Photo by Reid Chavis, courtesy of A24(NEW YORK) — With several horror films under her belt, including the Oscar-nominated The Sixth Sense and the highly anticipated Hereditary, out Friday, it’s no wonder people have dubbed Toni Collette their “Scream Queen.”
“I’ll be any kind of queen anybody wants!” Collette tells ABC Radio. “I don’t care! I mean, it’s kind of nice because people obviously think I scream well and that they believe the fear.”
Collette adds, “I think fear is kind of a weird one to portray or to bring any kind of truth to, so the fact that they’re saying that, it makes me feel like maybe they’re believing in the story which is always a good thing.”
Collette has been getting rave reviews so far for her performance in Hereditary. She plays Annie Graham, a mother of two dealing with the death of her own mother, which unleashes an evil curse on the family. The film is being called this generation’s Exorcist. Collette, who’s admittedly not a horror fan herself, warns viewers to expect the unexpected.
“You can’t prepare yourself. Perhaps go to the toilet first!” she jokes. “But also I think you also need to know that there’s something special about the movie. It’s not being scared just for the sake of it. None of it is gratuitous. It’s actually a really amazing story and it’s really artfully told.”
In fact, she says seeing the film is a “cathartic” experience.
“Even if you’ve read anything and you feel like you’re a hardened horror fan, you’ll go in and it will still get you,” she says.
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