Ari Aster’s Favorite Movies: 34 Films the Director Wants You to See

[Editor’s note: The following list was originally published in June 2018 and has been updated multiple times since.]

It’s been more than three years since Ari Aster unleashed the skull-cracking terror of “Midsommar” unto unsuspecting audiences. The writer/director’s sophomore outing from 2019 — a cult film starring Florence Pugh that’s best remembered for its fiery finale and lush production design — echoed and exploded the finesse of his first: a nasty and spare possession flick starring a career-best Toni Collette and the dauntless Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro.

Aster’s breakout feature debut “Hereditary” turned the writer/director into one of the hottest indie filmmakers of 2018. Formerly known for his stomach-churning short “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons,” the AFI graduate became the face of A24’s burgeoning art house of horrors just as his work came to shape the so-called “elevated horror” moment of the late 2010s. It’s a fitting arc for a filmmaker who has described a lifelong love affair with the horror genre.