Midsommar is the latest example of “elevated horror” or “art house horror” or several other similar labels, all of which mean that the movie is either boring or pretentious enough to appeal to people that don’t like horror movies. Such movies (like The Witch or Hereditary or that godawful Suspiria remake) allow snobby film critics to admit to liking a horror movie because the pretty photography and slow pacing make up for the elements that are beneath them. I typically hate such movies, but Midsommar is one of the better ones. Despite being a complete ripoff (more on that in a moment) that’s about an hour too long, Midsommar has enough insanity to keep me relatively entertained for much of its incredibly unnecessary running time.
A bunch of college kids go to the middle of the Swedish woods to observe an isolated community’s mid-summer festival. Things go downhill and that’s the basic plot. The biggest problem with Midsommar is that I’ve seen The Wicker Man. If you have seen The Wicker Man (the original or that Nicholas Cage insanity), then you will know exactly where this movie is going in about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, you will have to wait over 2 frigging hours for that inevitability to play out (I would like to point out that The Wicker Man is only 90 minutes long). And when I say that you will know where this is going, I mean you know exactly where its going. The closing minutes of this movie are so goddamn close to The Wicker Man that I can’t believe that nobody on the set said “hey, um, maybe we should change this up a little?” This is director Ari Aster’s follow-up to Hereditary (which was basically a reworked version of Rosemary’s Baby) and I don’t understand why he is getting a pass from critics on the fact that his movies are thinly-veiled remakes. If you haven’t seen The Wicker Man, then this will probably be more interesting. But holy shit is this a slog when you know the “shock” ending.
The characters in this movie are insufferable morons. I’m normally fine with that because characters in horror movies are almost always morons. But when you are trying to sell me on how smart and intellectual your movie is, this becomes an issue. Maybe it’s because I have seen a lot of horror movies, but I have some helpful advice for everyone: 1. If you encounter a community of weird hippies living in the middle of nowhere, they are a death cult. You should run. 2. If you have failed to run, at least don’t accept hallucinogenic drugs from the death cult. 3. If your friends disappear and the death cult tells you that they suddenly decided to leave, then your friends are dead. This is basic stuff, people. Don’t tell me how sophisticated your movie is when the characters make the cast of Friday the 13th look like Mensa candidates.
Similarly, when you strip back the pretense, this is basically a schlocky horror movie. I mean that as a compliment. When shit gets weird, it really gets weird. There are some disturbing images (especially if you haven’t seen The Wicker Man) when the movie finally gets going. This also contains the most graphic nudity that I’ve seen in a theatrically-released movie in a long time, to the point that I’m surprised that it didn’t get slapped with a NC-17. Beneath all of the intellectual posturing for the film festival crowd, there is a B-movie just dying to get out. I wish I could have seen that movie. It sure as hell would have been shorter.
But, yes, I will acknowledge that this is a very well-made movie on a technical level. Aster may not be big on originality, but his films look gorgeous. It’s difficult to effectively shoot a horror film that takes place entirely in broad daylight, but the cinematography is beautiful and manages to be ominous despite the lack of darkness. Also, much like Hereditary, Midsommar benefits from excellent performances. The characters may be morons, but the actors try their damndest to make them sympathetic morons. In particular, lead actress Florence Pugh is a new face for me, but her performance is astounding. She will next be seen in the Black Widow movie and I wouldn’t be surprised if she becomes a big name.
At the end of the day, Midsommar’s obnoxious running time and sluggish pacing will likely be its downfall for most audiences. This is also a hard pass if you have seen The Wicker Man. If you haven’t seen that movie, then there might be more value here. Either way, I recommend the original 1973 The Wicker Man over this. I can’t wait to see what Ari Aster comes up with for his next movie. Maybe it will be about an evil kid that might be the antichrist and it will totally be nothing like The Omen.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsommar_(film)#/media/File:Midsommar_(2019_film_poster).png
