Ari Aster picks “the most beautiful horror film ever made”
From a young age, Ari Aster was deeply inspired by the horror genre and developed a particular fascination with the groundbreaking, tension-driven style of Stanley Kubrick’s classic Stephen King adaptation, The Shining. He credits Kubrick, among other cinematic titans, for shaping his own creepy route to fame.
Over the past half-decade, Aster has enjoyed widespread critical recognition and commercial success for his first two unique and distinctly disturbing movies, Hereditary and Midsommar. Adding to his cinematic repertoire, Aster’s latest creation, Beau Is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix, garnered mixed reviews but won the favour of some moviegoers upon its release in May 2023.
Aster’s unique filmmaking style is the result of being an obsessive film geek of Quentin Tarantino-rivalling proportions. His inspiration comes from far and wide, whether it’s well-known titans of the industry like Martin Scorsese or cult heroes of international cinema like Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
In 2020, applause from his burgeoning fanbase was perhaps topped by the words of one of his biggest heroes. “A couple of years ago, I watched a first film called Hereditary by a director named Ari Aster,” Martin Scorsese said in praise of Aster’s 2018 directional debut. “Right from the start, I was impressed. Here was a young filmmaker that obviously knew cinema. The formal control, the precision of the framing and the movement within the frame, the pacing of the action, the sound — it was all there, immediately evident.”
As we close in on the spooky season, who better to ask for a horror movie recommendation than Aster himself? Naturally, the man is bursting at the seams with suggestions, but once he revealed his all-time favourite movie from the genre.
When picking out his five favourite horror movies for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Aster pondered a selection from Japan’s rich history in the genre. “There are so many Japanese horror films that I felt compelled to include — from Onibaba to Ugetsu to The Face of Another to Cure — but Kobayashi’s grand anthology might be the most breathtakingly beautiful horror film ever made,” he said. “Adapted from four of Lafcadio Hearn’s remarkable ghost stories, Kwaidan is ethereal and haunting and possessed of a totally devouring commitment to artifice.”
Released in 1964, Kwaidan is a cult classic of the fantasy horror subgenre helmed by the late, great Masaki Kobayashi. The title translates to English as “Ghost Story”.
Watch the trailer below.
