Director Ari Aster is no stranger to horror, delivering family grief-based frights in Hereditary and sunlit chills in Midsommar. In his fourth feature, Eddington, he turns his lens on a familiar (and recent) horror: the year 2020.
The first trailer for Eddington, distributed by A24, takes the form of a doomscroll through Instagram circa 2020. In voiceover, COVID-19 conspiracy theorists talk about a lab in Wuhan, China, being tied to Tom Hanks, arguably the first celebrity to contract the virus. Scroll down, and come face to face with the sheriff of Eddington, New Mexico, played by Joaquin Phoenix (who also starred in Aster’s third feature, Beau Is Afraid).
“If you value your life, you should think twice, because the people of Eddington like guns,” the sheriff says in a clip from Fox News. Foreboding!
The trailer scrolls further, revealing more of Eddington‘s cast. Austin Butler plays a motivational speaker with the username vernonjeffersonpeak, who tells his followers, “Your pain is not a coincidence. You are not a coincidence.”
Next up is Emma Stone (username louise.cross), who denies an announcement her husband made the day prior. Pedro Pascal joins the feed soon after as Mayor Ted Garcia, who commits to guiding Eddington through the pandemic.
According to the official summary from A24, Pascal’s mayor and Phoenix’s sheriff (whom the trailer reveals to be the person scrolling) will go head to head in a standoff that will light a powder keg in Eddington. Get a taste for yourself in the full trailer above, which also features Phoenix confronting masked protestors, TikTok dances about James Baldwin, and a black square posted as part of Blackout Tuesday. It’s a pretty accurate time capsule of social media in 2020 — but how much do you really want to relive that?
Eddington also stars Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Clifton Collins Jr., William Belleau, Cameron Mann, Matt Gomez Hidaka, and Amélie Hoeferle.
Eddington hits theaters July 18.
