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Midsommar is directed by Ari Aster, and stars Florence Pugh. Aster directed my favorite film of last year, Hereditary, so needless to say, Midsommar was one of my most anticipated films coming out this year. I avoided trailers altogether because I just wanted to go and experience the film as it was intended. Hereditary fascinated me because while it was a horror film, it hinged itself heavily on a family drama, and how people deal with grief. There is haunting imagery throughout Hereditary, but it really doesn’t get into its “horror” aspects until the last ten to fifteen minutes, and then it goes absolutely off the walls insane. Some people may not like the ending of Hereditary because it jumped into the realm of the supernatural, but it didn’t bother me at all. I think if I recall correctly, I watched Hereditary two or three times in theaters, and three more times as soon as it came out on blu-ray.  I was ready to be blown away by Aster’s next film, Midsommar. Unfortunately, Midsommar was not the film that I anticipated it to be. Let me explain…

First off, I want to highlight some things that I did enjoy from the film. The cinematography is unreal. There are many wide shots that show off the vision that Aster has in his films. The colors that are used are bright and vibrant as well. Most of the film takes place during the day, so using bright springtime/summertime colors worked very well. Most horror films use darkness and night time to really sell the horror of the atmosphere, but it takes something special to create a nerve racking atmosphere in broad daylight, and I respect that. There were also several shots and sequences that were extremely haunting, something that Aster does very well. These shots can linger on grotesque imagery that can leave you disoriented while watching. The music can also be very haunting when it needs to be. This film also relied on a slow build of haunting imagery and disturbing foreshadowing, much like Hereditary. This slow build of tension allowed an explosive release towards the last ten or so minutes of the film. The slow build of tension is something that horror films used to thrive on, but have fallen short of in recent times. The film also had themes of religion and ritualistic practices that I thought were a nice addition.

Now, onto some things that I think should have been done better. To start with, the film’s opening felt like filler once I finished watching it. The only reason I say that is because the film sets up a huge plot point that I thought was going to be a driving force in the story, but it just felt dropped within twenty minutes. This was a major disappointment, because in Aster’s previous film, there were many plot points that were set up in the beginning that made sense towards the end of the film. I’m not sure if this is considered a spoiler, but I will go ahead and put a spoiler warning here. The opening of Midsommar makes a point to show our main character, Dani, lost her sister and her parents due to her sister killing her parents and herself via carbon monoxide poisoning. This happened before the opening credits rolled. Due to this, I thought that Dani’s sister killing herself and the rest of her family would have had a bigger impact on the story as a whole, but the only time that this is referenced again is the one time Dani sees an apparition if her father, and the idea that Dani lost her family, and found a new family in the cult by the end of the film. That may seem like a decent payoff to a plot point, but it was pretty disappointing to me. Some of the characters are extremely unlikable as well. There may be reason for it as far as the themes of the film go, but I didn’t care about what happened to anyone except Dani. In my opinion, you have to have your characters somewhat likable in some capacity to have some investment. This was also kind of a a mix of The Wicker Man and the 2008 film Solstice. If you have never heard of Solstice, it has an eerily similar plot to Midsommar. I guess that’s not the worst thing ever, but it does seem a little suspicious.

Overall, I don’t hate Midsommar. In fact, I still really like the film. It was an entertaining and suspense filled experience. My first impressions were probably warped a bit by the impossibly high expectations I put on this film. With the extreme high that I got from watching Hereditary, I wanted something bigger and better. While I personally don’t think that Midsommar topped Hereditary, it was still a captivating, haunting experience that I highly recommend.

 

Midsommar – 7.5/10

 

Thank you everyone who took the time to read this. If you have any suggestions or want to connect with me at all, please find me on Twitter @SinningSaint. I’m going to have a post out every Friday so keep on the lookout. I’m also planning something pretty fun for October, so I hope that you will all join me then. Thank you again!