Midsommar

Every once in a while a movie comes along that, if not everyone is talking about, than most people are. One such movie is Midsommar (2019). Seeing that it is almost midsummer it's even appropriate to talk about it.

To illustrate the statement above, my wife even wanted to see it based on the hype, and she doesn't care for horror at all.

Yes, Midsommar is a horror movie, written and directed by Ari Aster, who is most famous for writing and directing Hereditary, which I haven't seen.

Anyway, we sat down and watched Midsommar a couple of days ago, and I was both surprised and delighted. It wasn't at all what I expected but I'm not the least disappointed.

In a nutshell, the movie is about a small group of American college students who accept an invitation from a Swedish friend to visit his home village for midsummer. I'm struggling with how much to tell since I do not want to spoil anything, but I mentioned it's a horror movie so it's no shock that bad things start to happen, right?

Midsommar is 148 minutes long which is pretty long for a horror movie, and that always makes me a bit apprehensive. In the case of Midsommar however, it needs the length. From the initial setup, to the story itself to the conclusion, nothing is wasted. It's the slow burn of slow burns, but for having said that, it isn't boring at any time. It's all bout the journey rather than the destination.

This is also the kind of movie that contains a lot of small clues and hints of things to come. In many ways it is pretty predictable, in fact if you have seen The Wicker Man (1973), you are probably going to figure out what's going to happen. It isn't so much what happens that is impressive but how it is done.

I paid a lot of attention to the Swedish dialog, as I speak Swedish, in order to see if they were going to give away anything important, like the start of The Thing (1982), but I found nothing. The script is very tight and little is left to chance.

The ending was missing some details I wish they would have included, but there is a directors cut that may answer some of those questions. I don't actually know what is contains, but I thought I'd mention it. I had to go read the IMDB trivia to get some final answers. It's nothing that ruins the movie but I like getting all the details.

If the Swedish makes you worried about understanding the movie, don't be. Almost the entire thing is in English which is actually my main gripe. It wasn't weird that some of the isolated Swedes could speak flawless English, but they could explain their archaic traditions in flawless English and that felt strange. It's not a big deal, but I thought I'd mention it.

The actors are great, the cinematography is beautiful and the sound design reminded me of Chernobyl (2019). I have no technical complaints. The gore when it comes is shocking and suitably gross, but it doesn't dwell on it. It appears and moves on, and I think it's in showing such restraint that the movie really shines.

Do I recommend Midsommar? Yes, I do. I'm really glad I saw it, but I probably won't watch it again. It is an experience as much as a story and having had both, I'm satisfied.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week.