“I wrote it in a state of fear and anxiety about the world,” says writer-director Ari Aster of Eddington—a film that trades pagan dread for pandemic delirium. In this fever-pitched Western satire, the town isn’t just cracking under lockdown—it’s collapsing under the weight of fractured truth. What begins as a civic dispute spirals into a mythic unravelling, where paranoia spreads faster than any virus and the American frontier burns in its reflection.
Eddington is a genre-bending Western black comedy-drama written and directed by Ari Aster.
Aster blends neo-Western grit, political satire, and dark comedy, creating what some critics are calling a “COVID-era No Country for Old Men meets Dr. Strangelove.” The town of Eddington itself becomes a character, symbolising the fractured American psyche during a time of fear and misinformation.
Ari Aster was inspired to write Eddington during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he left New York to be closer to family in New Mexico. What he witnessed there—rising paranoia, digital echo chambers, and the unravelling of social trust—sparked the idea for a story that captured the psychological and political fragmentation of that moment.
He described the pandemic not as a beginning, but as an inflexion point—a rupture that severed ties to the “old world” and exposed the fragility of modern society. Aster said, “I don’t think we’ve metabolised what happened during lockdown… we’re still living out the consequences of it”. That unresolved tension became the emotional and thematic core of Eddington.
He also chose the Western genre deliberately, calling it “sort of the national genre” because it reflects the building—and unraveling—of American identity. In his words, “It felt appropriate to make a Western… but a Western inflected by modern realism”
From Personal Horror to Political Paranoia
Ari Aster’s Eddington marks a sharp thematic and tonal pivot from his earlier work, while still bearing his unmistakable fingerprints—psychological unease, surrealism, and a fascination with societal breakdown.
Earlier films leaned into elevated horror and operatic grief.: Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019) were intimate horror stories rooted in grief, trauma, and cultic dread. They explored personal collapse through mythic and folkloric lenses. Beau Is Afraid (2023) veers into a surreal, psychological odyssey—an anxiety-riddled epic about maternal guilt and existential dread.
Eddington by contrast, is a satirical Western set during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a small town as a microcosm for America’s cultural and political fragmentation. Eddington trades horror for black comedy and political farce.
Aster’s past films often followed tight, escalating arcs. Eddington is more episodic and chaotic, reflecting the confusion and absurdity of 2020 America.
From internal horror to external hysteria: Eddington is less about personal demons and more about collective delusion, misinformation, and the erosion of civic trust.
It’s Aster’s most overtly political, most ambitious and divisive film yet—less haunting, more chaotic, and deeply entangled in the cultural psyche of a fractured nation.
Aster’s boldest thematic swing pushes beyond horror into dark political farce with unapologetic scope. It’s a neo-Western, a pandemic allegory, a small-town breakdown, and a media satire all in one, shot through with his trademark discomfort and surreal flourishes. The dialogue crackles with paranoia, and the setting of Eddington becomes a crucible for American identity in crisis.
Set in Eddington, New Mexico, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the film follows a tense standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) that spirals into chaos. As neighbor turns against neighbor, the town becomes a microcosm of political paranoia, social fracture, and existential absurdity.
From Elevated Horror to Existential Farce
Hereditary and Midsommar established Aster as a master of elevated horror, blending grief, trauma, and family dysfunction with supernatural dread. He described Hereditary as “a family tragedy that curdles into a nightmare,” emphasising emotional realism over jump scares. With Beau Is Afraid he pivoted into surrealist black comedy—a sprawling, anxiety-riddled odyssey that fused Kafkaesque absurdity with mythic structure.
Eddington marks his boldest fusion yet: It trades personal horror for societal hysteria, using genre tropes to dissect American identity in crisis.
How Aster Blends Genres
Aster’s genre fusion isn’t just stylistic—it’s thematic. He uses genre as a lens to explore how people (and societies) unravel under pressure. Whether it’s a haunted house or a town in lockdown, the horror is never just external—it’s what festers inside.
- Atmospheric Inversion: In Midsommar, horror unfolds in perpetual daylight, subverting the genre’s usual darkness. Aster flips expectations to destabilise the viewer.
- Character Disorientation: His protagonists often willingly enter danger—whether it’s a Swedish commune or a town unraveling in paranoia—blurring the line between victim and participant.
- Emotional Core: No matter the genre, Aster anchors his films in emotional disintegration—grief, guilt, fear of abandonment—making even the most surreal moments feel grounded.
Ari Aster – Filmmaker, Screenwriter, Genre Alchemist
Ari Aster grew up in a creative household—his mother a poet, his father a jazz musician. After a childhood split between the U.S. and England, his family settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Aster’s obsession with horror films took root. He studied film at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design and later earned an MFA in directing from the American Film Institute Conservatory.
Aster first gained attention with his provocative short The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011), but it was his feature debut, Hereditary (2018), that cemented his reputation as a master of psychological horror. He followed it with Midsommar (2019), a sun-drenched folk nightmare, and the surreal epic Beau Is Afraid (2023). In 2018, he co-founded the production company Square Peg with producer Lars Knudsen.
With Eddington (2025), Aster pivots from personal horror to political satire, blending Western tropes with pandemic paranoia. His work is known for its emotional intensity, genre fusion, and a willingness to stare into the cultural abyss.
