Film Review: "Midsommar" (2019).

"Let the festivities begin." Prepare yourselves for Midsommar. This folk horror film written and directed by Ari Aster. Dani and Christian are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing.

In May 2018, the film was announced with Aster as screenwriter and director, B-Reel as producer, and A24 as distributor. According to Aster, he had been approached by B-Reel executives to helm a slasher film set in Sweden after the release of Hereditary (2018), an idea which he initially rejected as he felt he "had no way into the story." Aster ultimately devised a plot in which the two central characters are experiencing relationship tensions verging on a breakup, and wrote the surrounding screenplay around this theme. He described the result as "a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film." By early August, Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Ellora Torchia, and Archie Madekwe were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in early October. Filming took place in Budapest, Hungary, and Utah, U.S.A. Black Narcissus (1947), Hard to Be a God (2013), Macbeth (1971), and Tess (1979) served as visual influences. According to Aster, the original cut of the film was a hundred and seventy-one minutes. However, Aster was asked by A24 to trim out around thirty minutes for the theatrical release. The director's cut was released shortly after its theatrical run.

The film stars Pugh, Reynor, Poulter, Jackson Harper, Blomgren, Torchia, and Madekwe. The cast gave splendid performances typical of a film of its nature and genre. Yet, Aster deliberately cast dramatic performers to help them break the mold. If you keep this in mind, it can be a very interesting film.

This intelligent horror film is subtle in its thrills and chills, with an ending that is both shocking and truly memorable. It is, more than anything else, a film about what people can do in the name of religion or, more generally, belief. Its power comes not from appeals to the supernatural but from a deep understanding of our own undeniable nature. Its mysteries rely not on easy gimmicks, but on a process of intellectual unfolding carried out jointly by Dani and the viewer. All of this takes place against a context or texture of haunting eeriness. Even if the tension occasionally goes slack, it hardly anything surpasses that clifftop finale for freakish terror. The film is unforgettable. It's the most unique horror film ever made. A horror film worthy to be placed alongside classics such as The Wicker Man (1973).

Simon says Midsommer receives:

Also, see my review for Hereditary.