I wanted to walk out midmovie...

Rating: 6/10 (19 September 2019)

Midsommar is Director Ari Aster's second feature film, which follows his surprise breakout hit Hereditary. I personally enjoyed THAT movie very much, but THIS movie was an exercise in frustration...
Midsommar follows five graduate students who take a summer trip to a Swedish village in the middle of nowhere. Dani (the main character) is an anxiety ridden disaster that Christian (her boyfriend) wants nothing more than to dump like a ton of anxiety ridden bricks. Josh is the token black character that ALMOST dies first, and Mark is the annoying rude one who DESERVEDLY dies first. Pelle is seemingly there as a plot device to get the group to the aforementioned setting of the movie (it's where he grew up.)
If it sounds like I don't like any of these characters, that's because they do nothing to warrant my sympathy or interest. They all fit their stereotypical horror movie roles and don't seem to deviate at all from them. The great part of Hereditary is that the characters were relatable and weren't passive vehicles to the plot. They all participated to create the monstrous ending (the husband choosing to do nothing, the wife performing the ritual that started the chain of events, the son being a part of the horrifying mid-movie accident) but I don't recall any of the goobers in this movie actively doing anything besides walking around the village and watching everything happen/letting things happen to them. Granted, many horror movies have characters that don't really fight back, and the heavy lifting is done by the creepy house, the scary monster, or in this case the village and the cult that inhabits it.
To give credit where it's due, it's clear that a great deal of effort went into the production of the story's setting, which was the only character in the film I actually cared about. The majority of the movie's run time is spent showing almost every detail of the village of Hårga: the houses are covered with unsettling drawings (that to the discerning eye act as foreshadowing for the film's conclusion), and the white gowns, robes and flowery wreaths of the villagers are beautiful and ornate. Yet it's surprisingly minimalist, as there is probably no more than ten or so houses/structures in the entire village. Part of the horror is that you can see the entire village for the majority of the film thanks to the excellent camerawork, and yet there is something lurking below the surface that you CAN'T see. The characters seem small in the wide open space, and there's a paradoxical feeling of claustrophobia you won't be able to shake.
Unfortunately the film's glaring flaw eventually becomes apparent: that promise of unseen horror isn't enough to carry the movie for almost two and a half hours. After 90 minutes you've seen basically the whole village, and being forced to visit the same places over and over (a long table for every meal, the same dormitory to sleep) becomes stale. I found myself becoming impatient and wanting SOMETHING to happen just to move the story a little bit faster. While the payoff is eventually reached, at that point I was so burned out that it's impact was much less than it could have been. Almost every character meets their demise off screen, and while you do find out what happens to them, it's all at once and the fact that they're already dead really deflates the the build up. Ironically, the most horrifying moment of the film for me was within the first 15 minutes. It's even telegraphed well in advance, and yet as the camera pans through the dark house and the music swells the plausibility of what has happened evokes true horror. Maybe that's why the prolonged run time is felt even more; the film starts with a bang, and forcing the audience to wait such a long time for the next horrifying moment just doesn't work.
Midsommar is not a horror movie that will make you jump. It's a slow burn psychological thriller that unfortunately takes way too long to reach it's conclusion. While the ending is horrifying, depending on your point of view, two hours of exposition for 15 minutes of pay off may not be worth it.