Ari Aster's Eddington Teaser: When the Real World Becomes a Horror Film

      The quaint American town in Ari Aster's new film Eddington resembles the real-world narrative depicted by outlets like CNN or the Drudge Report: conspiracy theories abound, government factions clash, and gunfire occurs with minimal justification.

      The small, fictional town in New Mexico featured in the fresh trailer for Eddington, which is set in 2020, bears a striking similarity to downtown Los Angeles at present, where local authorities engage in conflict with the National Guard deployed by the president, distrust is rampant, and the threat of violence seems palpable.

      While a full-length film can explore avenues only hinted at in a teaser, the Eddington trailer encounters the same challenging issue faced by many recent satirical or horror films: how to keep pace with a real world that’s more dramatic than fiction?

      For instance, it seems almost quaint to watch Joaquin Phoenix’s Sheriff Joe Cross and Pedro Pascal’s Mayor Ted Garcia argue over the small town's future, while in reality, the president of the United States is threatening to arrest the governor of California.

      Although we don’t recall anyone in 2020 linking anti-Covid masks to child trafficking—as Austin Butler’s cult preacher, Vernon Jefferson, does in the Eddington trailer—it does resonate as the type of bizarre connection that could easily emerge in the conspiracy-ridden 2020s.

      Eddington, which debuted at Cannes to positive reviews and arrives in theaters on July 18, carries the tagline “hindsight is 2020”—referring to the year when the pandemic began—and features an image of buffalo leaping off a cliff. (Indigenous inhabitants historically hunted buffalo by corralling them into a panic-induced cliff dive.)

      Recent works like Jesse Armstrong’s excellent Mountainhead and the new season of Black Mirror seem to be racing to stay a step ahead of real-life technological advancements that make reality feel increasingly dystopian. We once sought entertainment for excitement beyond our mundane lives.

      Now, we seek entertainment for something less necessarily thrilling but easier to digest: it offers resolution, more or less, by the end of a film, episode, or season.

      Turning off the news can feel like a retreat. It's human instinct to confront world issues in hopes of addressing them, but this can also create a sense of learned helplessness that may hinder our efforts to work towards a better world.

      How do we find the right balance between staying informed and falling into doomscrolling?

      Eddington raises intriguing questions but does not offer an escape: the trailer's scenario mirrors our realities too closely. As the tensions around masks and fear of the virus escalate in Eddington during 2020, Butler’s online rants stoke the fire. Pascal’s mayor implores for calm, while Phoenix’s sheriff navigates grievances.

      Emma Stone, cast as the sheriff’s wife, appears repulsed and questions how she became entangled in this madness. When she types “Horrible” in the comments of a Vernon Jefferson video titled “How Masks Make It Easier to SMUGGLE CHILDREN,” is she commenting on the act of smuggling children or on the fear-mongering nature of the video?

      For years, it’s been a cliché to point out the parallels between real events and horror films. However, it carries weight when the director of Hereditary and Midsommar looks to the news for inspiration.

      And to clarify, reality is not a horror movie.

      You can switch off a horror movie.

      Main image: A scene from the trailer for Eddington, directed by Ari Aster, in theaters July 18 from A24.