The Strange Thing About the Johnsons

In 1995, Sidney Johnson, an acclaimed poet, accidentally interrupts his twelve-year-old son, Isaiah, masturbating. Sidney apologizes and reassures his son that the act is natural, unaware that Isaiah was masturbating to a photograph of him as a young man. In 2009 during Isaiah's wedding reception, the matriarch of the Johnson family, Joan, discovers her son secretly performing fellatio on a distressed Sidney. Despite being disturbed, Joan tries regaining her composure.

That night, while Joan is in the shower, Sidney leaves a typed memoir underneath her pillow called Cocoon Man: Confessions by Sidney Johnson, in which he chronicles his experience of incestuous abuse. Isaiah discovers it and tells him not to print any more copies. After a New Year party, Isaiah's erratic behavior begins to show as he lashes out at his wife, Marianne. While Sidney is listening to a self-help tape in the bath, Isaiah breaks down the locked door and rapes him. Meanwhile, Joan hears Sidney's screams but distracts herself from it. The next day, Sidney removes a secret copy of Cocoon Man and attempts to leave the house with it, leading to another confrontation with Isaiah who gaslights him. Sidney runs into the street only to be killed by an oncoming van.

After Sidney's funeral, Joan decides to confront Isaiah, speculating that it happened 10 years ago during his prom night, as she remembers Sidney crying for hours after it. Isaiah tells Joan that she is delusional; she calls him Sidney's killer, causing him to lash out and claim that he "loved him better than she ever did", turning their fight physically. Isaiah attempts to strangle Joan, only for her to stab him with a knife. He then tries forcing her headfirst into a fireplace. A fire iron allows Joan to escape and stab him to death, before throwing the copy of Cocoon Man into the fire.

• Billy Mayo as Sidney Johnson
• Brandon Greenhouse as Isaiah Johnson
  • Carlon Jeffery as Young Isaiah
• Angela Bullock as Joan Johnson
• Stanley Bennett Clay as Howard
• Connie Jackson as Grace
• Danièle Watts as Marianne

The team began work on the project during Aster's time at the American Film Institute's graduate school, AFI Conservatory, for his thesis film. The idea behind the short had arisen from a discussion with some friends about taboo topics, during the summer preceding his first year at AFI. Brandon Greenhouse, who plays Isaiah, had previously worked on projects with Aster and was there since conception.[4]

We were talking about topics that are too taboo to be explored, and so we arrived at taboos that weren't even taboos because they were so unfathomable, and the most popular was that of a son molesting his father.

The short was shot on 35mm film.[5] He described the script as being "a bit of an uphill battle to make it there politically",[3] stating:

I was at AFI, which is a kind of industry school. They're very Hollywood-oriented and they want to train you to become a Hollywood filmmaker, and the films they show the incoming fellows are very politically correct ... Oscar movies. And I just thought, what's the worst thing I can make at AFI? ... To ask, what can't I do? And why can't I do it? Oh, a son raping his dad, we should make that a movie. And then to figure out what makes that palatable and how to make that work.[6]

After the short film was released online, it went viral, garnering a polarized reaction due to its controversial themes.[7][4] Ivan Kander of the website Short of the Week wrote that the comments on YouTube had "everything from effusive acclaim to disgusted vitriol. In terms of the internet, that means it's a hit."[5]

The film also garnered controversy for its portrayal of an African American family by a white filmmaker.[7] Director Ari Aster stated that "the color of the family isn't important. We certainly assumed that casting black actors in a film that tackles such transgressive themes would create something of a stir, and it would be a lie to say that we weren't hesitant, especially as many people were advising us against the decision."[4]

As an African American incest and child sexual abuse survivor, Malcolm Harris of The Huffington Post wrote that Billy Mayo's performance was "brilliant" and that "we should be applauding the fact that someone has finally shown true courage in proposing the question, 'What If? What if these strange events were happening behind the closed doors of the Smiths, the Rosenbergs, the Mortimers, the Herreras? What if these strange things were happening to me?'"[7]

• The Strange Thing About the Johnsons at IMDb