Sweden's Green Inferno

Rating: 7/10 (12 November 2019)

A group of PhD students are invited to a commune in Sweden by their friend (who's from there). It turns out to be more of an experience than they'd bargained for.
The movie is very well made and Ari Aster is clearly a man with a plan but whilst it has vibes of The Shining and The Wicker Man, it's lacking the good stuff we saw in both.
Disturbing visuals and imagery are constantly diluted by overly drawn out scenes and, in some cases, stuff which is frankly hard not to just laugh at.
But the main drawback, I found, is how it relies too much on the PhD kids being about as naive as people can possibly be. This made for a tedious second half of "don't go in the basement" style goofs.
I loved Hereditary, which scared the pants off me, but Midsommar is more akin to Hereditary's ending than its remainder.
But it's worth watching and will provoke plenty of discussion and it is more refreshing than many horrors around at the moment, if a bit annoying. If nothing else, trips to IKEA will feel different.