When you make a fantasy realistic....

Rating: 8/10 (27 September 2019)

This film was enjoyable because the director played with tone, cinematogrophy, fantasy, and realism to increase the depth and the shock of the story. It is about a cult that acts like fantasy but everything they do is real crazy. When the group drives up to the cult property the camera is turned upside down as a preview of what will come. At the cult the people are nice but not too nice which fools your expectations and they live in a beautiful setting where nothing sinister can be suspected. Everyone talks like real life not like actors. There is little cgi. When the lead is betrayed by her boyfriend she and ten other female cult members scream in unison with her same body movements - almost an orgy of primal therapy. When her boyfriend is burned alive she was pleased not shocked revealing she too had become a cult member. Since every film plot has been redone many times directors have to get creative with other aspects to increase the shock effect. Ari Aster has done this well. If you like David Lynch and Tim Burton this film is for you. Midsommar is not a masterpiece but a recommend and I will see it again to look for things I missed.