Kind of a tough film to review, but easy to rate highly

Rating: 9/10 (5 July 2019)

Last year, Ari Aster wrote, produced and directed Herditary, which I saw in cinemas and I had a good time with, up until the end. Admittedly, a large amount had to do with me seeing this with an audience of mostly people that weren't engaged in that kind of horror, but also a lot was due to the film kind of wrote itself into a corner by telling you how it was going to end about 20 minutes before it did, and also containing a lot of unintentionally funny moments that kind of ruined the mood.
I bring this up because I was curious to see how this movie would be different. And it was substantially so; first of all, this movie a lot lighter and contains a lot more scope than Hereditary that was so much based around that darkly lit house, and it does use that contrast well in making the landscapes of Sweden seem somewhat idyllic and a great place to be. The grander scope of the cast does actually give Ari a greater focus, impressively. He does have some funny moments, but this time they are more intentional, and therefore don't detract from the story. This is especially evident in the film's ending, which is far more subtle, sinister, and grounded than in Hereditary, whilst also continuing to make excellent use of a soundtrack that is both uplifting and dissonant at the same time.
From the acting, everyone is mostly solid; Will Poulter (arguably the most well known of the cast with the least to do) is a good comic foil for the group, Jack Reynor is great as this distant, somewhat-of-a-prick boyfriend character who is integral to the main theme of the story, which I'll cover in a second, and there are great secondary bit parts in as well. However, both Florence Pugh as Dani, who I've always rated highly as a versatile and intelligent, subtle actress, and who shines in a role that could otherwise have been very monotonous and unlikable, and also Swedish actor Vilhelm Blongren as Pelle, are the true stars. I think they are both early frontrunners for Oscars, especially Blongren, who really does a great job in a role that easily could've been a one dimensional villain, but instead becomes a vision into the future for Dani, and is doing these clearly wrong things, but due to his alliance with the Cult, views it as anything but; because of this, his presence within the story was deeply unnerving.
Now, one important thing to note here, and it's something that knowing about after the film made me appreciate it so much more. This movie is marketed as a cult horror film, but in Aster's own words, this is a break-up movie dressed as a cult horror movie - much like Shaun of the Dead is a Rom-Com dressed as a zombie horror but obviously way more subtle here. The central relationship here, between Dani and Reynor's Christian, is terrible, and throughout it becomes increasingly more obviously broken up, and to see the way it leads towards the ending, it was easy to feel unnerved for how it unfolds - especially as it taps into a major fear of mine - but also points to both of each character's major flaws, in that Dani is looking for affection and Christian is someone who looks to take advantage of people. This fulcrum point for all the horror to revolve around is probably the thing the film does the best, but something that has been underplayed in the advertising, which is a mistake as knowing about it does improve the film significantly in my eyes.
My recommendation, go see this film. Best part is the film is rated 18 here in the UK, which helped me enjoy the film a lot as there's less chance of young groups of kids being there, and there is a lot of intense gore as well. If that's your kind of thing as well, of course.