Superman's Rachel Brosnahan Starred In A Horror Project From Hereditary's Director

Rachel Brosnahan is killing it right now. She won a slew of awards for her lead performance in "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and now, she's entered the DC Universe as Lois Lane in James Gunn's "Superman," being an integral component of the film's best scene. However, like most actors before her, she wasn't always a prominent figure in the entertainment industry. She had to cut her teeth on smaller projects, including short films, and she even worked with "Eddington" director Ari Aster before he made it big.

The pair worked on the 2013 short film, "Munchausen." It's a silent horror film about a mother imagining his precious boy going off to college and having a successful life, even envisioning him proposing to a lovely girl. The unnamed girl in question is played by Brosnahan, but it's a small part. Outside of the dream, the mother decides she's not ready to give up her baby boy just yet and poisons him, making it so that he'll stay home for longer. But something goes wrong, and the boy dies. 

It's the kind of dark, family horror film Aster would become known for in future feature-length projects like "Hereditary" and "Midsommar." Like his former colleague, Aster's also making waves in the summer of 2025 with the most divisive film of the year. The question we want to know is whether these two are ever going to work on another project together. They seemingly liked each other enough to work on another short. 

A year after "Munchausen," Ari Aster put out another short film, "Basically," which once again sees him collaborate with Rachel Brosnahan, who has a much juicier role this time around. She actually gets to talk, and the film as a whole consists of various monologues from the young, cynical actress, Shandy Pickles. Great name, by the way. 

There's nothing in the way of horror in this short, as it's primarily a satirical look at Los Angeles starlet stereotypes — until she gets darkly serious toward the end. Honestly, it's more of a precursor to something like "Eddington" where Aster presents a character you may find annoying at first, but then you realize there's a full human being underneath who's mostly just kind of sad.

When talking about "Hereditary" to Film Comment, Aster explained how his idea of horror stems from the Freudian concept of "when the home becomes un-homelike." That can be observed in both his short and feature films. "Munchausen" sees the dissolution of a home when a mother becomes too scared to let her son go. "Basically" often frames Brosnahan's character in the background amidst empty space, signifying how insignificant she is despite coming across as the center of the universe in most of her monologues. "Hereditary" deals with intergenerational trauma, and a boy seeing his mother turn into something he doesn't recognize.

Fans of "Hereditary," "Midsommar," and yes, even "Eddington," owe it to themselves to track down Aster's short films, with "Munchausen" and "Basically" being available on YouTube, because it's a treat to see Aster play around with themes that would become more prominent later. You can even go all the way back to Aster's first ever horror film, provided you have the stomach for it.