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Warning: This article will discuss a film about sexual abuse and incest.

Filmmaker Ari Aster exploded into the world of cinema with the release of "Hereditary" in 2018. That film was structured around a demonic cult and the magical glyphs they used to conduct ritual sacrifices, but moreso, it was about intergenerational guilt, barely suppressed rage, and the dissolution of the family unit. Toni Collette gives a career-best performance as a woman who kind of hated her own mother, and who has no small amount of depressed resentment toward her own family.

Aster followed that with "Midsommar," another film about cult sacrifices, this time complimented by the murder/suicide of the protagonist's family. Like "Hereditary," "Midsommar" was deeply beloved by the horror community, and is often held up as an example of the A24 house style. Florence Pugh also gives an astonishing performance as a grieving young woman whose awful boyfriend hates her.

Beau should not sleep. Earlier in the day, when he tried to leave his apartment to see his mother, Beau left his door open with the keys still in the lock. When he returned to the door after turning back to retrieve a forgotten item, his keys were gone.

Worse, when Beau asks a man in the hallway about the missing keys, the passerby shouts, “You’re fucked, pal!”

Yes, the above scene does occur in Beau is Afraid, last year’s weirdo epic starring Joaquin Phoenix as the titular disturbed man. But before he made Beau is Afraid as his third feature film, director Ari Aster introduced Billy Mayo as the fearful lead of his short movie, “Beau.”

Although Beau is Afraid benefits from a much larger budget and A-list stars, including Patti LuPone as Beau’s famous mother and Parker Posey as his childhood love, and although it...

It’s been a four-year long wait, but Ari Aster has finally made his return. The director’s third film “Beau is Afraid” journeyed into theaters April 14, bringing surrealist comedy to audiences through the auteur’s famously punishing perspective. The film, which is as loved as it is disliked by critics and audiences, stars Joaquin Phoenix as the title character: a repressed man making a grueling odyssey back home to see his mother.

The film’s title and premise comes from Aster’s 2011 short film “Beau.” One of several shorts he made as a student at the American Film Institute Conservatory — the most infamous being the viral incest drama, “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons” — the original “Beau” was a much smaller production than the director’s latest, focusing on the title character (played by the late Billy Mayo) as he’s locked in his apartment following the disappearance of his keys.

Ari Aster's new three-hour-long horror comedy epic "Beau is Afraid" is actually based on a short film of his that spans just six minutes in length. It's a lot of material to expand into a film of that length, but Aster himself said that it's because he's thought about the title character and developed enough material over the years to construct a tale grandiose enough to warrant a return. In fact, according to the filmmaker, "Beau is Afraid" isn't even really a remake of his short "Beau," but a wholly different piece of work that merely shares similarities.

Aster released "Beau" in 2011, the same year that he debuted his infamous thesis short film "The Strange Thing About the Johnsons," both of which star the late Billy Mayo. The short and Aster's 2023 feature begin with the same unfortunate turn of events when a man on a trip to visit his...

The first Beau Is Afraid trailer has arrived, revealing a look at Joaquin Phoenix in Ari Aster's new film. Formerly known under the working title Disappointment Blvd., Beau Is Afraid is the third feature film from the macabre mind of Ari Aster, who previously wrote and directed 2018's Hereditary and 2019's Midsommar. Billed as a surrealist nightmare comedy, Beau Is Afraid has already received two eerie posters showing Phoenix's main character aging over several decades. Now, the first full look at the film has arrived.

After a trailer announcement accompanied the second Beau Is Afraid poster, the first trailer arrived, as promised, by A24. Clocking in at over two minutes, the official Beau Is Afraid trailer provides the first full look at Ari Aster's new film, as Phoenix's eponymous Beau embarks on a nightmarish odyssey of horrific and hilarious proportions, set to the tune of "Goodbye Stranger" by Supertramp.

A24 unveils the first official Beau Is Afraid, poster revealing a cryptic first look at the film. Formerly known as Disappointment Blvd., Beau Is Afraid is the third feature film from arthouse auteur Ari Aster after the one-two horror punch of Hereditary and Midsommar. Not much is known about Beau Is Afraid other than it is an “intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.” Joker's Joaquin Phoenix, who has been cast in the lead role, will seemingly be playing the titular entrepreneur.

Now, A24 has revealed the first official look at Beau Is Afraid in the form of a poster while also announcing a summer 2023 release. The poster touts Joaquin Phoenix's name at the top in big, bold lettering in lieu of the film's new title, Beau Is Afraid, which is relegated to a hashtag in the bottom left. However, the poster curiously...

Recently, CBS delivered the new,official synopsis/spoilers for their upcoming "NCIS: Los Angeles" episode 3 of season 7. The episode is entitled, "Driving Miss Diaz," and it turns out that we're going to see some very interesting stuff go down as the NCIS: L.A. team goes deep undercover to protect as well-known fashion model, and more. In the new, 3rd episode press release: The NCIS Los Angeles Team Investigates A 20-year Old Peruvian Massacre After A Well-known Fashion Model, Believed To Be One Of The Survivors, Is Now A Potential Target, On "NCIS: Los Angeles." Press release number 2: The NCIS Los Angeles team is going to investigate a 20-year old Peruvian massacre after a well-known fashion model, believed to be one of the survivors, is now a potential target. Also, Kensi is going to go undercover as the model's assistant and Deeks as her chauffeur. Guest stars feature:...

The other week, as the debate about the depiction of torture in "Zero Dark Thirty" raged on, I chatted with Alex Gibney about his upcoming HBO doc "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God" and the piece he wrote in Salon about his issues with Kathryn Bigelow's film, which he felt misrepresented how useful so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" were in finding of Osama bin Laden. Meanwhile, on TV, Huck (Guillermo Diaz), one of the main characters in Shonda Rhimes' ABC drama "Scandal," was accused of attempting to assassinate the President, taken to a windowless room somewhere and tortured in an attempt to get a confession. Inside the holding pen, as the beaten Huck's feet were kicked out by men helping him figure out what it feels like to drown, outside the window U.S. Attorney David Rosen (Joshua Malina) looked on uncomfortably as an unnamed government...

We've recently been informed by DC reader Richard Greene about a very interesting short film that played at the New York Film Festival. The word on Ari Aster's Strange Thing About the Johnsons is that it's unique and disturbing. Unique and disturbing, you say? ... That's right up our alley!

Featuring absolutely outstanding performances from the three lead characters, Brandon Greenhouse as Isaiah, Billy Mayo as Sidney and Angela Bullock as Joan, Strange Thing About the Johnsons will draw you in with the opening scene and lock your attention as the subject matter of the film unfolds. I can pretty much guarantee you've never seen anything of this ilk before.

Scroll down and check out Strange Thing About the Johnsons right here. We heard it polarized audiences at the Nyff, a real love it or hate it film. The subject matter may make you uncomfortable (isn't that what horror is...