It would have been nice if it had acknowledged the film it echoes

Rating: 7/10 (10 July 2019)

After a distressing family tragedy, Dani joins her rather indifferent boyfriend and his 3 college friends to attend summer solstice celebrations at the remote Swedish commune where one of them was brought up.
When I saw the trailer, I thought "This reminds me of The Wicker Man." And I was right. If you are familiar with the original Wicker Man, this movie will not surprise you in the slightest. But is it any good?
Well, it is beautifully photographed and there is some excellent sound design. There is a sense of creeping uneasiness, and some general nastiness here and there - it is a horror film, after all. The direction is sometimes very good, and sometimes a bit too much like showing off. And Florence Pugh is jaw-droppingly good.
There is nothng by way of made-you-jump moments - not a bad thing, in my view.
But there are a number of plot points which are inadequately dealt with which, to me, means they shouldn't have been there to start with - crass college pal Mark, for instance, whose attitude towards Dani has no payoff whatsoever. And this is particularly relevant given that this rather slight tale runs for 140 minutes. This tale unfolds at a pace which is a bit too leisurely. Losing half an hour would have improved the pace, losing an hour would have moved it along whip-fast.
An excellent, and VERY disturbing final shot, though.