How Joaquin Phoenix and Ari Aster Created Their New and Incredibly Strange A24 Film ‘Beau is Afraid’

Ari Aster doesn’t want for ambition. After helming two towering entries into the horror genre with the hauntingly demonic family drama Hereditary and folk day terror Midsommar, you wouldn’t blame someone like Aster for parlaying his indie bonafides into a splashy franchise project or simply taking a break.

And yet, Beau is Afraid sees the director reject any notion of settling or compromising. His third film unequivocally goes for broke, seemingly filled to the brim with every idea he’s ever conceived onto the screen.

“This one just was always special to me,” Aster tells Complex during a roundtable discussion about the film that included other outlets. “It was just a world that I loved, and that world kind of gave me license to throw in ideas and set pieces that just wouldn’t fit in any other context.”