Midsommar is both disturbing & beautiful

A24

Last year director Ari Aster wrote and directed one of my favorite films, Hereditary. It was a film full of disturbing imagery, deep themes, and a powerful performance from Toni Collette. Aster’s directorial debut established himself as a master of horror and I was eager to see his follow up film. His new folk horror film Midsommar is as just as good and disturbing as his first film.

I wouldn’t categorize Midsommar as a scary film. It is just downright disturbing. For every unsettling scene in Hereditary, there are about ten for Midsommar. The film takes its time with the story and allows for the characters to be fleshed out before anything horrific happens. In the beginning of the film we are introduced to Dani, played by Florence Pugh, as she is struggling with a family tragedy as well as a troubled relationship with her boyfriend Christian. He invites her along with his friends to a fabled Swedish midsummer festival. The setup for the festival and character backstory allowed for the graphic moments that followed to feel truly heavy. Once the friends arrived at the midsummer festival, my heart was racing. It might have been the Red Bull that I chugged prior to the late night showing, but I felt uneasy for most of the film.

This isn’t your typical horror film that takes place during the night. Most of the film takes place during the day in an open field, but the way Aster presents the small village, it feels so closed off. Each section of the village the festival was taking place at felt eerie because Aster had the slow build up to the moment the friends arrived at the festival. As we watched the traditions of this festival and the friends’ reactions to certain events, it became clear that more and more was going to happen that might turn out well for the friends. The film doesn’t shy away from the graphic moments and plenty of times in the film, people around me were gasping at what they saw. There were a few times where I felt uneasy watching the film, which hardly ever happens to me.

Ari Aster is quickly becoming my favorite director working right now. He frames his scenes so well to give them a level of intensity. Even simple scenes as people talking to each other are so thought out. Early in the film Dani and Christian enter a room and start talking to three of their friends sitting on a couch. In the frame is the three friends on the couch with a large mirror behind them. In the mirror we see Dani and Christian contributing to the conversation. Moments like this make me appreciate Aster as a director and the extra mile he is willing to go to make every scene stand out. He presents many different scenes from different angles, flips the camera upside down, or even slowly zooms in on an image and each one is crafted so beautifully. Aster can take such a haunting film and offer gorgeous scenes.

Florence Pugh was terrific in her role. She suffered a lot within the first 20 minutes of the movie, which made the trip harder for her to cope with. Dani had a lot of anxiety during the trip and coming from someone who has suffered from severe anxiety before, the film captured her panic attacks in the most realistic way possible. I enjoyed her performance in Fighting with My Family from earlier this year, but this is easily one of the best performances I have seen all year.

There are many themes present in Midsommar and this is a film that will spark debates. On the way home from the movie, my friend and I discussed what the film meant and the themes in the film. The film discusses a lot about life, death, individualism, and traditions. How the travelers view life and death is vastly different than the people who live there and it was interesting to hear both sides of an argument.

There were a few plot points in the film that felt pointless because they never discussed them again. Towards the end of the film a character was introduced that was in about 2 scenes and the film attempted to give this character a purpose. I never really understood the point of having that character in the movie and it ended up feeling like Aster wanted to throw a new element into the film.

Midsommar is a disturbing film with deep themes that I was invested in from start to finish. Ari Aster is a master of filmmaking and this was only his second film. I love his style of directing and I can’t wait to see more from him. I need him to release a horror film once a year and I will be happy.

Midsommar has a run time of 2 hours 25 minutes and is rated R for disturbing ritualistic violence and grisly images, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.