Ari Aster is the New Hitchcock.

Rating: 8/10 (10 October 2019)

This isn't as terrifying and mind boggling as Hereditary but it's a terrific follow up. Both films follow similar themes: death of family members, struggles with grief, hallucinatory states of consciousness, and mysterious religious cults. I have always found psychological horror more terrifying than physical horror and though there are plenty of scares and murders it is the psychological dread that Aster's characters go through that is truly horrifying. Midsommar for the most part is the story of relationships. The lead, character, Dani suffers through a Horrifying family tragedy, and in her grief she is mostly alone in the world trying to cope with a her immense sadness. Her boyfriend seems void of any compassion And completely incapable of comforting her in a meaningful way. I think this is the central theme of the film. How does our modern, superficial society deal with profound loss and tragedy?
There's a terrifying scene where Dani, in Sweden for the first day with her boyfriend and his roommates takes hallucinatory drugs and has a really really bad trip. Knowing what she is going through personally and watching her unravel is both heart breaking and horrifying. From this moment on, most of the characters are in a sort of fugue state until the end of the film. The events that follow in Sweden are really what the film is about but it's our connection to Dani that makes what is absurd and shocking seem intimate and relatable.
Midsommar isn't so much a horror film as it is a psychological journey through hell, and for the most part it all happens in gorgeous sunlight in a breath taking landscape. This is no accident. Most horror films seem to take place in the dark because we are supposedly afraid of the dark but there are some pretty terrible things happening in broad daylight too.