Ari Aster’s weird sequel to Midsommar is getting a weird rollout

Ari Aster is a very strange director. Not only because of its eccentric, fantastical, popcorn horror films, but also because of the way these weird films become incredibly popular. His previous two films midsummer And Hereditary, are excellent chilling, thoughtful horror films about trauma and grief. They’re both funny, in their own twisted, dark ways. And both have left a lasting footprint on teens and 20-year-olds online, thanks to idiosyncratic marketing, intense shock and imagery general meme skill.

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

Beau is scared follows Beau (Joaquin Phoenix), less of a regular guy and more like a tightly wound ball of angst, through every moment of his life as he travels to visit his mother. Along the way he encounters all sorts of oddities, such as an apocalyptic city, a traveling theater company, slightly disturbed children and Nathan Lane. Unlike Aster’s other two films, Beau is scared is more obviously comedy, although it has been run through a filter of absurdist tragedy with a bit of horror mixed in for good measure.

Photo: Takashi Seida/A24

It’s also a uniquely bizarre film, in the most complementary of ways. While it contains bits and pieces of well-known films, it combines them so aggressively and constantly that it defies comparison to anything else. Instead of this, Nice is more of a hodgepodge of dozens of directors, films, books, plays, and writers that have influenced Aster throughout his life. And with a film so odd and disparate, it’s only fitting that its theatrical release should be just as odd.

To accomplish this, A24 began a surprise simultaneous screening of the film’s world premiere at Alamo Drafthouse theaters in several different cities across the United States. The participants thought they were going to a screening of the film midsummer 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 informed that they were attending the premiere of Beau is scared – although the live Q&A was still happening, hosted by Emma Stone and simulcast to cinemas across the country.

This kind of early screening sometimes comes with a strict social media embargo, but in this case attendees were allowed to post their reactions to the film once it was over. This means the film immediately garnered positive word of mouth from some of Aster’s biggest fans – critics and general audiences alike.

Photo: Takashi Seida/A24

The actual rating embargo for Nice was set for 10:00 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. This embargo also lands 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 film until its April 18 public IMAX preview. After that, the film will finally have a more conventional release, hitting theaters nationwide on April 21st.

That odd schedule, and the recurring and escalating social media blips that A24 obviously hopes each new wave of releases will cause, are meant to start a slow anticipation and momentum for the film. If things go in the studio’s favor, movie fans will have heard good things about it Beau is scared for more than three weeks before they have a chance to see the film for themselves. This strategy reads like an artificial attempt to create the kind of hit that Aster has Hereditary became. After a solid theatrical run (which grossed $44 million domestically) Hereditary really took off when it came out on Netflix, and people showed it to their friends because it was exciting to give someone else a solid shock.

Photo: Takashi Seida/A24

But it’s not just the impressive build of Aster’s earlier films that A24 might be hoping can pull off a sleeper hit Nice; it is also the recent history of theatrical releases. The horror movies 2022 Smile, barbarianAnd horror 2 All saw their box office earnings slowly soar to impressive heights over the course of weeks, instead of experiencing the first-weekend boom that is common with major releases. Even blockbuster animated films like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish took a while to find an audience in today’s film environment. Meanwhile, this year Skinamark leaked online and sparked a ton of TikTok buzz ahead of its theatrical release, convincing people to turn out in droves for a very specific slow-moving horror film.

There is no guarantee for that Beau is scared inevitably find an equally large and engaged audience, or even develop into a word-of-mouth success. But at least it’s hard to blame A24 for experimenting with the release pattern of such a strange film. I was at the film’s first screening in Brooklyn, where Aster actually performed live and in person. His new film is entertaining, funny, weird and chaotic, even if it doesn’t quite work out in the end. Fans of horror, cinematic oddities, and Aster’s other work should check it out when it becomes an option. For all these reasons, it’s also a hard-to-sell film, so why wouldn’t A24 make the mistake of slowly building it up, with Aster’s most ardent fans leading the way?