The Strange Thing About The Johnsons - A Student Film
Quick Thoughts: The Strange Thing About The Johnsons (2011)
A father is tormented with a perverted relationship with his son.
Having recently experienced the astounding Midsommar, I had to investigate the only Ari Aster film I have not seen. The Strange Thing About The Johnsons is a student short, and though it is praiseworthy, it does not escape this description. It was likely not meant to be seen by so many people, but The Strange Thing About The Johnsons is an almost gaudy familial horror. Its intentionally abrupt and shocking material lead to the short going viral and, seemingly, it kick-started a highly impressive start to a feature film career for Aster. What makes Hereditary and Midsommar so impressive is their maturity - especially in juxtaposition to The Strange Thing About The Johnsons. The melodramatic touches of this short - performances, elements of sound design and the action-violence - devalue the themes at hand. The film then struggles to take itself as seriously as it maybe needs to. More absurd than it is tuphlodramatic, The Strange Thing About The Johnsons is not allowed enough time for the satisfactory depths of characterisation to be reached. Sat with characters, their shame, pain and perversion, for longer, we could feel the narrative more. Without this time to feel characters and story, the horror elements feel like spectacle - their impact, short punchy, and not emphatically meaningful. There is a play on an archetypal story held central in this narrative and so it does not appear entirely meaningless, but the direction does not secure the story enough nuance and pull to work as well as it could.
Previous post:
Aladdin - Unbelievably Shameless
A father is tormented with a perverted relationship with his son.
Having recently experienced the astounding Midsommar, I had to investigate the only Ari Aster film I have not seen. The Strange Thing About The Johnsons is a student short, and though it is praiseworthy, it does not escape this description. It was likely not meant to be seen by so many people, but The Strange Thing About The Johnsons is an almost gaudy familial horror. Its intentionally abrupt and shocking material lead to the short going viral and, seemingly, it kick-started a highly impressive start to a feature film career for Aster. What makes Hereditary and Midsommar so impressive is their maturity - especially in juxtaposition to The Strange Thing About The Johnsons. The melodramatic touches of this short - performances, elements of sound design and the action-violence - devalue the themes at hand. The film then struggles to take itself as seriously as it maybe needs to. More absurd than it is tuphlodramatic, The Strange Thing About The Johnsons is not allowed enough time for the satisfactory depths of characterisation to be reached. Sat with characters, their shame, pain and perversion, for longer, we could feel the narrative more. Without this time to feel characters and story, the horror elements feel like spectacle - their impact, short punchy, and not emphatically meaningful. There is a play on an archetypal story held central in this narrative and so it does not appear entirely meaningless, but the direction does not secure the story enough nuance and pull to work as well as it could.
Previous post:
Aladdin - Unbelievably Shameless
