Brief Analysis of Film Opening of 'Beau Is Afraid'

The movie 'Beau Is Afraid', directed by Ari Aster is a 'horror' film (the term is used very loosely as the genre isn't really clear) about a man named Beau who embarks on an odyssey to go home to his mothers funeral. The film begins with the faint voice of a woman screaming being heard, almost as if it's being heard from under water, and the sound of something slowly ripping apart. We see a blurry red light peeking in as screaming continues, realizing that it's a scene of Beau being born, and that the voice sounded faint because of the amniotic fluid, not water. Right off the bat, it's an incredibly unorthodox way to start a film and is sure to make several viewers uneasy. What follows after Beau has left the womb is a serious of blurry doctors in a white room while the first dialogue is: 

 

Did he just hit his head? Bringing a sense of urgency and alarm, followed by:

 

He should be crying, why isn't he crying?

 

From the perspective of Beau it's unclear whether he did fall, but it is evident that he infact isn't crying, doctors pick him up and are doing what can be described as attempting to calm down Mona, his mother, while nurses clean him and hook him up to mechanical ventilators, after which we can hear the dialogue better. Mona is inconsolable, crying:

 

Why isn't he breathing? Did you drop him? Did you drop my baby? Where are you taking him? You made me have him! You made me have him! Why are you flinging him?

 

After which, the nurse slaps Beau who finally starts crying and shrieking. That last line is barely audible at all, and is also probably that way on purpose. It makes us see the birth in a much darker light, that perhaps having a baby wasn't Mona's decision. This all happens in the first 2 minutes of the film, setting a tone for the rest of it, showing it's not going to be a feel-good movie, yet the genre is still unclear. Despite watching the whole 3 hour long movie, even I have no idea what the genre was supposed to be. It does have blood, gore, and fighting, so it could be classified as an action, but is lacking the consistent storyline and clear antagonist/protagonist for it. It could be a horror based on the opening sequence yet we don't see many monsters or paranormal forces at play (save for the attic scene, RIP my eyes and innocence). Over all, I'd say the film is surrealistic, everything about it from how Mona 'dies' to Beau's ridiculously complicated journey of getting to her.

 

 

 

 

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