Writer/director Ari Aster was already headlong into production with his follow-up to the smash hit Hereditary before he even knew of the film's critical and commercial success. With a foot less firmly in the horror genre this time around but with a more assured footing nonetheless, his second feature film is a more confident piece and certainly a more confounding one.
The film begins in the dark snowscape of an American cityscape and ends in the sun drenched fields of Sweden (shot in Hungary for budgetary reasons); we follow Dani (Florence Pugh), a young woman who has lost her family, seemingly through escalated mental health issues, and has been invited by her boyfriend to join him and his friends to a once in a lifetime opportunity. This invitation is to join a Swedish festival that occurs every ninety years during Swedish summer solstice. With grief still fresh and her relationship on the rocks it doesn't take long to realise it may have been the worst decision she could have made, or was it?
The set-up, as it appears written, is almost eye-roll inducing in regards to Horror genre traits. You can almost hear the words DON'T LOOK NOW and THE WICKER man as you read the synopsis and yet there is little by way of pedestrianism when it comes to execution here. The plot rests heavily on that the male pack that came from America (they were invited by their Swedish university pal) are all anthropology students undergoing their PHD thesis. This not only acts as the reason they embark on such a unique trip but why they stay there as events turn increasingly sour. The average horror troupe would have bolted for the fence as soon as public suicides occur and strange sexual practices are shared yet this lot feel like they're found gold dust.
The nine day festival is observed in a measured stance, letting the rituals and customs play out with an anthropological lens. The tension is held and left simmering but never allowing to boil over; there were times when it felt like the wind was changing (like so many modern horrors) and a higher gear was entering to obliterate any atmosphere earned for shock effects, but it is left painstakingly unshaken in its slow cooker approach. The tantric nature of this, along with the setting never venturing into sunset, is extremly disorinentating and the need to see Midsommar big in a dark screening room cannot be pushed enough. The light becomes oppressive, confusing, unescapable and a character in itself. The village itself by production designer Henrik Svensson is masterful and a character in itself too; Aster's almost fetishistic desire to live in his scenes for uncomfortable stretches and his penchant for wide angles and single roaming shots, navigate you around the fields and barns giving a profound sense of space even as time is completely lost.
This is the first film I've seen of Florence Pugh and the film rests on her shattered performance. I can see why she has so quickly been considered a powerhouse performer for such a young actor. Like Hereditary this is also a film with grief at its centre, and arguably the film's painful mournful opening twenty minutes is the closest it gets to pure primal terror before the plot is thrown into motion. Pugh shows the battle ranging inside her through her face alone as she tries to keep a lid on her private despair and to benefit the group on their trip. Which brings us to the point that Ari Aster has described his film as a break up film, written while he was still in the emotional turmoil of a split. The film questions why we do what we do in times of need, what we cling to or reject, the options there for someone (albeit a modern western individual) who is trying to harness grief. The film's finale, which won't be spoiled, feels like a logical conclusion and one that could be deemed by Dani as an ending, a fairytale ending, like Dorothy clicking her heels together to get back to Kansas in The Wizard of Oz.
Midsommar is so impressively packed with ideas and imagery so daring for an American 'horror' feature that it's a monumental achievement in how it unsettles and never settles again. It has more in common with Lars Von Triers 'Women in trouble' films such as Dogville or Manderlay than of traditional horror fare and is a truly exciting addition to the recent resurgence the genre is having in the US. Never has a film so dark shone so brightly.
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