Midsommar is a chilling, and disturbing breakup tale that not only makes you feel intense stages of grief, but terrifying moments that lead it to be a horrifying psychological journey.
I should preface this review by saying that if you saw Ari Asters Hereditary and enjoyed it don’t go into this movie expecting something similar. Instead of being traditionally horror Midsommar is much more psychological horror and gets into the darkest parts of your mind.
Aster provides us with another disturbing and shocking film, and when I thought he couldn’t make me feel despair any more than he already has in Hereditary, this movie upped the bar.
There are so many sequences that are just mind boggling. Midsommar delivers something I haven’t felt in a movie before. While I was watching it I didn’t think it was that bad, but after the movie finished and I had to absorb what I just watched it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I felt sadness, anger and unease.
It’s a slow burn just like Hereditary, but it does it in such a different way. When we reach the climax I felt this overwhelming sense of dread. The final events are so unnerving, but also so satisfying. We see our characters going through this terrible journey with weird cult rituals that only make the relations between them more tense.
We feel uneasy from the moment they arrive at the Swedish town because something just seems odd; and odd is an understatement for the events that unfold. There are many scenes throughout the film that just build on top of each other, and that’s something this film did so well. The scenes and events create this feeling that makes us more uneasy and disturbed as the movie goes on.
I would say that the advertising of this movie as just a break up movie doesn’t do the complexity of the story justice. There is so much grief that has to be dealt with and has such a hyper realistic aspect to it and we feel that it can happen in real life.
What’s interesting is that I’ve studied Sweden throughout my education and almost all of the rituals are pulled from actual Swedish history and makes it that much more chilling. With that being said the movie although terrifying is extremely beautiful.
The scenery and shot choices are breathtaking and the fact that this is a horror movie taking place in a beautiful location, in broad daylight, makes it that much more frightening. You feel as though you can’t hide and that everything’s out in the open. This ability for Aster to portray everything so deliberately in the open makes it that much more terrifying, because you get no relief and anything can happen at anytime.
Florence Pugh who plays the main character does a wonderful job as she has to do so much and hold back a vast amount of emotion, and then show so much emotion at the snap of a finger and executes it perfectly. Everyone in the cast does an wonderful job, but Florence is the stand out for sure.
Just a fair heads up, Midsommar contains graphic violence and graphic nudity, so be aware of who you are comfortable watching it with and if you’re comfortable watching that stuff yourself.
Midsommar is a bright new take on horror that gets into your head and creates a movie that’s hard to forget. This film is an experience I’ve never seen or had before at a theater. I would highly recommend even if you’re not a horror lover to see Midsommar as it’s excellent filmmaking and will shake you to your core, not because of useless shock, but shock that gets into deepest and most disturbing parts of your mind.
I give Midsommar an A+
