Midsommar Director’s Next Movie Will Be A Four Hour Long Nightmare Comedy

Ari Aster, the director of Midsommar and Hereditary, says his next movie will be a four hour nightmare comedy. Though he’s ascended in the past few years thanks to his distinctive brand of cinematic terror, Aster has been writing and directing short films since 2011. His most notable short film is arguably The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, which also marked Aster’s debut behind the camera. The film focuses on an abusive incestuous relationship that a son secretly carries on with his father. The movie went viral when it leaked online, no doubt in part due to its provocative subject matter, and garnered both scorn and effusive praise. Aster is also known for Munchausen, a silent short horror film centered around a boy and his overprotective mother.

This unique focus on destructive familial bonds would serve Aster well with Hereditary, his directorial debut for a feature-length film. Ostensibly hinging on demonic possession, many viewers and critics agreed that the most unnerving scenes in Hereditary showed an utterly dysfunctional family that aided in their own doom. The film was a hit at the box office, earning $80 million worldwide against a budget of $10 million and becoming A24’s highest-grossing movie to date. Toni Colette was also praised for her performance in the lead role, including by actor Chris Evans. Aster’s followup, Midsommar, received a somewhat more mixed reception but still made quite an impact when it premiered in July 2019.

In a recent interview with Associated Students Program Board at UC Santa Barbara (via IndieWire), Aster shed some light on his next project. The filmmaker revealed he’s been working on a “nightmare comedy” and added that he’s just finished a draft. “All I know is that it’s gonna be four hours long, over 17 [years of age],” Aster said. While it’s possible that he’s exaggerating for humor’s sake, it does offer some insight into the fact that the direct is planning to go big for his third major outing.

It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for Aster to work with extended runtimes. The director’s cut of Midsommar, which incidentally could also be described as a nightmare comedy, spanned 171 minutes. A24 asked Aster to trim down the feature for a wide theatrical release. The extended cut was ultimately made available to the public through retail purchase and as an Apple TV exclusive. It’s more than likely Aster’s next film will have to be trimmed down as well.

Still, the interest in Aster’s future projects is another indication of the elevated status of horror. Along with Jordan Peele, and others like Leigh Whannell, there’s a renewed acceptance’s in the genre’s potential for thought-provoking scares. Aster is known for that in particular, going back to his earliest output. His preference for the strange and taboo hasn’t shifted even with mainstream success, which adds to the intrigue surrounding his next nightmare of a movie.

Source: Associated Students Program Board at UC Santa Barbara (via IndieWire)

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Abdullah Al-Ghamdi
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Abdullah Al-Ghamdi joined Screen Rant in August 2019, focusing on movie and television news. In January of the same year, he wrote a 3500+ word piece on why Primo Colón is underrated. He considers it his finest work. When he’s not arguing for the merits of his favorite wrestler, he can be reached at: [email protected].

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