Gather 'round the maypole, friends Ari Aster's Midsommar is nearly upon us!
But before you head out to the festivities, you may want to know a bit about what you're
getting yourself into.
The name Ari Aster may not ring many bells for you.
After all, Midsommar is only the second movie he's directed.
But his debut was one of 2018's best horror films: Hereditary.
Starring Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, and Alex Wolff as a family faced with a sudden,
horrible tragedy, it's a slow burn of a film that ratchets up the tension all the way through
before unleashing hell in its last act.
Hereditary was such a total package that there was even some "Best Actress" Oscar buzz for
Collette.
She didn't receive a nomination, but the fact that she was even in consideration should
tell you something about the kind of "oomph" that the movie is packing.
Don't let Aster's small filmography fool you: if Midsommar can shake audiences like Hereditary
did, he'll seal his reputation as a filmmaker who's impossible to ignore.
Midsommar's trailer makes it clear that this is not a movie for the faint of heart.
It looks intense, frightening, and unsettling.
But the director has a few other ways to describe it that may surprise you.
In a discussion with Vulture, Aster described Midsommar as, quote, "a breakup movie, in
the same way that Hereditary was a family tragedy."
"It's an operatic breakup movie and a dark contemporary fairy tale."
He also expressed his desire for the movie to be viewed on its own merits those who go
in expecting the same thing as Hereditary are going to be disappointed.
As if to make that distinction clearer, he went on to describe the movie as, quote, "The
Wizard of Oz for perverts."
That description alone should be a pretty good indicator of whether or not Midsommar
is the kind of movie you should see.
"Did I scare you?"
“No, no, I just thought you hurt yourself."
"But I didn't scare you?"
"No, of course not."
Most of Midsommar's cast is made up of talented young actors who you may not yet recognize
by name.
Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor take the lead roles as Dani and Christian.
Pugh is probably most recognizable from her role as Katherine in the 2016 film Lady Macbeth,
but she also appears in films like Outlaw King, Fighting With My Family, and Marvel's
upcoming Black Widow film.
You might recognize Reynor's voice from the Andy Serkis-directed Mowgli: Legend of the
Jungle, where he played Brother Wolf.
He also appeared in the film Grassland alongside Toni Collette and another one of Midsommar's
stars, Will Poulter.
Poulter plays the character Mark, and you probably recognize him as Colin from the interactive
Netflix feature Black Mirror: Bandersnatch though he also played a prominent role in
the Maze Runner series.
Finally, William Jackson Harper plays Josh.
He's best known as conflicted ethics professor Chidi Anagonye on The Good Place.
We'll have to see if his inability to solve the Trolley Problem comes up in Midsommar.
"Why don't you just tell me the right answer?"
"Well that's what's so great about the trolley problem is there is no right answer."
Broad daylight
Audiences are used to scary films being set in the dark, tricking them with shadows and
obscuring the horrors lurking just outside of their field of vision.
It takes just a quick glance at the marketing for Midsommar to realize that this film operates
a little bit differently.
Everything is very bright too bright, almost.
The mood seems scary but the look is all sunlight and pastels.
It makes for an eerie sense of dissonance.
Even a minor detail, like the letterbox of the trailer being white instead of the usual
black, is off-putting and unnerving.
That lighting scheme plays into the themes and plot of the actual movie, which takes
place in an environment of eternal sunlight.
"What time is it?"
"9 pm."
The bright imagery seems like it will lend itself well to an otherworldly feel, especially
as the plot turns increasingly sinister.
It will also make it increasingly difficult for the protagonists to find a place to hide.
So, what's really going on in Midsommar?
According to the official synopsis, it follows Dani and Christian, a young American couple
on the verge of breaking up.
Following a tragedy in Dani's family, she ends up on a trip with Christian and his friends
to a momentous midsummer festival in an isolated village in Sweden.
Going on a vacation to fix a broken relationship is, in real life, a terrible idea.
But in the context of the movie, it adds a great deal to the sense of conflict and emotional
tension between the characters.
This is probably why Ari Aster describes Midsommar as a "breakup movie."
It's just going to be an even more unpleasant breakup than we may have ever seen before.
Much of Midsommar's aesthetic comes from traditional Scandanavian holiday rituals.
These midsummer celebrations take place on a Friday in June, in commemoration of the
longest day of the year.
The traditions date back to pagan rituals designed to win the favor of the sun god.
The Midsommar festival is a big deal in Sweden.
Typical decorations involve plenty of flower garlands and wreaths, and businesses shut
down so that people can have the entire day to celebrate.
"Right now it's summer in Sweden.
Are you gonna go back and celebrate and hang out?"
"Probably our biggest holiday of the year.
It's bigger than New Year's, called Midsommar."
Maypoles for dancing and gigantic bonfires are common, and as the festivities wind down,
there is often a reading of fortunes so people can determine who they will marry in the future.
Obviously, the celebration in the film isn't exactly like these traditional rites.
But those traditions do serve as a clear inspiration for the more horrifying rituals the movie
has in store.
If Midsommar proves successful, you might start to see Ari Aster's name thrown around
as a new "master of horror."
But if you're expecting him to follow this film up with another horror feature, you probably
shouldn't hold your breath.
When IndieWire spoke with Aster about the film, the director made his intentions for
future projects clear, saying,
"[Midsommar] is the only other horror movie I have.
And I'm pretty sure that's going to be it for a long time.
I love the genre, I consider myself a genre filmmaker in that I want to play in every
genre.
I would love to make a musical."
He also shared that he's in the process of writing a sci-fi film, and has four or five
movies from his backlog of scripts, quote, "ready to go."
He isn't saying that he'll never return to horror, but it does seem like, if he has any
say in the matter, it won't happen again for a while.
Horror movies usually have fairly brief runtimes.
After all, it can be a challenge to keep upping the stakes of a story without exhausting the
audience to the point of checking out.
Midsommar is an exception.
You'll probably want to hit the bathroom before settling in to watch it, since the movie sports
a runtime of two hours and 20 minutes.
"That sounds fun."
Even Hereditary couldn't quite slow burn its way to that length that movie is 13 minutes
shorter than Midsommar's final cut.
So don't go into this movie expecting something simple or easy to digest.
Like many of the great horror movies, it's not something to just sit back and watch it's
an experience to endure.
If you like your horror movies with loud noises and obvious jump scares, you may want to steer
clear from Midsommar, a film with a director who hesitates to even refer to it as a horror
movie.
In a conversation with Fandango, Aster danced around questions about just how scary Midsommar
is, saying,
"It's really leaning more on suspense than it is scares.
In some ways, it's more surreal.
[...] This is an adult contemporary fairy tale."
It's worth keeping in mind that fairy tales can be pretty horrifying in their own right.
If you don't believe us, go check out Grimm's fairy tales or, for a more modern take, many
of the films of Guillermo del Toro.
And remember, just because Midsommar doesn't look like a horror film doesn't mean it won't
still scare the living daylights out of you.
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