted house template, but it’s pretty damn exciting when someone does.

What’s probably most impressive about Hereditary is what it has to say about the modern (American) family unit. If you just want a smart, unpredictable, and unexpectedly austere horror story, there’s a lot to enjoy here. But taken also as a snapshot (or perhaps an indictment) of the ways in which a modern family is torn apart by lies, secrets, resentment, and their casual indifference to one another, Hereditary is one of the most powerful, memorable genre films of the past several years. And yes, one of the scariest.

Hereditary is now available on VOD, 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital), Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital), and DVD.