ARI ASTER

A crop of new horror movies explores a classic scary theme: Mommy.

“The Super Mario Bros.

In Ari Aster’s new film “Beau is Afraid,” Joaquin Phoenix plays an anxious man in a rotten world who goes on a wildly weird journey, both Homeric and Oedipal, to his mother’s home.

Ari Aster really doesn’t want to talk about “Beau Is Afraid.”.

With the box office success of “Smile,” “The Black Phone" and his “Barbarian” this year, writer-director Zach Cregger says it’s clear that “original horror is working right now.”.

This week’s new entertainment releases include albums from Babyface, Arctic Monkeys and a Taylor Swift original, a documentary about the last known ship to bring African captives to the American South for enslavement and “Doc Martin” gets a proper farewell on Acorn TV.

It's premiere time for the film academy's long-awaited museum.

"Midsommar," from director Ari Aster, is about a young couple whose relationship is on the rocks. They decided to reconnect on a trip to Sweden for the annual Midsommar festival. The real Midsommar is a celebration to welcome the arrival of warm weather, and the festival goes back centuries. While the new movie may put the Midsommar festival in a horrifying light, the Swedish Council of America isn't too worried about people getting the wrong impression about the celebration. ... Is it capturing the realism of Swedish Midsommar?