User reviews

For a debut short, they don't get much better than this. Original idea, well written, well acted, directed well and looked gorgeous shot on silky 16mm. Aswell as that the clothes and locations really summed up suburban america so well which really aided the storyline and made us really consider the idea of what goes on behind seemingly perfect closed doors...

I watched this after watching Midsommar and Hereditary and I now see the links in his work that has allowed him to go on from this to make even bigger and better films! Looking forward to the next feature from Aster!

I'm not the kind of person to get easily disturbed by watching movies or shorts with the "disturbing" label on it, and this is one of those rare films that actualy managed to freak me out. I won't spoil anything but you've never seen any disfunctional family themed films like this one, it's very original. It's also quite horrifying to actualy think that something like what you witness in this short could happen in real life, if you like well made original short films which leave you gasping in terror have a look at "The Strange Thing About the Johnsons.

It's nice to see that Ari Aster was into disturbing people from the start.

This short is amazing.

Wow! This is one of the Weirdest and sickest movies I've ever seen. Well acted and frightening for multiple reasons. Keep your mouth shut while viewing so the flies don't get in is all I can say! : (

If you saw Hereditary or Midsommar or both, well here's where the director started and boy is it messed up! The 30 minute film is very well done but the concept will boggle your mind. This film is DEFINITELY not for everyone. It is an interesting perspective that I have never seen on film before but be warned it is quite disturbing. Fortunately for me, I am a big fan of disturbing films. If you are not, you should probably avoid this one.

I was amazed at this movie! It was not at all what I expected it to be. The production values, cinematography, acting, writing, directing, and editing were absolutely phenomenal. Most of the other reviewers here have given it a low rating due to how uneasy the subject material made them. One even goes so far as to say "the content of this project is not only disgusting, but implausible and completely ridiculous." However the very next line in the review is "I know these things actually happen," So how can something be both implausible and ridiculous, yet actually happen? This movie is great. It is thought provoking and I think does a good good of presenting an often uncontemplated take on the dark motifs the movie explores. It is designed to make the audience uncomfortable so that, hopefully, they will talk about what they have just watched. My hat goes off to the filmmaker and all those involved for creating a truly unique and visionary piece of cinema.

This is a very good first impression from recently acclaimed new director, Ari Aster. I would call him a horror director, however, based off the core nature of his films and some things Aster has said himself including things like he didn't intentionally set out to make a horror film from the start with "Hereditary". Ari Aster crafts heavy, haunting, and personal dramas that have a way of creating their very own unique atmosphere. An atmosphere usually filled with gut wrenching terror. "The Strange Thing About the Johnsons" is just that. This is Aster's most genre film as it feels almost 100% a drama. It is reminiscent of another anthology drama/horror called "Family Portraits" they are both very disturbing in their nature. "The Strange Thing" is the story about a suburban family that where the father and son share a dark secret. The story is very engaging as it is subject matter most of us have not seen portrayed in film before. This movie also kind of reminds me of Trey Edward Shults first film "Krisha". Overall a nice little short film to watch for fans of "Hereditary" and "Midsommar"

Let's be real here... Short films don't really have a place in the world in terms of global mass media. They are usually only seen by film-aholics or by people involved in the film arena (directors, producers, cinematographers, film critics, film students & professors, etc.) Ask any 'normal person' who doesn't know who David Lynch is, or doesn't have a strong opinion on the films of Hitchcock, if they can name just ONE short film... And I'd bet a million bucks they can't. name. one. My point is...

The Strange Thing About the Johnsons defies this rule.

The Strange Thing About the Johnsons is the only short film I've ever seen that I can show someone who isn't a 'film person' and they are completely engaged from the very first scene, to the very end, every - single - time. It's the ONLY short film that - MULTIPLE TIMES - I have told people about in a living room, and they become so enticed, we whip it out on someone's computer screen, and in the midst of a large hang out session, 9 people are so completely transfixed for nearly 30 minutes, and ALWAYS walk away with a strong visceral reaction.

Ari Aster is a Great director who understand precisely what makes the world wide audience sit on the edge of their seats. The original soundtrack by Brendan Eder is unforgettable in its use of beauty over the sadistic nature of the characters. Billy Mayo delivers a indelible disturbing performance with unnerving authenticity.

In 20 years, The Strange Thing About the Johnsons will STILL be one of the only short films you can sit a big group of people -- (the kind of people who've never been to a film festival in their life, aka 98% of all world movie watchers) -- a big group of people down in a living room and play, and NO ONE will pull out their phones from boredom. It is, without a doubt, if there ever was such a thing...

A short film masterpiece.

"The Strange Thing About the Johnsons" is a short film that employs psychological realism to tell a story for the sole purpose of shocking, offending, and frightening the audience. Horror movies do that. It's sort of like comedies trying to make people laugh. This movie succeeds brilliantly in shocking, offending, and frightening the audience so I have to say "well done" to the nasty little creep who wrote and directed it. Well done, Ari Aster. Please make lots more horror movies. I love them. Later, you might want to get some therapy

So on Letterboxd, this is listed as a comedy drama. I'd really have to disagree about the comedy part- unless you find the disturbing story absurd enough to be funny? But I don't really know who would, because the premise is one I genuinely don't feel like I can describe if I want to post this review on Letterboxd/IMDb/Instagram.

I can say it takes a unique and shocking look at abuse, and the way it affects a family over the course of about 15 years. It might not be as clear of a horror film as Ari Aster's features - Hereditary and Midsommar - but it's arguably just as unsettling in its own way. The fact all the colours and sets make it look like a sitcom or daytime soap opera really adds to the discomfort, and is one of my favourite things about this short.

I am mostly glad it was a short film. Taking this to feature length could have been too much. It does leave things feeling a bit rushed here and there, but I think it still works. I also to sit with the ending for a little while before I (sort of) appreciated it.

I think this short film is effective, well-acted, and I guess overall quite good. I would not recommend it.

The Strange Thing About the Johnsons is the short submitted by Ari Aster for his thesis, this before he established himself as one of the most talented directors in the contemporary horror film scene. Indeed, one of the most compelling things about the film is to note how several of the elements that made his best-known films outstanding were already part of his poetics from the very beginning. Among them, the propensity to tackle really taboo subjects, so much so that the idea must have been frowned upon in a politically correct university, such as AFI. So yes, Ari Aster's university professors most certainly hated him.

While acerbic, Aster did as good a job with the small budget at his disposal as in handling the theme. For example, you can see how the gimmick of one of the most iconic sequences in Hereditary began to develop in this very movie (where it is used due to the actual practical impossibility of shooting a certain scene). Some lines of writing are really sophisticated, as is the attention to the emotional reaction to the traumas of the different characters, and all the actors involved were perfect in their parts.

A short film about a seemingly unremarkable family with a disturbing secret. Ari Aster's first film and, for those familiar with his work, it packs the kind of unsettling punch we've come to expect. At its centre is a subject matter too horrible to really imagine anyone putting on film and it stayed with me for weeks afterwards as I struggled to get my head around it. I would recommend this short only to those with a high tolerance for the darkest story telling.

Ari Aster had gradually made a name for himself in the terms of the horror genre with his next film Midsommar coming after his 2018 directorial debut Hereditary. Before either, Aster had made several short films that would come to define his style. His most well-known short film is a little piece called The Strange Thing About the Johnsons.

The Strange Thing About the Johnsons revolves around an African American middle class family with the family patriarch Sidney Johnson a famous writer; his wife Joan; and son, Isaiah. Beneath the surface however, is a dark family secret one of abuse. For the most part, the film displays some of the motifs that Aster would later implement in his films. The film upon first viewing is very disturbing with the twist of the role reversal involved in the domestic abuse. It makes it almost unnerving to watch, it'd make one squirm in their seat. But for what it's worth, it does present the topic in a moderately respectable manner. There are many scenes that are genuinely unnerving, but some are also kind of funny. The absurdity of the situation is the source of humor rather than the issue itself, but it is never as a knee-slapping good time: people laugh more because they cannot process what they are watching.

Acting is corny for the most part. Billy Mayo plays the troubled Sidney, and while he is serviceable, Sidney otherwise comes off as a weak character and because a f the role reversal, it's hard to really find it believable. Angela Bullock plays Joan, and at first, she comes off as unlikable. She is fully aware of the abuse happening under her roof, but she does nothing about it until it becomes too late. Brandon Greenhouse plays Isaiah who is honestly the only good performance. He is intimidating and comes off as eerily realistic in the way that domestic abusers function in real life. They put on the image of being ordinary people, but are otherwise manipulative, controlling, and deflect blame and criticism onto their victim. As for the rest, the acting is corny but it also comes from the absurdity of the situation.

In all, the film isn't for the faint of heart. It is very triggering to anyone who was in a situation like the film, but it does show some of the unpleasantries that Aster would later use in Hereditary.

Final score: 6.3/10

One of the best movies Ari's ever produced. I just LOVE his twisted mind. It's unsettling, uncomfortable, and delightful.

It would be weird and alarming to say I liked it. I didn't. But not because someone does not like a movie means it's not good. This short film is a masterpiece. It disturbed me and made me feel uncomfortable from start to finish. And I'm sure that was Aster's aim. It's brilliant, it's genius and it assured me once again that us humans are just vile monsters who don't deserve life as free as it is. I'm certain this happens around a lot and that's the scariest fact.

This is the kind of early film that gets one into the big time in Hollywood, apparently. See "Burning Palms" for another. Be offensive to the extreme but shield yourself with a thin veil of demented comedy and/or a supposed altruistic message.

The writer/director is trying to flip the roles of family abuse, but giving it a veneer of winking comedy (so odd) and choosing to make the family black when the writer/director is white are both choices that should insult and offend. I'm not PC, but this is ridiculous. WHY use black actors for such a humiliating story, knowing the climate in Hollywood and lack of good all-black storytelling? Why, as a white guy, would you do that?

There is something sadistic underneath the making of this film that bleeds through. You can feel the director getting off on this under the guise of being a brave truth-teller. The average person who is not a Weinstein-like Hollywood exec is not buying this.

And P.S., it is not well executed anyway. Sloppy, badly directed.

A24 really saw this and thought "we need to give this man millions of dollars. He is the future of horror"???

Well, I wouldn't have seen it in this, but...they were right. And that gives me hope.

This is one of the more psychotic short films I have ever seen, and it's almost entirely in the "WHY would he MAKE THIS?!" sense, which I don't often feel when it comes to any movie with merit (and this one definitely has merit).

Admittedly, this feels much PULPIER than his other films. Much more exploitation. It sits in with BEAU IS AFRAID a lot more than it does with MIDSOMMAR or HEREDITARY, but the humor is buried WAY deeper than it is in Beau Is Afraid. I think the majority of viewers will feel that they should not be laughing at this film, or that there is nothing funny about it...but, it's honestly hard to do anything other than laugh at it.

The acting and directing are both pretty ace, but the writing, though written well, is pure absurdity. This is quintessential sadistic filmmaking. Ari Aster is truly a psychopath, and though I'm a much bigger fan of his feature length films, this certainly expanded my AWE for him even further.