Something different

Rating: 8/10 (22 March 2020)

Midsommar is Ari Asters second movie, one for which the stakes were set pretty high after his debut movie Hereditary, which seemed to be a beloved horror gem for film critics around the world. With Midsommar he proves his succes was not a one time coincidence, showing the world a fresh and unique way of making slow-burn horror.
Where hereditary was, in it's essence, a family drama turned outright horror, Midsommar does something similar with a relationship drama. We straight away get to dive into the relationship of Dani and Christian, which seems to have slowly bled to death, leaving Dani worried and a bit desperate for their future and Christian not caring anymore. After Dani suffers a horrible tragedy however, Christian stays with her out of pity and some very awkward scenes later she gets invited to come with him and his friends to the Midsommar festival in Sweden.
Just the fact that at this time of year it is almost always day in Sweden, makes you eerie and disoriented, the movie slowly drops hints, backed up by beautiful visuals , of the horror that will ensue, always with the relationship drama serving as its backbone, even in the final scenes where you might get distracted by the chaos. It not once has to rely on jump-scares to make things dreadful, which in my opinion is what good quality horror is about.
This movie just waits for you to dig deeper and pay close attention to the details, which is not for everyone, but if you are open to that kind of thing you will most certainly love it.