YMMV / Ari Aster

• Broken Base: He is either one of the most inventive new directors and one of the well-deserved faces of modern horror, or he's a crude, self-indulgent edge-lord whose works consist of meaningless shock value and aren't worth getting invested in because they always end miserably.
• Franchise Original Sin: One of the most common complaints of Ari Aster's films is that they are so dark and miserable, the characters aren't even worth rooting for because the odds are so obviously against them. It was one of the most notable complaints against the otherwise critically acclaimed Hereditary, but because it was his directorial debut with loads of twists and turns and an incredibly sympathetic family at its center rather than a bunch of one-note Sacrificial Lambs, not everyone had that opinion and remained invested in the story even after, or even because of Charlie's gruesome beheading, the most commonly cited cause of Angst Aversion regarding the movie. Viewers were a little less merciful when it came to his follow-up films Midsommar and Beau Is Afraid, with the former consisting of a cast of Asshole Victims and the latter being an incredibly bizarre but equally miserable Kafka Komedy with a three-hour runtime.
• Memetic Mutation: Half of the comments on Letterboxd or YouTube videos about him are asking if the man is okay. Even his creator page quote is someone asking him on Reddit, to which he replied "No."