Midsommar: A review

31st October, 2019.

Yes, OK, OK …

I’m stuck indoors on Halloween night.

Although, thankfully?

I’m stuck indoors on Halloween night … and not been pestered by trick-or-treaters.

Which is something!


At any rate … ?

It’s quiet … it’s Halloween …

So that means it’s the sort of night that deserves a movie …

Yes: I finally decided on Ari Aster’s Midsommar.

The director’s cut, so you know.

~≈†≈~

Midsommar opens with a brief teaser: showing how main character Dani (Florence Pugh) is having relationship troubles with boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor): until learning of the death of her sister and parents.

It’s only a short time later?

That Christian, along side his friends Josh and Mark (William Jackson Harper and Will Poulter) have been invited to Sweden by Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) …

And only then, reluctantly, Christian invites Dani.

Once the group are in Sweden … ?

They get get to met Pelle’s family: in place at the small commune in Hälsingland.



And … ?



And find that the group has an old belief: that those over the age of 72 must take part in the Ättestupa … and throw themselves off a cliff …

Things … ?



Can only go downhill from there.

Literally.

~≈†≈~

Now …

What did I think of Midsommar?

I have to admit, this director’s cut of Midsommar was a very watchable piece of work.

The acting was great.   I have to give credit to Pugh and Reynor as the central characters.

Alongside Harper, Poulter and Blomgren’s supporting characters, and unnerving extras.

Aster’s writing and directing?

Superb: at least to my mind.

The pace Aster managed to set?   Managed to make the film’s one-hundred and seventy-one minutes barely noticeable.

All that?

All that combined with a musical score possibly only bettered by The Omen’s.

Granted, Midsommar is obviously influenced by The Wicker Man.

Granted, there’s touches lifted from Sweeney Todd: what was in the meat pies that appeared after Connie and Simon were driven to the railway station?

Granted, we’re given quite an explicit explanation of what that hair is!

And granted, there’s a selection process lifted from Minority Report: of a ball sliding along a set of rails.

Now, we may — may — argue that Midsommar is not on a par with The Babadook, The Awaking or A Field In England.

Or The Witch.

   Or the French original of Martyrs: itself a grim — and realistic — take on the killer cult.

We may argue it’s not on a par.

However?

I’m not one of the people saying that.

Midsommar is in the same league.

Midsommar
★★★★