A Mild Case of Midsommar Madness

Rating: 1/10 (9 November 2019)

Cinema audiences' admiring response to 'Midsommar' is the most mysterious aspect of this ho-hum 'horror' film which shamelessly copycats "The Wicker Man". The story begins with the murder-suicide of a female college student's parents and sister - and this tragedy supposedly motivates her to accept an invitation to visit the religious community where a fellow student from Sweden had been raised.
Accompanied by her semi-estranged boyfriend and a couple of disposable pals, the visitors arrive at their destination and the narrative immediately goes downhill. Instead of growing tension and menace at the remote hamlet, the creepy cultists offer long-winded rituals, tedious chanting and absurd occult beliefs. The story never develops the witless students into sympathetic characters, nor the peasant-costumed pagans into truly sinister villains. As a result, when bad things start happening, it's impossible to care about any of the rustic weirdness or the ultimate fate of the fall-guys.