The Turtle's Head

An absurdist comedy/parody of old detective stories, The Turtle's Head is stupid and immature, but kind of fun. I think it got the tone right throughout, and it might well offer some of the funniest moments from any Ari Aster film, short or feature-length.

I guess I'm surprised how so many of his short films are comedic, when his breakout films were the much more serious Hereditary and Midsommar. Even The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, which is his best-known short, doesn't have much by way of comedy. It means that his earlier short films tend to remind me most of Beau Is Afraid, which was also a horror movie but had plenty of absurd/dark comedy.

Like a good many short films, it ends on a bit of a flat note, but the ride there was still fun. Also, Richard Riehle's bizarrely committed performance made this considerably better than it otherwise would've been.

It is amazingly dark-humored. I love Aster's unhinged sense of humor.