Horror Story About The Nature Of Cults

Rating: 9/10 (3 July 2019)

It's easy to forget, as you reach the end of this shattering horror story, that it opens with a moment of trauma. Before the central characters leave the U.S. for their trip to a seemingly idyllic commune in Sweden, one of them is visited with profound, shocking grief. Once they're in Sweden, it takes a good while for earth-shaking events to take place; not that these are not hinted at, of course. But as the scene is set, we are treated to something like a Robert Altman film. Multiple characters on the screen deal with each other as they relax on hillsides, play music, settle in, etc. In short, the sheer realism of this movie makes its sheer terror all the more plausible. Describing the plot can never do justice to the first-rate acting, cinematography and editing. Hitchcock once said, "I wanted PSYCHO to be a fun picture." MIDSOMMAR is fun, as well. But PSYCHO wasn't a documentary. MIDSOMMAR has something of a documentary about it. It is very much about cults.
You have to bring something to it when you watch it. The audience I saw it with (in its first week here in the U.S.) began laughing about two-thirds of the way through a particularly detailed sexual scene. There was grim humor in it, but this was the laughter of discomfort. On the way out of the theatre, though, I got the sense that even people who said they were confused by it were entertained. THAT said, I'm not certain entertainment was intended. MIDSOMMAR is scary because much of what it depicts is the essence of cult life.