Exclusive: Watch Ari Aster Talk Parallels Between 'Midsommar' and 'Hereditary'

When the trailer for Midsommar, Ari Aster's follow-up to Hereditary, dropped earlier this year, the first thing anyone noticed is how completely different it looked. Whereas Hereditary was dark, set in a world of monotone colors and rainy nights, Midsommar is sunny and saturated, like it's perpetually daytime—because, well, that's exactly what's going on.

But as contrasting as Midsommar might have seemed at first brush, the film shares a lot of the same thematic DNA as its predecessor, from its investigations of interpersonal relationships to its guarantee to fully terrify you, sunlight and flowers or no. And in this new, exclusive clip about the making of Midsommar, Aster talks about the similarities between his two films—and how making the traumatizing movie was, uh, "really fun."

"Midsommar is something of a companion to Hereditary, in that both films are about family," Aster says in the minute-long clip. "But it's also an adult fairy tale."

The film's stars Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor also chat a bit about working with Aster in the clip, from the way he makes the camera "a character" to the "spooky" level of detail in his screenplay. "I was excited about building a world that felt very healthy and lush, and by the end, it gets kind of overripe," Aster continues.

Give the making-of featurette a watch above and catch Midsommar in theaters if you want to be too scared to ever take mushrooms again.