'Hereditary' Director Ari Aster's Next Movie Is Apocalyptic Pagan Cult Horror

What’s the next move after you make one of the most critically acclaimed horror movies in years? One that breaks financial records for the indie art-house studio that backed the project? Well, if you’re Ari Aster and A24, the team behind Hereditary, you team up again for a cult-y Scandinavian cult horror film, that’s what.

Collider reports that Aster and A24 are currently filming the as-yet-untitled film in Budapest. Their sources also tell them Jack Reynor (Free Fire) and Will Poulter (Son of Rambow) are also close to joining the party, which already includes Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth and Park Chan-wook’s upcoming series adaptation of John Le Carre’s The Little Drummer Girl), William Jackson Harper (The Good Place), and others.

There’s a definite Wicker Man/Kill List vibe about this project, which makes sense as Hereditary definitely shares a few strands of that DNA. Aster has also called it an "apocalyptic breakup movie" and "Scandinavian folk horror." According to the report:

“Pugh and Reynor will play a couple that travels to Sweden to visit their friend’s rural hometown for its fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.”

Hot on the heels of Hereditary, which just became A24’s highest grossing film in their still relatively young life, I’m down to watch anything Aster does next. And, to be honest, at this stage, I’m also game to watch a movie based on little more than the A24 title card—they’re track record is nothing if not solid. The fact that it’s a weird, cult-ish horror yarn only makes me that much more interested.

Right now, there’s no title for this movie, and few other details on either the plot or a timeline for when we might see it. But given that it’s already filming, and Hereditary debuted there, Sundance feels like it could be an option. I’ve never made a movie, so I don’t know about turnaround time, post-production, and all that, but it seems possible. Whenever it happens, the sooner the better.