In the denouement of Franz Kafka’s short story “The Judgment,” the young protagonist is castigated by his widower father for being an unfaithful son and friend. The father reveals that he has been secretly corresponding with the son’s friends and stealing his clients at the family firm. He may even steal the young man’s fiancée. The dutiful son is shocked by the injustice and absurdity of it all. Then the father shouts: "So now you know what else existed in the world outside of you, before you knew only about yourself! Yes, you were a truly innocent child, but you were even more truly an evil man!—And for that reason, I hereby sentence you to death by drowning!" The son flees the house and immediately throws himself into a nearby body of water.
That ending burned itself into my mind on the first reading. It must have been equally unforgettable for writer and director Ari Aster, whose most recent film Beau Is Afraid is a neurotic, hypnotizing rhapsody on Kafka’s story. Known as a master of arthouse horror for Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019), in Beau Aster proves himself just as gifted at comedy. In its best moments, Beau’s absurdist humor rivals that of Charlie Kaufman. But what puts the film in a league of its own is Aster’s control of the strange terrain where horror and humor bleed into each other.
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