Happy Summer, everybody! Yesterday was officially the solstice and for many people today is a solar eclipse, which is probably two more spots on Apocalypse Bingo.Dani (Florence Pugh) has had a rough year. Her family died and she's pretty sure her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor), wants to break up with her. That's probably why he didn't tell her until the last minute that he was going to go to Sweden for a month to hang out with his foreign exchange friend Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), anthropologist Josh (William Jackson Harper), and asshole Mark (Will Poulter) --there's one in every friend group-- to experience Pelle's small, rural commune's midsummer festivities. Christian guiltily invites Dani, but things just go from sad to weird. Pelle's family has an ...eclectic approach to life, aging, and nature.
This is Ari Aster's follow-up to Hereditary and while I don't think it's as much of a tour-de-force, it is still very good. Also, it is one of the rare horror films to actually be scarier on mute. Most films use the orchestra to prime audiences or provide cheap jump scares but muting Midsommar puts the focus on horror visuals and not the dialogue, which is quite light-hearted.
It's also very forthright. There are no surprises. The movie tells you upfront what is going to happen and then follows through with no bait and switch. Yes, there are definite Wicker Man parallels but Midsommar hits the same beats for me as The Shining. Like, just a sympathetic view from Jack Torrance's perspective. I'm interested to see more of Aster's deconstruction of community and family.
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