Midsommar director's next film is about small town COVID denialism

Attention trauma enthusiasts: Ari Aster, cinema's favorite merchant of psychological damage, is back to ruin your summer with Eddington, a contemporary Western featuring the most emotionally unstable cast ever assembled.

Hereditary was bone-chilling. Midsommar was one of the most memorable horror films of the past. Beau is Afraid was… there. It's apparently been long enough since the pandemic for pandemic movies to start being created — and Aster's next project, Eddington (release date: July 18, 2025), looks to be one of those.

Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal are set across from each other as a small-town sheriff and mayor respectively, butting heads over how best to handle the COVID-19 pandemic or even whether to handle it at all.

The trailer serves pure psychological horror dressed in Western wear, with Phoenix delivering ominous warnings about guns and Austin Butler waxing philosophical about pain not being "a coincidence."

Hopefully, it'll be more entertaining than depressing, given how many people actually acted like Phoenix's character back in 2020 (and to this day).