Ari Aster (born July 15, 1986) is an American filmmaker. His films are noted for their unsettling combination of dark comedy, horror, and graphic violence. After garnering some recognition for writing and directing the short horror film The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011) as part of his studies at the AFI Conservatory, he became widely known for writing and directing the horror films Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019), establishing himself in the genre of elevated horror.
Aster co-founded the production company Square Peg with Danish producer Lars Knudsen in 2019. He pivoted away from horror by writing, directing, and producing the surrealist comedy-drama film Beau Is Afraid (2023) and the neo-Western thriller film Eddington (2025). Both films received positive reviews but failed to recoup their budgets at the box office.
Early life
Ari Aster was born to Jewish parents in New York City on July 15, 1986.[1] His mother was a poet and his father was a jazz musician.[2] He has a younger brother.[3] He saw Dick Tracy (1990) when he was four years old, later recalling that he jumped from his seat and ran "six New York City blocks" while his mother chased him after seeing the scene in which Warren Beatty's titular protagonist fired a machine gun in front of a wall of fire.[4] He spent some of his childhood in England, where his father opened a jazz nightclub in Chester.[5] The family returned to the U.S. when he was 10 years old and settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he spent the rest of his childhood.[5][6][7] He described himself as a "fat kid with a stutter" who felt alienated and was kicked out of Santa Fe Preparatory School.[8] He was obsessed with films, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, and Hastings Video Store.[9]
Originally aspiring to become an author, Aster became interested in filmmaking through screenwriting, and wrote six feature-length screenplays during high school even though he would not begin actually making films until college.[10] As a child, he became obsessed with horror films and frequently rented them from local video stores: "I just exhausted the horror section of every video store I could find. I didn't know how to assemble people who would cooperate on something like that [so] I found myself just writing screenplays."[4] In 2004, he began studying film at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, where he made several short films and wrote for the local Weekly Alibi arts magazine.[11] He graduated in 2008 and debuted as the writer and director of the short film Tale of Two Tims,[12] which he submitted to the American Film Institute (AFI). This led to him being accepted into the 2010 class of the AFI Conservatory's graduate program, where he earned an MFA with a focus in directing.[13][14][15]
Career
Aster in 2018
After graduating from the AFI Conservatory, Aster wrote and directed several more short films between 2011 and 2018, often teaming with his AFI Conservatory friends Alejandro de Leon and Pawel Pogorzelski. The most notable project was the short psychological horror film The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011), which follows the members of a suburban family in which the father finds himself trapped in an incestuous relationship with his abusive son. The film was Aster's thesis film while studying at the AFI Conservatory,[16] and was later screened at film festivals; it premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in Utah on January 22 before leaking online in November, where it went viral. Film website Short of the Week wrote that the comments on the film's YouTube page had "everything from effusive acclaim to disgusted vitriol [...] in terms of the internet, that means it's a hit".[17] Aster worked on the film with fellow AFI students. He first conceived the story while discussing taboos with his friends, including the film's star Brandon Greenhouse, before starting his first year at AFI.[15]
Aster made his feature-length directorial debut when he wrote and directed the supernatural horror film Hereditary (2018), which follows a family haunted by a mysterious presence after the death of their secretive grandmother. The film premiered in the Midnight section at that year's Sundance Film Festival,[18] and was theatrically released in the United States on June 8.[19] It was acclaimed by critics, with Toni Collette's performance receiving particular praise, and was a commercial success; it grossed over $80 million on a $10 million budget, becoming A24's highest-grossing film worldwide.[20]Peter Travers of Rolling Stone named it the scariest film of 2018.[21]
Aster next wrote and directed the folk horror film Midsommar (2019), which was also produced by A24.[22] It follows a group of American university students who travel to Sweden for a festival that occurs once every 90 years and find themselves in the clutches of a cult claiming to practise paganism. Midsommar was theatrically released in the United States on July 3. The film received positive reviews from critics, with many praising Aster's direction and Florence Pugh's performance.[23][24] Aster's original 171-minute cut of the film, which A24 asked him to trim down for a wide theatrical release, had its world premiere at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City as part of its Scary Movies XII lineup on August 20.[25] For his work on the film, Aster received a nomination for Best Screenplay at the 29th Gotham Independent Film Awards.[26]
In June 2019, Aster and Danish producer Lars Knudsen announced that they had launched a new production company called Square Peg.[27] In June 2020, Aster said his next film would be a "nightmare comedy" that lasts for four hours.[28] In February 2021, A24 announced that Aster would write and direct Beau Is Afraid (2023) as its third partnership with him. The film follows an anxiety-fueled and paranoid middle-aged man who must venture out on a surreal odyssey to visit his mother's home.[29][30] It was originally titled Disappointment Blvd.[31] It was released in theaters on April 21.[31] The film received mixed reviews, with some critics and viewers praising Aster's direction and Joaquin Phoenix's performance while deriding its length and story, but the film was not a commercial success as it earned around $10 million at the box office against a budget of $35 million.[32] It ultimately lost the studio over $35 million.[33] Speaking about the film's critical and commercial shortcomings, Aster said in 2025: "I was pretty sad that it was so maligned […] it was a bummer. It lost money. Critically, I wouldn’t say it was reviled, there’s just no consensus whatsoever... There are things that I would do differently if I did it now... I think I ejected a number of people from the theater with that [last hour]"[34][35]
Aster wrote and directed the contemporary Western satirical black comedy film Eddington (2025), which was co-produced by A24 and Square Peg. Set in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd protests, the film examines the political and social turmoil in the fictional town of Eddington, New Mexico caused by the contested mayoral election fought between the county sheriff and the town's mayor.[39][40][41] The film debuted on May 16, 2025, in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.[42] It was released in theaters on July 18.[40]
Aster and Hertzfeldt are collaborating on an animated feature film called Antarctica, described by Hertzfeldt as "big" and "very expensive".[49][50][51]
Themes and style
Aster's work is frequently noted for its exploration of grief, family trauma, psychological deterioration, and societal taboos.[52] His early films such as The Strange Thing About the Johnsons and Hereditary delve into the dysfunction and repressed tensions within families, often blending horror with psychological drama.[53]
His distinct visual style often juxtaposes daylight and horror, especially notable in Midsommar, where unsettling events unfold in bright, pastoral settings. Aster has cited a deep interest in "emotional horror"—films that unsettle not through jump scares but through existential dread and the collapse of personal identity.[54]
Recurring motifs include cult behavior, ritualism, and the collapse of individual agency in the face of communal or inherited forces.[55] His work is also known for long takes, meticulous mise-en-scène, and a blend of slow-burn pacing with sudden, graphic violence.[56]
1234Kleinman, Jake (July 3, 2019). "For Midsommar Director Ari Aster, Scaring You Is Just the Beginning". Inverse. Retrieved April 14, 2025. The next thing I'm thinking about doing is kind of an absurdist dark comedy. I have a big Sirkian melodrama that I'm really excited about, too. I've got a Western and a sci-fi film that I've been building. I really want to do a musical. I haven't written one yet, but I love musicals. And I've got this gangster saga epic.
↑Horowitz, Josh (July 16, 2019). "Ari Aster - Happy Sad Confused" (Podcast). Happy Sad Confused. Event occurs at 47:29. Retrieved April 14, 2025– via Apple Podcasts. There's one sci-fi satire, sort of an ensemble satire—satire being a very dirty word. I should find another word for it. [...] But that will be expensive.
123Fennessey, Sean (July 18, 2025). "Ari Aster's Eddington Is a Mirror. Like What You See? | The Big Picture"(video) (Podcast). Ringer Movies. Event occurs at 1:45:24, 1:51:51. Retrieved July 21, 2025– via YouTube. Yeah, I've got sort of like a sequel I've been cooking up for Eddington. I've got a horror movie that I'm interested in doing. There's a sci-fi film that's sort of an adaptation that I'm thinking about. [...] Well, the [Eddington] sequel... we'll see. It's not really a sequel, but there are returning characters.
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