Horror Master Ari Aster Reveals His Surprising Comedy Favorites
The Hereditary and Midsommar director opens up about the comedies that inspire his darkly humorous filmmaking approach, from classic satires to unconventional picks.
The boundary separating fear from humor runs razor-thin. Ari Aster knows this better than most. The filmmaker behind Hereditary and Midsommar consistently weaves comedic elements into his horror work, creating films so intense that laughter becomes the audience's only escape valve.
His 2023 effort Beau is Afraid pushed this concept further. The movie delivers cringe-inducing comedy so uncomfortable that laughs feel more like desperate gasps than genuine amusement. Given Aster's unique sensibilities, predicting his personal comedy preferences seemed impossible.
Classic Picks and Unexpected Choices
Speculation might have pointed toward Charlie Kaufman's equally torturous I'm Thinking of Ending Things or Yorgos Lanthimos's ice-cold The Lobster, with its brutal mix of stabbing and self-mutilation. But Aster cleared up the mystery during a 2023 interview with /Film.
"I'll just knock some off," he said, then rattled off nine titles spanning multiple decades and styles. His list included undisputed classics like Dr Strangelove, Naked Gun, and Airplane alongside unconventional romantic comedies Annie Hall and Defending Your Life.
Two selections stood out for their unexpected nature. Aster named Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop and Starship Troopers, neither typically classified as comedies. The 1987 RoboCop follows dystopian Detroit's disastrous experiment adding a killer android to their police force. Verhoeven pushed violence so far that scenes required cutting, but comedy drove his excess.
Verhoeven's Satirical Influence
Starship Troopers took genre conventions to satirical extremes, though many critics missed the humor entirely. Like Verhoeven's cult classic Showgirls, audiences initially received it as deadly serious, leading to harsh reviews. "Verhoeven is a hero of mine, somebody I'm always thinking about," Aster explained, crediting the Dutch director as inspiration for Beau is Afraid.
Aster gravitates toward comedies exploring dangerous territory. His list included Four Lions, Chris Morris's 2010 satire about bumbling would-be terrorists planning a London attack. Morris, creator of the unsettling series Jam, crafted a pitch-black classic mixing endearing characters with razor-sharp dialogue.
Scorsese's Underrated Gem
Aster's final selection proved most revealing: Martin Scorsese's criminally underrated 1985 comedy After Hours. The film tracks an office worker's surreal nighttime odyssey through Lower Manhattan's treacherous landscape, desperately trying to reach home.
After Hours defies easy categorization, blending absurdism, body horror, Kafkaesque trials, and papier-mâché artistry. Among Aster's choices, this one mirrors his own work most closely. Surreal, painful, and comedic in the darkest possible sense.