Midsommar (Review)
Ari Aster Brings Another Nightmarish Film to Life with Midsommar.
Midsommar is horror auteur Ari Aster’s follow up to his 2018 break out hit, Hereditary. It might only be his second feature-length film, it’s clear that Aster is a master of dread. Like Hereditary, Midsommar is a movie that leaves audiences to marinade in a claustrophobic sense of uneasiness. However, Midsommar takes this to the point where the entire film feels like a bad trip, which is appropriate given the amount of psychedelics used in it. While I found Midsommar to be a brilliant and flawlessly crafted film, I won’t say it’s an easy film to watch, especially once things start to escalate.
The best way to describe Midsommar would be as a taboo horror film. The movie follows an American couple (Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor) who decide to take a trip with some friends to a small village in Sweden to observe their midsummer festival. While the experience starts off quaint and, well, festive. It becomes very clear early on that something just isn’t quite right in the remote village. Chalking it up to cultural differences the visitors try to keep an open mind, but things go from strange to horrifying during their stay and it becomes unclear if any of them will survive the festival.
One of the most noticeable things about Midsommar is that it seems like such a contradiction to what we normally expect from horror movies. At least, on the surface. The film takes place in the north of Sweden, which means that the sun is out for almost a full 24 hours. This results in the film almost completely taking place in daylight, which reflects the normalization of the rituals that the village follows. For them, the acts that might seem cruel and unusual for the rest of the world are nothing to be ashamed of or to hide. They are things to be celebrated under the warm summer sun for all to see. While more horror movies might prey on the audience’s fear of the dark and what lurks there, Midsommar forces us to accept that sometimes the most heinous acts in the middle of the day. The film also features such an idyllic village full of intricate pieces of art and beautiful flowers. The villagers themselves are all kind, generous, and clad in white for the festival. Their consciences unburdened by the terrible things they are about to do. The beautiful imagery and kind people creates an unsettling contrast with the anxiety-inducing themes.
At its heart, Midsommar is a break-up movie. The two characters at the center of the story, Dani and Christian, are going through a rough patch when the film starts. Christian has been thinking about leaving Dani for months but hasn’t because of a horrible tragedy she experienced earlier that same year. They arrive at the village still trying to feign emotional attachment to one another, but as the film goes on Christian becomes more and more distant. The two start butting heads and soon they’re being pushed apart by the very villagers themselves as they try to separate the two. Of course, Aster would never be so blatant as to have the two actually break up in the movie, but the themes reflect the stages of death in a relationship before the inevitable rebirth on the other side of it. However, this is one break up that is far from amicable.
Midsommar is a truly gut-wrenching film to watch. There is a constant feeling that something isn’t quite right. Of course, once things really get going it becomes pretty obvious just how wrong everything is. However, Aster manages to create a constant sense of anxiety as you expect something terrible at any moment. Oddly enough though, you never quite get used to that feeling because Aster delivers gutwrenching moments that leave you horrified and dreading what might come next. That being said, Midsommar is a slow burn that takes its time building the tension until you’re at the edge of your seat, unable to look away no matter how much you might want to. Fans of traditional horror movies might not have the kind of patience that Midsommar requires, but if you can hand in there until the very end you’ll be glad that you did.
As I said, Midsommar is not an easy movie to watch. It might be beautiful, but the film causes an intense visceral reaction that leaves you emotionally exhausted by the end of it. It’s filled with haunting imagery where the beauty sharply contrasts the terrible actions occurring. It’s high art cinema which might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but even as much as I never want to watch Midsommar again, I’m glad that I did. Aster is quickly proving himself to be one of the most intense horror filmmakers working today and his style of moviemaking fits nicely within a void in the genre I never realized existed until I saw his films. He is a brilliant director, a master manipulator who knows just how to get the right emotional response from the audience. Viewer beware though, Midsommar is a movie that will leave a scar long after the credits roll.
