The Strange Thing About the Johnsons

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. Sidney does not realize that Isaiah had been masturbating to a photograph of him.

Fourteen years later, during Isaiah's wedding reception, Isaiah's mother Joan discovers Isaiah about to perform fellatio on a distressed Sidney. While Joan is in the shower, Sidney leaves a typed memoir under her pillow, Cocoon Man: Confessions by Sidney Johnson, which chronicles the years of sexual abuse he has endured at the hands of his son. Isaiah discovers the memoir before Joan can see it and confronts Sidney, telling him he will burn the memoir and warning him not to print more copies.

While Sidney is taking a bath, Isaiah breaks down the locked door and assaults Sidney. Joan hears the struggle, but raises the volume of the television. Isaiah climbs off his father and adjusts his pants. The next day, Sidney removes a secret copy of Cocoon Man from underneath the floorboards and attempts to leave the house with it, leading to another confrontation with Isaiah. Sidney runs into the street where he is struck and killed by a van.

After Sidney's funeral, Joan asks Isaiah why Sidney cried for hours in the bathroom after Isaiah's prom night ten years prior. Their argument escalates into a physical fight. After Isaiah throws Joan across the room, Joan stabs him with a knife. Enraged, Isaiah attempts to force his mother into a lit fireplace, only for Joan, through tears, to stab Isaiah to death with a fire iron. She throws Cocoon Man into the fire, continuing to sob.

• Billy Mayo as Sidney
• Brandon Greenhouse as Isaiah
  • Carlon Jeffery as Young Isaiah
• Angela Bullock as Joan
• 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 Jewish 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 molestation 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 on IMDb