A look at Ari Aster’s new horror-comedy movie ‘Beau is Afraid’

Director Ari Aster is no stranger to the bizarre and horrifying, with horror movies ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Midsommar’ under his belt. So it’s no surprise that his latest film ‘Beau is Afraid’, starring Joaquin Phoenix, follows suit.

The surreal movie blends comedy in an ambitious tale of one man’s attempt to deal with his relationship with his mother.

A surreal trip to mom’s house

The latest trailer for the movie finds Phoenix, who plays Beau Wassermann, reminiscing on his childhood crush, cut with scenes of his impending trip to visit his mother.

His journey is rife with symbolic monsters along the path, with surrealist landscapes alternating between dream world and nightmare, as the viewer watches Beau travel through the world as a child, a young man, a middle-aged man, and an elderly man.

“I’ve been thinking about this movie for like, 10 years,” Aster said in a behind-the-scenes shared by A24. “There’s a part of me that can’t believe we’re making this film. It’s epic, jumbo. Every detail has a detail inside of it.”

“I wanted to make a film where it feels like you’ve been through a life, or even through a person. I feel a great responsibility to deliver something amazing,” Aster explained.

While the film is not strictly a horror movie, it does have surreal, borderline horrific visuals that Aster masterfully uses to represent feelings of anxiety or guilt.

In a 2019 interview with IndieWire, Aster gave his first hints on what his new movie would be about.

“Next one will either be a zonky nightmare comedy or a big, sickly domestic melodrama,” he said. “It might take me a few movies before I wind back around to [horror], but I love horror and I’m sure I’ll be back.”

Joaquin’s Phoenix’s emotional journey as Beau

To portray the deeply anxious character of Beau, Phoenix was pushed to deliver an authentic performance. Being pressed for time, Phoenix often had to deliver scenes in one take. To deal with the stress, Phoenix says he started screaming.

“And I remember just realizing I had to do something that was f—--- stupid, and I just so didn’t want to do it, but I just knew,” Phoenix said in an interview with Aster on an episode of ‘The A24 Podcast’.

“And I just started screaming, just the most intense guttural pain scream that I could before we were shooting sitting there because I had to just fully humiliate myself.

“And then just go like, okay, well once that’s happened, you can’t look any more stupid than you do now,” he added.

‘Beau is Afraid’ hits theaters on Friday, April 21, 2023.