As one-two-punches go, Ari Aster’s delivered a double knockout with his first two features. Not long after Hereditary had audiences cowering in cinemas with its demonic dealings and depths of despair, Aster followed it up with the sun-bleached nightmare that is Midsommar – proof that his debut was no fluke. For a while now, it’s been reported that Aster’s third film was going to be titled Disappointment Blvd – except, its first poster has a different title. Get ready for Beau Is Afraid.
Presumably the same film, just under a different title, Beau Is Afraid stars Joaquin Phoenix – except, that’s clearly not him on the poster, instead depicting a teenage boy in some luxurious-looking personalised pyjamas. That does, though, chime with the one-line description of the film as “an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time” – theoretically, pyjama boy becomes Joaquin Phoenix over the course of the movie.
The other big question: is it a horror movie? There are all kinds of things Beau might be afraid of – the cults in Hereditary and Midsommar, for one – but it remains unclear whether this one will be another fright fest from the filmmaker, or mark a shift to a different tone. Despite its non-horror synopsis, Aster did describe Midsommar as an apocalyptic break-up movie, so there could be something more sinister in the shadows here. Either way, we’ll find out why Beau Is Afraid when Ari Aster’s third film hits cinemas in 2023. Here’s hoping it won’t take us down Disappointment Blvd.
