What the hell is this film about? Honestly, the less you know the better. But I’ll try to summarise quickly. Beau is a middle aged man living in a crime-infected city, and struggles with debilitating anxiety. He lives in constant fear, he’s scared of everything - people, accidents, death. But why is Beau so afraid? And what does his mother have to do with it? That’s what we discover over the course of the film. Or at least we can hope we do.

Is it a horror? Psychological horror? It’s difficult to fit Beau Is Afraid in one category. It’s definitely not horror in the traditional sense of the word. Especially because of its comedic undertones which may make it difficult to take the film seriously at times. But it is certainly every anxious person’s worst nightmares come to life. You know how when you overthink, you assume the worst possible outcome for everything in life? This film actually goes ahead and makes that a reality.

The absurdity & the surrealism Yeah yeah I know these words get thrown around very casually but if there’s one film that absolutely deserves them it’s Beau Is Afraid. Ari Aster has always been a non-conformist filmmaker, exploring extremely discomforting and dark themes from a lens that’s slightly detached from reality. But here he really lets his imagination loose & takes us on a journey through the darkness in a surrealist theme park ride (imagine a Bhoot Bangla but instead of the ghosts, it’s the whole world scheming against you).

For the film references There’s a dream-like sequence in the film that felt like a subtle homage to Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990), especially this shot at the too. Dreams was a film that was literally based on Kurosawa’s own dreams. Beau Is Afraid, however, seems like the very antithesis of it. It’s a film based on nightmares. If not Ari Aster’s, then someone else’s. There are some other film inspirations too, conscious or unconscious, from Lynch, Bergman& Kubrick films to even some Truman Show. If you’re a film buff, you’re more than likely to have a lot of fun.