Embarrassed to call myself Swedish

Rating: 3/10 (17 February 2020)

I've never written a review before, but this movie was insane, so I just have to.
I went into this movie knowing very little about it. All I knew was that it was supposed to be a horror movie set in Sweden under the festivities of midsummer. To me, a horror-loving Swede, that sounded delightful. But oh, how disappointed I was.
A group of Americans follow their Swedish friend back to his home in Hågra, Hälsingland. It is a beautiful Swedish village and this community seems very close and loving of each other. But, something seems off. You might want to call this a cult, rather than a loving community. Their traditions around life, family, and celebrations is rather strange. You have to kill yourself at age 72 to compete a kind of circle of life. Incest is very common, but sometimes, the community allows outsiders. A "may-queen" is decided once only one woman is left standing, dancing, around the "may-pole".
The movie does have many strange and sometimes frightening times, but calling it a horror movie seems a little wrong. This is not what I think of when I think of horror. It's more of an occultist movie, but what genre that would fit into, I do not know. I do enjoy watching bad horror movies at times, but not this one. I couldn't wait for it to be over.
Midsummer in Sweden is a pretty strange tradition, if you would explain it to someone, but this is the most extreme thing I've ever seen. A normal Swedish Midsummer's Eve is celebrated by dancing and singing around a may-pole with your friends and family, until the moment you don't want to anymore, not until you can't stand. You eat the same food you eat at every holiday, you might even have a fika. You have flowers in your hair. What they're doing in this movie makes me ashamed of calling myself Swedish. The community call what they're doing "tradition" over and over, but still, it doesn't explain why. They also manage to almost brainwash some of their American tourists.
I'm so sad that this movie was so bad and weird, because I was really looking forward to watching it. A horror movie set in my home country during the summer time could have become so much better than this actually is. I was excited to see both Florence Pugh and William Jackson Harper in action, since I really enjoyed Pugh in Little Women and Harper in The Good Place. I feel sorry for them for being in such a strange movie. Don't waste 2.5 hours of your life watching it. Unless you're into weird occultists celebrating a summer holiday.