TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. — Past a petrified mastodon skull and display cases of glittering gypsum and halite, Ari Aster is gesturing to a room where, conjuring a bit of movie magic, he made Joaquin Phoenix fall through a roof, onto the bones of Geronimo.

When Ari Aster made his feature film debut in 2018 with the chilling Sundance horror hit “Hereditary,” it seemed to herald a new king of horror for the “elevated” era. As immaculately made as the miniature houses constructed by Toni Collette in the film,

In this desert setting, with characters both buffoonish and evil at once, there’s a distinctly Coen brothers slant to “Eddington.”