First, though, there’s the small matter
ofMidsommar: Aster’s bleak fairy tale,
and the nerve-shredding next chapter
in the director’s own fairy-tale quest to
conquer Hollywood. “I certainly hope
it hits a nerve the wayHereditarydid,”
he says, before breaking into a grin.
“Maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll be a total
disaster that fails miserably and I’ll have
all these fans coming for my head.” An
interesting choice of words: this is a man,
after all, who knows a thing or two about
severed skulls. Something tells us he’ll
be keeping his screwed on.MIDSOMMAR IS IN CINEMAS FROM 8 AUGUSTclothes-hating) conspirators in
Hereditary. “Cults are essentially
makeshift families,” muses Aster.
“There’s a tribalism involved with them
I find really interesting.” How about the
other elements in Midsommar reprised
from Hereditary, its themes of family
and bereavement? Just fruitful areas of
exploration for dramatists, or might he be
pulling from personal experience?
“Hmmmm.” Aster sighs, taking a
moment, choosing how much to share.
“There have been a lot of events in my
life and in the life of my family. I can’t
really talk about them. Hereditary and
Midsommar aren’t a product of some
generalised anxiety disorder. A lot of
things have happened to me. There are
things that I’m constantly wrestling with,
that feel urgent to me. If I’m not drawing
on something that’s painful to me or
causing me anxiety — something that’s
really weighing on me — I’m really bored
by the material. I feel disingenuous. It
needs to be something personal.”
It won’t always be this way for Aster.
While he might be deep in the edit of
Midsommar right now, he’s already
starting to look ahead to a brighter,
lighter project that sees him step
beyond grief, cults and chaos. “I love
musicals, and would love to write one,”
he says, surprisingly. “I love Westerns,
too. I love slapstick comedy and
romantic comedies.” He’s “received
a lot of intriguing offers” for big-budget
franchise films, an avenue he’s not against
exploring. “I really like working on a
large scale — the bigger the canvas the
better. I’d love to make real spectacle
movies. In that sense, I’m very intrigued
by the idea of working with certain
properties. But I’d always want to be
the writer. If I was working from
someone else’s screenplay I’d want to
get in there, make it my own.”
DARKNESS
AND LIGHT
HORROR FILMS ON A SLIDING
SCALE FROM PITCH-BLACK
TO SUPER-BRIGHTSCA
DARKEST NIGHT
30 Days Of Night (2007)
This movie takes place in Barrow,
Alaska, one of the Northernmost
communities on the planet (a real
town, now renamed Utqiagvik) –
where a full night lasts 30 days,
making it the go-to vacation spot for
photophobic vampires who fancy
a long, leisurely meal picking off the
locals. It’s a long haul ’til dawn.DARK NIGHT
Halloween (1978)
In John Carpenter’s Halloween, the
major lighting source seems to be
Jack o’lanterns. The few daytime
scenes are overcast (though the sun
seems to set awfully late for
October), and most of the film takes
place over the night of the 31st, with
shadows all the better for Michael to
loom out of in his pale mask.LIGHTEST NIGHT
The Wolf Man (1941)
Most werewolf movies feature
a median of light and dark — since the
monster is only active under the light
of a full moon, the stalking scenes
have to take place on clear, high-
visibility nights. Lon Chaney Jr’s
Larry Talbot all but bathes in pools of
moonlight so you can see every
individual yak hair glued to his face.NOONDAY SUN
The Texas Chain Saw
Massacre (1973)
Tobe Hooper’s horror classic features
a few night-time chases, but mostly
takes place in broad daylight under
the sizzling Texas sun — which means
the house decorated with body
parts must smell worse than a dead
armadillo. That sickly yellow
glare makes it harder to look away
from the horrors.BRIGHTEST DAY
The Hideous Sun Demon (1958)
In scrambling to come up with a new
idea for a monster, this brisk little
creature-feature invents the reverse
werewolf. Bruce Banner-type atomic
research scientist Robert Clarke is
exposed to radiation. He turns into
a lizard-faced mutant maniac in direct
sunlight but reverts to human form
after dark. KIM NEWMANTop to bottom:
Hereditary’s
nerve-shredding
finale; Milly Shapiro as
Annie’s demon-hosting
daughter Charlie;
Collette in Hereditary
— Aster is already
looking beyond “grief,
cults and chaos” for
future projects.