Why is Beau afraid?

Beau is afraid2023

"It's where everything starts for everybody"

In the silence, Beau peers out from the "hole" alongside Mona's anxiety attack and the doctor's abrupt slap, eventually succumbing to tears. While some might perceive a newborn's loud cries as a sign of promise and life, all that's evident to us are three simple words: “Beau is afraid.”

This is director Ari Aster's third feature film. Following the box office successes of "Hereditary" and "Midsommar," A24 granted Aster more space and a higher budget. Thus, this director, known for weaving eerie narratives within bloodlines, produced a three-hour-long "nightmare comedy." Whether you squirmed in your cinema seat unable to look away or shouted curses in front of the screen at home, whether you love it or hate it, this film will never leave you indifferent.

In a post-screening interview, the director stated, "I just really wanted to make something strange." And he succeeded.

Martin Scorsese mentioned that Aster "has opened up new ground within the horror genre." Similarly, Bong Joon-ho, a master of creating eerie atmospheres in his films, praised "Beau is afraid" as "the most shocking film in recent years," even chasing after Aster backstage like a fan.

When a  reporter asked Aster why he enjoys filming "mother-son relationships" so much, he received a reply: "It's where everything starts for everybody."

"Why is Beau afraid?"

Do you still remember the first word each of us learned?

"Mom."

In language, myths frame specific narratives, becoming a certain sacred "symbol" in the real world, and "mom" is the primordial "myth" that all humans face. From Freud to Lacan, every psychoanalyst or philosopher of every psychoanalytic school has strived to analyze and interpret this "primordial myth."

The "Oedipus complex" is Freud's psychoanalysis of this "primordial myth." While I won't retell the story of Oedipus murdering his father and marrying his mother, it's essential to explain the "Oedipus complex." During the age when gender consciousness is just emerging (4-6 years old), boys exhibit subconscious desires both for their mothers sexually and hostility toward their fathers, wishing to replace them.

During the pandemic, Aster said, “I want to do a Freudian Odyssey.” In this film, he twists this Oedipus complex. Surprisingly, the sexual and paternal impulses within the movie are directed from the mother towards the child.

Note Mona's hands, the trap set upon Beau's birth.

At first, viewers may perceive the unsettling neighborhood and peculiar events as figments of Beau's mental illness, suggesting that we're experiencing the world through the lens of someone struggling mentally. Yet, Aster intricately weaves deeper meanings beneath the surface.

The images captured in the photos adorning Mona's house, seen by Beau, vividly illustrate that his neighborhood is populated by individuals employed by Mona. This malevolent, disorderly, and hazardous street isn't merely a figment of Beau's imagination; it serves as a manifestation of Mona's afflictions, symbolizing the psychological constraints she is imposing on Beau. The message, "The outside world is perilous, everyone seeks to hurt you, only your mother cares for you," dominates any external setting Beau encounters, meticulously orchestrated by his mother, Mona. This extreme level of control also constitutes a form of illness.

Aster's 2013 short film “Munchausen” is a horror-comedy that unfolds without dialogue, set to a backdrop of soothing Disney and Pixar music. It depicts a mother consumed by an obsession, exerting excessive control over her son. Fearing the prospect of her child leaving for college and beginning his own family, she spirals into panic. In her desperation to prevent his departure, she resorts to poisoning him, tragically resulting in his untimely death. The fundamental premise of this film closely mirrors the central theme of "Beau is afraid" in a strikingly similar manner.

The excessive control exerted over Beau not only shapes his persona into that of an innocent and vulnerable individual but also contributes significantly to the development of his mental illness. Coupled with Mona's distorted and overbearing influence, this control builds the unsettling and claustrophobic world that we experience alongside Beau.

In other words, the film constructs a world seen from the perspectives of two mentally disturbed individuals. Beau's symptoms stem from Mona's. Aster hinted at this from the film's beginning during Mona's frenzied state during childbirth.

Mona's madness, naturally, has its reasons.

Deprived of affection during her own upbringing, she was resolute in showering her own child with all the love she could muster. Yet, this supposed "love" paradoxically manifested as a manifestation of pathological control. Moreover, this pathology takes on another dimension.

Consistently throughout the film, Mona orchestrates scenarios to frame Beau, which conceals deeper psychological motives: her aim is to coerce Beau into admitting that he doesn't love her. This, in turn, validates her own belief that she is undeserving of love, a belief that originated from her own childhood devoid of affection. The recurring pattern of "framing up-admission of non-love" becomes a compulsive pattern of existence for Mona.

Then love isn't inherited, but pathology is passed on in an opposite manner.

In the womb, immediate gratification becomes crucial for sustenance, where the "I" and the mother form a singular entity, linked by an umbilical cord. During this phase, the sense of individual subjectivity hasn't yet emerged. It's only after birth that we begin to exist as separate entities, developing our individual subjectivity.

During a post-screening interview, Aster said, "Parents and children, what a heavy relationship. Initially, we are connected to someone through an umbilical cord, until it is cut off. But in a sense, it seems this connection can never truly be severed, not even in a lifetime."

For Beau, it's as if an almost imperceptible umbilical cord still remains wrapped around his neck. While his physical body has been born, his sense of subjectivity, much like his personality, appears to remain in a state of flux or incomplete development.

For Mona, the symbolism of the cut umbilical cord mirrors a severance of love; being born equates to feeling abandoned. This profound sense of subjectivity, tainted by resentment, transforms Mona into a figurative monster.