Beau Is Afraid: A new video goes behind the scenes of Ari Aster’s trippy drama starring Joaquin Phoenix

Hereditary and Midsommar filmmaker Ari Aster serves audiences a different type of horror film with Beau Is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a man embarking on a journey of self-discovery that could break his mind and heart in two. Opening in theaters on April 21, Beau Is Afraid tells the story of Beau, a paranoid man on an epic odyssey to her home to his mother. What should be a difficult trip becomes worse as Beau’s reality transforms into a living Kafkaesque nightmare.

In the Beau Is Afraid featurette, Ari Aster says he’s been thinking about the concept for the film for nearly a decade. “It’s epic. Jumbo. every detail has a detail inside of it,” Aster says in the video. “If you pumped a 10-year-old full of Zoloft and had him get your groceries, that’s like this movie.” As Aster speaks, the video footage presents Beau’s chaotic world, distorting our view of events that only the film can provide context for. Beau’s world is violent, unpredictable, and bizarre. Nothing is what it seems, and we’re trapped in chaos.

According to Discussing Film, the threats Beau faces could be “some of the craziest ideas that Ari Aster has ever came up with,”… and Beau Is Afraid does appear to out-crazy Hereditary and Midsommar, somehow. Discussing Film also heard Beau himself is “an extremely anxious but pleasant-looking man who has a fraught relationship with his overbearing mother. Their relationship is affected by the fact that he never knew his father.”

What do you think of today’s Beau Is Afraid featurette? Will Aster’s latest movie satisfy Midsommar and Hereditary fans? Or will they cry about the film’s comedic and dramatic elements? Beau Is Afraid stars Joaquin Phoenix, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Parker Posey, and Patti LuPone. Aster directs from a script he wrote. A24 is the studio, with Beau’s mind-blowing journey coming to theaters on April 21, 2023. Beau Is Afraid is easily one of my most anticipated films of the year. How about you? Do you think the movie will have horror elements on par with Astrer’s previous work? Let us know in the comments below.