User Reviews

MIDSOMMAR is the latest film from arthouse director Ari Aster, whose HEREDITARY wowed audiences a few years ago. While I liked that film I didn't love it, but I do love folk horror and THE WICKER MAN so I expected a lot from this one. Sadly, I didn't get it. MIDSOMMAR is a real mixed bag of a movie, with a decent first half. Florence Pugh gives a fine performance and the opening sequence is particularly powerful, getting off to a good footing. The slow-burning suspense works effectively until the genuine shocks of the 'cliff' sequence, but after this things really stop working. There's the usual sex and violent content, but it all feels very meandering and dragged out, saddled with unlikeable characters and a genuine lack of meaning and narrative cohesion. The cinematography is great and the actors certainly do their best, but by the end I felt this had become predictable, random (Viking execution methods for shock value, etc.) and a bit like a boring slasher film.

Spurred on by his friends, anthropology student Christian (Jack Reynor) is on the verge of breaking up with his girlfriend Dani (Florence Pugh), but a family tragedy for Dani changes his mind. Feeling guilty about putting his girlfriend through further emotional trauma, Christian asks her to accompany him and his pals on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the remote ancestral village of their Swedish friend Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), who has invited them take part in the commune's nine-day midsummer festival.

Director Ari Aster (Hereditary) might claim that Midsommar only pays homage to brilliant UK folk horror The Wicker Man, but all I can see is a blatant, bloated and extremely tedious rip-off. Where The Wicker Man (Director's Cut) runs at a reasonable 99 minutes, its engrossing story whisking the viewer along as Edward Woodward's character attempts to solve a mystery on a remote Scottish island, Aster's film (The Director's Cut) takes a whopping 171 minutes to tell its very familiar tale of unwary outsiders falling foul of an strange religion that practises bizarre rituals.

Moving at a snail's pace, the first hour of Midsummar is a massive challenge for the viewer, as the students travel to the village of the Hårga, meet the locals, and take part in ancient rites which involve lots of chanting and taking of hallucinogens. Those who make it through this tedium will eventually be rewarded with a shocking scene that is the equivalent of Hereditary's decapitation (ie., it's designed to wake up the viewer and become a talking point): before the eyes of the horrified students, elders of the village throw themselves off a precipice, falling onto the rocks below with very messy results.

Anyone hoping that this will herald a turning point in the film will be sorely disappointed: the dull drama continues, with an excess of singing, dancing and a glut of aerial overhead shots, with hints of weirdness to indicate where the film is heading (as if we didn't know already). As Christian's friends go missing one-by-one, and the locals become increasingly weird in their behaviour, neither he nor Dani question the wisdom of remaining in the village, both continuing to partake in the commune's activities. A bit of ritualistic sex and the sight of a bloke with his lungs pulled out of his back are about the film's only other noteworthy moments before the whole boring mess finishes in inevitable fashion, stealing its fiery climax from... you guessed it.... The Wicker Man.

In short, what a load of (Swedish meat)balls! If you haven't already seen it, watch The Wicker Man first.

I'll start this off with a warning. If you're a mainstream horror fan, you will not like this. It is not The Conjuring, it does not have jump scares, it is a slow movie. It's not scary in the way that most horror films are scary. It doesn't frighten you. It felt traumatic. This is an artsy movie for sure. If you don't like that, don't see it.

Florence Pugh is absolutely phenomenal. She provides the heart for the film and is what keeps the audience emotionally invensted in such a disturbing film. It's one of the greatest horror performances that I have ever seen.

The cinematography is stunningly gorgeous. I've never seen a film look so gory and grotesque and yet absolutely beatiful at the same time. It's some of the best cinematography that I've seen in years. The art direction is also phenomenal in providing us with a floral, candy colored, nightmare world.

And Ari Aster's screenplay and direction is what makes this so special and separates it from other horror pieces. It's slow, methodical, eerie. But the characters are psychological and deep. The dialogue is real and colorful. The plot is surreal and disturbing. He let's the scares crawl at you as opposed to jump at you. He allows you to see what will happen, process it, feel the shock of what's about to happen, and then still shock you even more when it happens.

This film will be divisive. I have no doubt that many people here will hate this. However, while this is a challenging film, it's also a great film. Halfway through a character says something along the lines of "That was so messed up, but I'm trying to keep an open mind." I suggest that audiences take this advice.

PSA, this movie is extremely violent, bloody, and gory. It's pretty horrifying and it could have stuff that is triggering.

All summer long, I've had people breathlessly tell me, "You need to see this movie."

I've been down this road before. It was called Hereditary, Ari Aster's last film.

I debated never watching this film, but then I reasoned that as much as I detested It Follows, I loved Under the Silver Lake.

Maybe Aster would hit paydirt in this one. After all, I love folk horror films like The Wicker Man and Blood On Satan's Claw. How bad could it be?

Woah boy.

Dani Ardor is dealing with a lot. Her sister has killed her parents and then herself. This has also pushed her already failing relationship with her boyfriend Christian. Somehow, they stay together the whole way to summer, when she learns that his Swedish friend Pelle is going home to his commune family for a once in every ninety years ritual and is taking Christian and his friends Mark and Josh.

Christian had no intention of telling her about the trip. In fact, his friends want them to break up. But then she's there in Halsingland along with them as they trip out and settle in. Hours later, two of the elders leap off a rock to their deaths, but when the male doesn't die, the others smash his head with a rock.

The elder Siv explains that this is how life goes here in Harga, with every member dying in the same way at the age of 72. This would also be the point where anyone sane would get out.

Two other guests, Simon and Connie, try to leave but miscommunication separates them. And to top things off, Christian decides to steal Josh's thesis on the Harga. That's when we learn that the commune' runic religion is based on an oracle who is conceived every few years via incest.

Oh, where do we go from here? Mark pees on a tree and gets skinned alive. Josh tries to take photos and gets hit with a mallet. Dani takes more drugs and dances around a maypole whole her boyfriend eats pubic hair before impregnating another girl while the rest of the females all watch and push his butt in deeper. Yes, it may have taken Quentin Tarantino a few films before we all realized he has a foot fetish, but Ari Aster took all of one film and a bit of this one to show us that his go-to horror is obese and aged nudity.

After finding Christian and Maja having sex, Dani has started screaming and all of the women turn it into a song. I laughed the kind of mad guffaw that Max Cady only reserved for classics like Problem Child. Somehow, this film, much like the last one that Aster essayed, has descended from horror into comedy through no fault of its own.

If I told you that the cult members all disembowel a bear and shove Christian into it - get it, his name is Christian and he's being sacrificed? - would you believe me? Well, you better, because that's exactly the kind of ridiculous ending this movie has. Can you believe that some people were upset by this and how intense it supposedly got? Then why was I holding my sides and struggling to breathe as I chuckled with the kind of volume that I had once only thought possible in my wildest dreams?

This film is a joke, told with false significance and no small fury, all screaming and yelling and singing and wishing and praying and hoping that someone finds it significant and important and worthy of notice. In short, it is everything that is 2019 - a country that asks for prayers on social media one day and shoots one another in the face the next. A sad moron screaming, "Notice me."

Somehow, thirty minutes of footage was cut from this movie before release. I have no idea how this is possible, as it felt so ponderous that I fear that it's being over is just a surprise ending and the truth is I will soon wake up and still have forty minutes left to watch. It's the kind of movie that The Lord of the Rings films would tell to wrap it up.

There are no surprises. I mean, the opening mural literally tells you everything that will happen in the film. And another piece of art shows a woman falling in love with a man, placing flowers under his pillow and then hiding her pubic hair in his food. This is exactly what Maja does with Christian.

There is all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in this film. Every single story beat is so hammered home - yes, that's a horrible pun but this movie in no way makes me want to try - that you become wistful for the simple days of Toni Collette flying around without her head.

The funniest thing about this movie is that it sees the Nicholas Cage The Wicker Man as more of an inspiration than the original. That might be all you need to know about this utter turd in the punchbowl.

Midsommar Century 16 Theater Watched 7/16/19

Horror is my favorite genre to see done right, because it's so rarely done right. Director and writer Ari Aster had something very special with his first film Hereditary. Perhaps the film most recommended to me in the last few years. I have yet to see it, but after last night's screening of his 2nd and newest feature: Midsommar; I made immediate plans to rectify that.

It's easy to just say a group of friends travel to Europe to write their college thesis on European pagan traditions but that would be a disservice to the early story Aster creates. I want to keep the plot description mum, but the early parts of this film are stricken with grief, angst, and some of the most realistic portrayals of gaslighting I've seen on film. These are the emotional bricks the story is constructed on. I never found myself waiting for them to just hurry up and go to Europe because the story is so effectively written and performed.

Once they arrive to the small Swedish commune, the entire story starts shifting into something else entirely. We just get a feeling in our gut, all these smiling white people. Their all white garb, white teeth, white hair. It's an uneasy amount of white and cleanliness, positioned on gorgeous green hills speckled with bright blue, red, pink and purple flowers. Aster's use of color brilliantly fills the screen. It's a rather unsettling feeling: all this natural beauty and we can't take comfort in any of it.

When we learn about the Midsommar festivities planned it seems like a big party for the students, we in the audience see the madness through the flowers. Things get turned to 11 quickly. We see people jumping to their deaths from towering cliffs, faces get smashed with hammers, faces get cutoff and worn as masks, menstrual blood consumed, incredibly graphic, brutal violence.

Tonally it's a trip because there is also so much humor injected into the script. Mainly the joke of the kids freaking out and their smiling, white (oh so white) hosts calming them down; assuring them that this is all merely tradition. Smashing someone's head open with a large mallet is simply setting their willing soul free, it's not a big deal. You see? He likes getting his brains bashed in! It beats growing old in a nursing home! The things these kids get put through are wonderfully dreadful.

Midsommar is a splendid display of young talent. Florence Pugh's portrayal of Dani is incredible. Her expressions are mesmerizing, she conveys so much emotion with her face. I felt a little less compelled by her boyfriend Christian played by Jack Reynor. We're very clearly not supposed to like his character, but I didn't like him due to his performance. It felt stiff and at times a little forced. Physically he was perfect for the role, but his delivery and timing left me feeling sort of...meh. Luckily the writing is so strong I never get too caught up in that. Even if one performance feels a little less compelling, the important part is the gang of young friends' performances and personalities work as a whole.

Aster's ability to pace a 2-and-a-half-hour film and make it feel short is the genius. Every single scene feels important, there are so many details and carefully crafted instances of foreshadowing. Not heavy handed, but deft and nerve racking. In a time where attention spans are shrinking it's rewarding and refreshing to see a film not only take it's time but to do so in a way that makes the film work even better. It's not self-indulgent, it's vulnerable and enticing. I want to see this one again just to see exactly what he sets up earlier in the film. Midsommar is upsetting, grotesque, beautiful and humorous all at once. It's a great horror film and being as though it's only Aster's 2nd feature, the next step in his career is an exciting thought.

Wow... This film felt like I had dreamt it entirely. I had read the script before the film was released so I knew what happened for the most part, but oh my... From beginning to end I literally could not take my eyes off of the screen. This did not feel like a horror film. It felt like something of a much higher caliber. Some sort of immensely twisted fairy tale with dramatic and humorous tones, and then completely drenched in terror at the very end. The film was like Wicker Man and Hereditary had an evil child. Some parts of the film even reminded me of the original Snow White (the wooden carving backdrop opening up, introducing the scene; Dani running scared through the forest). It was unbelievable.. and I mean that in the best way possible. It was a little tropy but my goodness, it was hard to tell because it didn't feel like a horror for most of the film until the end. It was just incredible. Also, the ambiguity and the look on who was really good or evil was amazing. This is a film that will really get the gears in your head grinding.

A+