Nightmare Fuel Part II

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2019)

This is not Hereditary or even remotely close, they are their own. They both channel your worst drug experience coupled with a horrible nightmare...the one you force yourself to wake up from.
With that out of the way...Aster has tapped in to some very underrepresented tropes in modern day horror. Essentially he is legitimizing the genre beyond what was/has historically stigmatized as second rate or just judged as such. Between Lanthimos, Eggers, Cosmatos, and lastly, as I'm leaving the 'best for last', Aster, the genre has found it's way out of trivial jump scares, bad cgi and derivative garbage that tends to weigh it down.
This film is not horror in a mainstream format...think Ruggero Deodato or Robin Hardy influence in tone, flavor and output for this one. There is just this unsettling, surreal feeling of quasi-calmness through the first 45-60 minutes, after the initial opening sequence of family tragedy. This morphs into a overwhelming sense of dread that takes over, which made myself most uncomfortable as a viewer, for an extended period of time. This is horror folks, and feeling that level of uneasiness, watching a film, signifies a "mission accomplished" for Aster.
Once again, he has created a modern era masterpiece that is rivaled by his own earlier film (as well as Robert Eggers). They both seem to navigate in the same lane when it comes to the horror genre. Authenticity with a perfectly paired eye for cinematography and tone.
This is probably one of the more non traditional atmospheres also in play here. Bright, washed out...but retains its premise by wandering just outside the lines with an absolute, spot on--- cult film. The trailer does speak volumes on what to expect, but don't think there isnt plenty more in store.
Horror fans rejoice. This is the real deal.
This will be a rewatch for me once its released outside the theater, but not for the same reasons you would go back to watch Hereditary...that was more for imagery and Easter eggs strewn throughout.
Midsommar, on the other hand, is just a case study in contrasts with its cinematography and color---Beautiful as it is horrible--and that most genre films just stay within the lines, Aster creates his own boundaries.
Near perfect nu-classic and bravo for A24, yet again.