Warning: This article will discuss a film about sexual abuse and incest.
Filmmaker Ari Aster exploded into the world of cinema with the release of "Hereditary" in 2018. That film was structured around a demonic cult and the magical glyphs they used to conduct ritual sacrifices, but moreso, it was about intergenerational guilt, barely suppressed rage, and the dissolution of the family unit. Toni Collette gives a career-best performance as a woman who kind of hated her own mother, and who has no small amount of depressed resentment toward her own family.
Aster followed that with "Midsommar," another film about cult sacrifices, this time complimented by the murder/suicide of the protagonist's family. Like "Hereditary," "Midsommar" was deeply beloved by the horror community, and is often held up as an example of the A24 house style. Florence Pugh also gives an astonishing performance as a grieving young woman whose awful boyfriend hates her. In 2023, Aster made the dour, panicked, and deliberately difficult "Beau is Afraid," a Freudian freakout of the highest order, set either in a dystopian future, or inside the mind of a man who suffers from panic attacks. It was one of the best films of the year. Aster's next film, "Eddington," is due in theaters on July 18, 2025.
While Aster was still a student at the American Film Institute, however, he was already trying to be as provocative as possible. Aster has always been interested in delving into the darkest corners of guilt and taboo, and his thesis short, "The Strange Thing About the Johnsons," was no exception. The short screened at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2011, and no one knew what to make of its depictions of domestic abuse and multiple scenes of father-son incest.