Unfulfilled promise

Rating: 5/10 (27 July 2019)

When I found out this movie was made by the same director who made one of the better horror movies of this millennium, HEREDITARY, I was instantly hyped to go see this as well!
I was disappointed.
Just by looking at the press material the similarities to THE WICKER MAN were a bit too obvious, but I didn't let that fool me, nor did I even watch the trailer - I hoped the similarities would be just thematic and the content would be fully original... I was wrong. Sure, this movie has its original(ish) moments, but it ends up crossing with THE WICKER MAN way too much. It frustrates me that Ari Aster could have made this so much better if he had made some different and especially original solutions. Almost everything in this movie is very predictable.
The beginning of this movie is actually very good and in its slow way it gives promise of good things to come, but then we end up with re-imagining of THE WICKER MAN. This is 2,5 hour movie and they say they cut 30 mins off from it to meet the R-rating. Was that 30 mins all the good stuff from it?! This movie is not scary at all. It has like 1 bigger gore scene and few other gruesomish moments, plus 1 laugh-out-loud scene.
That is just not enough, Ari Aster! You had a good idea, but ended up with a rehash of things we've already seen. A great ending could have saved this, but no, u rewrote almost the same ending as in ur previous movie HEREDITARY and mixed it with, u guessed it, THE WICKER MAN, to make one of the most anti-climatic endings ever.
A lot of people praise the great cinematography - I didn't notice anything ultra beautiful in it. The only thing I did notice was the great camera work/tricks during the 1st quarter of the movie, then they sort of disappeared.
And I didn't like Jack Reynor's acting. It's as if he didn't wanna be there.
Unfulfilled promise.