A bizarre series of events held together by its gorgeous visual style

Rating: 8/10 (14 November 2019)

Midsommar is a horror mystery film starring Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor. Written and directed by Ari Aster (Hereditary), it is a bizarre series of events held together by its gorgeous visual style.
After her sister murders her parents and herself, Dani (Florence Pugh) is in a distraught state, which puts her at odds with her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). A short time later, Christian's friend Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) invites him and his group of friends to join them in Pelle's midsummer festival in Sweden. Hoping to ease Dani's mind, Christian decides to bring her with him to the festival and upon arriving at the commune, the two discover that the group of celebratory participants are all members of a centuries old Pagan cult with strange, backward traditions.
While it is certainly not for all tastes, Midsommar manages to stand uniquely among today's modern horror films due to its interesting stylistic choices. The film's slow pace will be off-putting to many viewers but it is necessary in building tension as we are shown the increasingly unsettling nature of the cult. This creepy build up in atmosphere kept me invested in the story as I feel that simply having the cult shown to be weird from the very beginning would have not left as much impact. The only other cult related films that are similar to this would be The Wicker Man and Eyes Wide Shut.
Visually, this film is rather beautiful to look at. I particularly loved the production design and creative cinematography. Even though each cult member wears white, they are given one unique feature about them, whether it's a facial irregularity or the colour of their hair. Yet, from a distance, they all appear to look the same. The film's stunning use of cinematography often framed the screen in the style of a painting and sometimes there were subtle uses of asymmetry to remind us that not everything is as it should be. It's rare for films of this type to employ this type of quality control, and I believe we have writer/director Ari Aster to thank for this.
In terms of the cast, they all did a fine job. None of the main actors felt wasted and were each given their own special moment to shine. However, Florence Pugh left the strongest impression due to how expressive she was during the film's most intense scenes. It would be difficult to show the amount of distraught her character is going through without resorting to hammy overacting, but thankfully Pugh manages to rise above this to give a solid, memorable performance.
Overall, this likely won't scare too many people as I don't believe it is intended for mainstream audiences, but those who have an affinity for art films or surrealist pieces should find the right amount of entertainment value. As previously mentioned, it is in the vein of The Wicker Man and Eyes Wide Shut so if you enjoyed those films, this should be a worthy addition alongside them.
I rate it 7.5/10