Beau Is Afraid’s strange rollout fits such a strange movie

Ari Aster is a very strange director. Not only because of his eccentric, fantastic horror films with popcorn art, but also because of the way those strange films become incredibly popular. His two previous movies, midsommar And Heir apparent, are excellent, scary, contemplative horror films about trauma and grief. They’re both funny, in their own twisted, dark ways. And they’ve both created a lasting footprint with teens and over-20s online, thanks to quirky marketing, intense shocks and imagery, and general meme ability.

Now production company A24 (which was behind both of Aster’s previous films) hopes to produce the same kind of enthusiasm for Aster’s latest, weirdest film, Beau is scaredby giving it an extremely strange release schedule designed primarily to woo fans and take over social media.

Beau is scared follows Beau (Joaquin Phoenix), less of an ordinary guy and more of a tightly wound ball of fear at every moment of his life, as he travels to visit his mother. Along the way he encounters all kinds of oddities, such as an apocalyptic city, a traveling theater troupe, mildly disturbed children and Nathan Lane. Unlike Aster’s other two films, Beau is scared is more obviously a comedy, though it’s been passed through a filter of absurdist tragedy with a bit of horror thrown in for good measure.

It’s also an extremely bizarre movie, in the most complementary way. While it features bits and pieces of well-known movies, it combines them so aggressively and consistently that it defies comparison with anything else at once. Instead of, Beau is more of a hodgepodge of dozens of directors, movies, books, plays, and writers that influenced Aster throughout his life. And with a film so strange and disparate, it’s only fitting that the theatrical rollout is just as strange.

To make that happen, A24 kicked off a surprise simultaneous screening of the film’s world premiere at Alamo Drafthouse theaters in several cities across the United States. Those in attendance thought they were showing up for a screening of the midsommar director’s cut (still Aster’s best film), with a live Q&A from the director at the end. Instead, as soon as they were seated, they were told to watch the premiere of Beau is scared — although the live Q&A still took place, hosted by Emma Stone and simulcast to theaters across the country.

This kind of early showing is sometimes accompanied by a strict social media embargo, but in this case, attendees were allowed to post their reactions to the film once it ended. Which means the movie immediately generated positive word of mouth from some of Aster’s biggest fans – critics and the general public alike.

Photo: Takashi Seida/A24

The actual review embargo for Beau was set for 10 p.m. EDT on the night of Monday, April 10 — an unusual hour for an embargo, as they are usually set for morning or afternoon. That embargo also comes a few days before the film is released for a limited run in just a few theaters in New York and Los Angeles. In most cities, critics won’t even be able to see the movie until its public IMAX preview on April 18. After that, the movie will finally have a more conventional release, rolling out in theaters across the country on April 21.

This strange schedule and the recurring and escalating social media blips that A24 obviously hopes each new wave of releases will spark are meant to kick off a slow build of anticipation and momentum for the movie. If it works out in the studio’s favour, movie fans will have heard good things about it Beau is scared more than three weeks before they get a chance to see the film for themselves. This strategy reads like an artificial attempt to create the kind of hit that Aster’s Heir apparent became. After a solid theatrical run ($44 million domestically), Heir apparent really took off when it hit Netflix, and people showed it to their friends for the thrill of giving someone else a solid shock.

Photo: Takashi Seida/A24

But it’s not just the impressive build of Aster’s previous films that A24 could have in hopes of creating a sleeper hit with Beau; it is also the recent history of theatrical releases. The horror movies of 2022 Smile, BarbarianAnd terrier 2 all saw their box office returns slowly reach impressive heights over the course of weeks, rather than experiencing the first-weekend boom that is common with larger releases. Even blockbuster animated movies like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish it took a while to find an audience in today’s movie environment. Meanwhile, this year, Skin amarink leaked online, creating a lot of TikTok buzz before its theatrical release, convincing people to show up en masse for a very specific kind of slow-burn horror movie.

That is not a guarantee Beau is scared will necessarily find an equally large and devoted audience, or whether it will actually grow into word of mouth. But at the very least, it’s hard to accuse A24 of experimenting with the release pattern of such a strange movie. I was at the first screening of the film in Brooklyn, the film where Aster appeared live and in the flesh. His new movie is entertaining, fun, weird and messy, even if it doesn’t quite add up in the end. Fans of horror, cinematic oddities, and Aster’s other work should check it out when that becomes an option. For all those reasons, it’s also a tough movie to sell, so why wouldn’t A24 make the mistake of building it up slowly, with Aster’s most ardent fans leading the way?