By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.8 cats
Director: Ari Aster
Starring: Archie Madekwe | Ellora Torchia | Florence Pugh | Gunnel Fred | Jack Reynor | Vilhelm Blomgren | Will Poulter | William Jackson Harper
Country: united_states
Year: 2019
Running time: 147
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8772262/reference
Thom says: Last year Ari Aster appeared out of nowhere with his first feature the terrifying HEREDITARY which ended up my favorite film of 2018. So I had enormous expectations for MIDSOMMAR & the viewing actually exceeded them. I was hooked from the first frame. Make no mistake, even though this masterful new talent is plowing new ground in the genre, this is a horror film, & especially terrifying at that. So stay away from this film if horror isn’t your cup of tea. Dani (Pugh) is a college student on sabbatical who’s not only having issues with her PhD-candidate boy friend Christian (Reynor) but at the beginning of the film suffers a family tragedy of immense proportions. As she’s trying to get her life back together Christian decides to go on a vacation to Sweden to attend a remote, arcane, mid-summer festival with his college friends including Pelle, a Swedish exchange student, who is familiar with the festival and wants to share it with his 3 friends. Feeling sorry for poor Dani, Christian submits to asking her to accompany the 4 guys to the Scandinavian country. They end up at the festival and that’s all I’m really going to tell you as what you’ll witness is almost beyond belief. What is most amazing about this ‘new horror’ masterpiece is that while almost all horror films ever made are about ‘the dark’ this one is very much about ‘the light’. The photography is powerfully insistent, & the largely unknown cast lend great verisimilitude to the project. 5 cats“
Michael says: “I’ve just got to say it. I find the horror genre very problematic. There are very few horror films that I truly enjoy. So why do I watch them? Well, generally, I don’t, but in my attempt to remain somewhat well-rounded in the films I see, and especially when Chlotrudis is preparing to update their Best Scary Films of the 21st Century, I feel I have to try. Knowing writer/director Ari Aster is beloved for his film HEREDITARY (which I did not like at all) and also knowing that MIDSOMMAR was a very different type of horror movie – more in the THE WICKER MAN category, I thought I’d give it a try. And while I can acknowledge that the technical aspects of the film were great – the conceit of setting this horror story in the bright sunshine of a northern mid-summer day — I can’t say I enjoyed the film.
“It starts with an intriguing set-up: a young woman undergoes an horrific trauma when her sister kills her parents and then herself. Her boyfriend, who unbeknownst to her was considering breaking up with her, essentially because she had emotions, and his friends are all pretty misogynistic and subliminally cruel to her – all save one guy who invites them all back to his home village in Sweden where their bizarre local midsummer ritual is about to begin. Based on the set-up I was expecting some sort of tie-in between our protagonist’s trauma and her subsequent treatment, and horrors that were sure to await her – and while I guess there kind of was, it was rather tenuous. Instead we find the unfortunately frequent scenario when horrific things start happening around the main characters, and they don’t just leave. In fact, even after the horrific things start happening, and then one by one friends start to disappear, the remaining folks just continue to go with the flow to the inevitable deadly conclusion. A conclusion which ironically, and finally, gives our protagonist some sort of perverse joy, releasing her from the trauma of her family’s tragedy.
“I found the film to be mean-spirited (if the horrific goings-on really were just customs in a culture we don’t understand, why were the villagers such sadistic bastards?) and as is often the case in horror films, just an excuse to come up with gory and horrific scenarios. While many people love the genre for that very reason, I’m just not up for it. 2 cats
Jana says: “This was a thumbs down for me, also. I typically do enjoy a well-done horror film (usually the ones that keep me up at night because there’s an inkling of plausibility). However, gore for the sake of gore I can leave behind, and this was a combination of disjointed gore for the sake of gore as well as a mediocre plot. I was intrigued by the trailer and synopsis. I didn’t like HEREDITARY at all, but like you, Michael, this was the same director but had a very different feel. I figured it was worth a shot (I’m sure I’ve watched worse films). Turns out I have, but this still was far from a winner. Recognizably good technical aspects, reasonable acting…but that’s about it. Maybe 1.5 cats if I’m being generous.