Horror Director Ari Aster Continues His Head-Turning Calling Card In Beau Is Afraid

Celebrated horror director Ari Aster is back with a new movie, Beau Is Afraid, and it's now come to light that the film will continue a theme that Aster is becoming known for. Spoilers for Beau Is Afraid and Aster's other films follow below.

Speaking to Empire, Aster confirmed that Beau Is Afraid will feature another decapitation scene. This has become Aster's calling card, of sorts, as his 2018 film Hereditary contained multiple sequences in which characters lose their heads. 2019's Midsommar continued this tradition, in a way, with a character bludgeoned to death with a massive hammer to the head. It's not a decapitation, per se, but it's still serious, life-ending head trauma. As it turns out, Aster isn't doing this by accident--he is purposefully including decapitation scenes, and now he accepts that it's become a running joke that he is keen to continue.

"It's a joke at this point," he told Empire. "I mean, it is a joke in this one. What can I say, it makes me laugh."

Aster said Midsommar was supposed to come across as a "mean-spirited joke" in terms of its tone. In fact, Aster recalls how he was shocked to discover that people thought it was supposed to be a horror movie at all. "I remember just feeling very defensive. That film was never actually meant to be very scary," Aster said.

The writer-director went on to say that he struggles to describe the kind of work he does in filmmaking, saying he hopes people associate his films with a kind of "tone" as opposed to a strict genre. "I don't really know what I am," he said. "I kind of hope that eventually I’ll be identified for like atone, or a feeling."

Aster went on to wrap up by reiterating that his next film will be a Western, and that's certainly pretty exciting to think about given how far away that is from anything he's made before.

Beau Is Afraid hits theaters on April 21. The "Jewish Lord of the Rings" movie stars Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix as Beau, a man living in a "nightmarish apartment" who is motivated to get out after he learns that his distant mother has been "crushed by a chandelier," according to The New York Times. Apparently, the story involves Beau's journey to his mom's house, and if the trailer is anything to go by, this will be a wild ride.

In addition to Phoenix, Beau is Afraid features Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Patti LuPone, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Richard Kind, and Parker Posey.