Director Ari Aster’s gloriously disturbing new movie is drenched in sunlight but every frame drips darkness. Florence Pugh plays Dani, still reeling from a family tragedy, who interjects herself into the summer vacation plans of her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and his college mates Mark (funny Will Poulter), Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren). Pelle has invited his friends to visit the commune he grew up with in Sweden, and they will be able to observe their Summer Solstice celebration. The minute you see rosy-cheeked blonde girls dancing around a maypole in white linen with garlands of flowers in their hair, you start thinking- oh, oh: The Wicker Man, and you wouldn’t be far off. There are glaring hints of menace with some of the art work chronicling their religion scattered about. And what’s with that bear in a cage? Trust me, it gets more nightmarish by the minute.
I remember watching Hereditary and thinking at the beginning that the movie was really about grief, but I couldn’t understand why I was getting more and more anxious watching the film. Was it the ominous score? The rising hysteria of Toni Collette as the mother? The creepy daughter always making that weird clicking sound? What Aster does so well is the unmoor you right from the beginning and then sets you adrift in his menacing universe. You’re on your own. There’s a telling shot in the beginning where the camera flips completely upside down as they are driving from Stockholm to the commune. Here we go….
Everything is bathed in warm light, and the length of the film lulls you into a false sense of security. The friends take mushrooms when they arrive and they observe in a stoned haze the pagan dances and rites of the compound, which combines the community’s love of nature with runic symbols and ancient rituals. It all seems fascinating and amusingly quaint. At first…
The family in Hereditary and the friends in Midsommar aren’t aware of what the big picture is, and unfortunately that drives the unwary travelers deeper in danger. For Dani, who already is on the edge of a breakdown, she is desperately trying to squelch her sadness, and trying to make sense of everything- including what a dick her boyfriend really is. By the time the real horror begins it is much too late.
Aster is truly an original talent. It’s impossible to actually describe what it’s like to see his films, but the unsettling elements haunt you for weeks afterwards. And any movie that includes in the cast Bjorn Andresen (Tadzio in Death In Venice), and closes with a tune by The Walker Brothers is genius in my book.
