The first trailer for Ari Aster's Beau Is Afraid is here – and it's a technicolor nightmare.
In the brief clip, which can be viewed above, Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) sets out to visit his overbearing mother...though the narration in the beginning tells us that there's something very wrong with their dynamic. Still, Beau decides to push through what appears to be some post-apocalyptic all-out chaos in order to make it to the airport. After being hit by a car, Beau awakes in Nathan Lane's house with a monitor attached to his ankle – because he's not allowed to leave. 10 Cloverfield Lane, anyone?
The trailer then switches between bright, technicolor cartoon-y scenes of Beau making his way through perilous weather and beautiful scenery that are straight out of The Wizard of Oz.
Written and directed by Ari Aster, Beau Is Afraid is a "decades-spanning surrealist horror film set in an alternate present." Bobby Krlic, composer of Midsommar and Snowpiercer, created the score.
The film also stars Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan, Kylie Rogers, Armen Nahapetian, Parker Posey, Michael Gandolfini, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Denis Menochet, Hayley Squires, Zoe Lister-Jones, and Richard Kind. This marks Aster's third collaboration with A24, following the immensely popular and intensely disturbing indie horrors Hereditary and Midsommar.
Beau is Afraid, previously titled Disappointment Blvd., will hit theaters in the United States on April 21, 2023.
For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2023 and beyond, or, skip right to the good stuff with our list of movie release dates.
