Ari Aster's next film needs to be a pure drama. The relationship stuff in this and the family drama in Hereditary are so fucking strong. More please.
I think he said a while ago that his next film (Midsommar) would be the last horror film he did for a while since he didn't want to be solely a horror director.
I think Hereditary works so well because at its heart it's a great drama. I always tell people this, too. Yeah, it has horror elements, but the most unsettling bits are what I'd call more drama than horror (the dinner scene, the decapitation scene, the overall themes of grief and resentment). Of course, one genre doesn't have to be mutually exclusive of another, but the elements that I consider more pure horror in the film are its weakest parts.
Likewise, Midsommar's strongest parts are when it deals with these interpersonal aspects, too. It just loses its footing somewhat with some of the subplots that don't really go anywhere and some of the wheel-spinning it does midway through.
Aster doing a non-supernatural/outré type of drama would definitely be interesting. Among his contemporaries (Peele, Eggar, Flanagan), he may be my favorite when it comes to slightly left-of-center offbeat sensibilities, whereas I consider Flanagan to probably be my favorite when it comes to super solid meat-and-potatoes type of horror.
Has anyone here seen The Strange Thing About the Johnsons or any of his short films? I remember hearing about the Johnsons a couple years ago as this super bizzare/darkly comedic drama, but I never watched it.
edit: It's been
online for a while. May have to finally watch it tonight.