I love the horror genre. I consider myself a genre filmmaker. I love genre, but I think there's a certain amount of complacency that comes with watching a genre film; people know what the devices are. They know what the tropes are. They know the conventions.

Ari Aster

Categorized in : Think Myself People Love

The beauty of the horror genre is that you can smuggle in these harder stories, and the genre comes with certain demands, but mostly you need to find the catharsis in whatever story you're telling. What may be seen as a deterrent for audiences in one genre suddenly becomes a virtue in another genre.

Ari Aster

need story you beauty

I found that the things I am afraid of most are things for which there are no obvious remedies. Like, what do you do with a fear of death? You either come to terms with it or you don't, but there's no solving it.

Ari Aster

i-am you fear death

'Hereditary' is unabashedly a horror film. In a lot of ways, it's in dialogue with other horror films. But I do know that it was important for me that the film functioned first as a family drama. I know that I'm never affected by anything if I'm not invested in the people to whom the genre things are happening.

Ari Aster

me family important people

For me, writing is a part of directing. It's the first stage of directing.

Ari Aster

first me stage writing

I really feel like the horror genre is capable of so much. Especially as an in-theater experience, something you watch with other people. It can do so much.

Ari Aster

feel you experience people

A betrayal in a family is much more devastating than a betrayal among friends, or even lovers.

Ari Aster

more friends betrayal family

The nice thing about a horror movie is that people go in looking to be unsettled.

Ari Aster

looking go nice people

Filmmaking is so much about catharsis anyway. It's therapeutic.

Ari Aster

anyway about catharsis filmmaking

Sometimes you want pain to be acknowledged and not whitewashed - or erased by some exceptionalist point of view.

Ari Aster

view you pain sometimes

I love Lars von Trier. 'Dogville' is my favourite movie of the last 20 years. 'Nymphomaniac' and 'Melancholia' aren't quite as exciting as 'The Kingdom', 'Breaking the Waves', or 'The Idiots', but I'll always love him for being him.

Ari Aster

waves being always love

I'm very fortunate in that my parents are artists. My mom is a brilliant poet... She still is a great visual artist. My dad is a jazz drummer... I've been very fortunate in that I've had parents who supported and encouraged me and haven't really questioned what I'm doing or asked me to question it.

Ari Aster

parents great me dad

With 'Hereditary', I wanted to make a film about what bothers me about life.

Ari Aster

about me film life

I don't necessarily consider myself a horror filmmaker.

Ari Aster

consider myself filmmaker horror

My first experience in a movie theater was Dick Tracy. There was a scene with a guy with a Tommy gun and a wall of fire behind him. I panicked, screamed, and jumped out of my seat. And I ran six New York city blocks, running into the street and almost got hit by a bunch of cars and had my mom chasing after a panic-stricken four-year-old.

Ari Aster

city experience gun fire

The idea of witches has always scared me because of the idea that there are Machiavellian forces out there that conspire to hurt others. There are people who do not have your best interest at heart and are actively willing to do harm to you and actively sending energy in that direction.

Ari Aster

best me you heart

The way I work is, I always compose a shot list before I talk to anybody, including my DP. So I'll spend a couple months basically creating the movie in my head, so I have a very solid film in my head, where I know every shot, and I know what the transitions between scenes are.

Ari Aster

know always work way

I'm very impressed by films like' Whiplash' or what Fincher does, where you get all these different... Where you get all this coverage that's perfectly linked up. I actually find coverage very confusing. But I love sequencing shots because I know exactly where I am.

Ari Aster

i-am know you love

I have more fun talking about other movies than talking about my own.

Ari Aster

movies my-own fun talking

I enjoy turning things on the audience. I really like working in genre because people come into the films with certain expectations. They know the tropes so well that, when you turn on those, it can be shocking because there's a complacency that comes with watching those films.

Ari Aster

you enjoy expectations people

The joy of making a genre film is that you have audiences in that place, and it's a perfect place to start because all it takes is finding ways to startle them out of that complacency and encourage a different kind of engagement.

Ari Aster

place start you joy