What has been seen cannot be unseen

Rating: 3/10 (8 April 2020)

After watching Midsommar I feel somewhat conflicted, on the one hand it's a beautiful work of art, very cinematic and it delivers on quite a few levels. However I can't deny that it's a horrific experience and not necessarily in a good way, the ending chapter of the movie is hard to watch and overall the narrative is awful. The style of horror in Midsommar reminds me of watching some other atrocities such as Hostel (2005) where the movie is centred on gore/torture type of horror which I've never understood how people can enjoy. I think that using horror in such a way is just an excuse for a poor narrative and ultimately is where the movie fails.
I do want to mention however some of the areas where Midsommar triumphs. The overall casting/acting is excellent, in particular that of Florence Pugh (Dani). As the main protagonist her character is given a lot of depth and is portrayed very well. There's also interesting and complex relationships between the characters throughout the movie, however this is ultimately ruined by all of the characters being killed off or drugged to the point that they can't even speak.
This is where again I am conflicted, I want to give an honest rating to this movie where the reviews are so polarised as I can see many good and bad things about it. I have to be honest and say that overall as a movie it fails, the narrative is very poor, would I watch this again absolutely not. The final chapter of the movie was so bad it leaves a bad taste in your mouth with some scenes so horrific you'll feel like you wished you hadn't seen them. There's no underlying deep message or allegory to take away from this it's just horror for horror's sake and I know some people like that sort of thing but it's just not for me. However I do feel like the cinematography, acting deserves some merit which alone might be worth a watch, other than that it's utter garbage.