Ah Midsommar. The wonderful day where we dance, drink and find love. Pretty flowers, pickled herring and of course ritualistic murders. It is tradition after all and where would we be without those?
The director of Midsommar Ari Aster is a guy that is quickly building a brand of making off putting horror movies designed to really scare you. Midsommar is no different. It is a movie playing with horror tropes and then turning them completely on their heads.
Midsommar is a movie about a couple that follows one of their friends to a pagan festival in Sweden. More precisely the Midsommar celebration. But this is Midsommar with a much more paganistic twist. The entire movie is built on feelin uneasy. Even during scenes with no drama you cannot shake the feeling that something is wrong.
The art direction of the movie is extremely well done. It has a surrealism I have seldom seen in any film. If uncanny valley had a film made about the concept this would be it. The music and soundscape adds even further to the off feeling of this entire experience. Add a way of filming that can only be described as drawn out. Every scene feels like it has been done in one take and the camera moves slowly across the scene like a sloth.
This is not a traditional horror movie in an way shape or form. Its purpose is not necessarily to scare you but to make you feel uncomfortable and uneasy. The acting feels very close and personal and you sometimes forget that they are actors because you get so sucked in.
Midsommar is a movie made to be experienced and feel confused by for a long time after the fact. This is the first time in a long time a movie has made feel this uneasy. If you have the chance then go to the cinema right now and give this movie a shot. It will jumble your head in the best of ways!
