Modern horror movies tend to follow an overused pattern of storytelling coupled with a bunch of jumpscares. Over time, this style of horror filmmaking has become boring. Although Midsommar is marketed as a horror film, it is more inclined towards a dramatic effect. That is not to say that it is not scary. This film does not follow the general norms of horror movies, where there is a spiritual entity and the protagonists have to exorcise it. But instead, it leans more towards a dramatically creepy or gorefest genre which works just right in today’s day and age.
Directed by Ari Aster, Midsommar is a psychological horror-thriller-drama flick which follows the story of a couple, Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor) who choose to go on a trip with friends to a Swedish midsummer festival. What looks on the surface as a peaceful festival, soon takes a sinister turn when the characters partake in the festivities. The pacing of the film is slow. However, it fits the theme. The slowness in pace adds to the eventual dread creeping in. Despite the excellent use of slow build-up, the end result of events was somewhat sour. Most of the “horrific” scenes were nothing out of the ordinary, R-rated scenes. However, the execution of these scenes was excellent. The scenes were shot in a way to induce a shock factor from the audience. The film relies on real-life horrifying tragic events to induce fear (or in this case, terror). The way these frightening scenes were shot looked absurdly normal. But it reflects an uneasy feeling onto the audience, which is done artistically.
Florence Pugh gave an outstanding performance. It was easy to empathise with her character and it was convincing. Her body language, change of emotions and dialogue delivery was a treat to watch. Her relationship with her boyfriend played by Jack Reynor also felt really genuine. It had a realistic element to it which was written really well without relying on cheesy overused highschool dramatic expressions. Performances from the other main cast members such as Will Poulter, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren and the villagers also had an element of authenticity to it. Everything from the costumes to the folksongs felt genuine and rustic. Character development, in general, was also executed subtly, giving out only the required information and without shoving it down the audience’s throats forcefully.
The cinematography in this film was beautiful. Some of the shots were choreographed really well while keeping intricate details highlighted. Bright colours such as yellow and white were used magnificently to give a genuine feel of the summer. There were a bunch of long takes in the film which were executed perfectly. Cuts, in general, were kept to a minimum. The film made use of reflective surfaces such as mirrors and glass panes to show the other subject in the shot, instead of constantly cutting forward and backwards, to show the characters delivering their respective dialogues, which was an interesting concept. The film also made use of standard jump cuts as transitions with the characters in different clothing to show the passage of time and space which worked pretty smoothly.
The music in this film is interesting. It starts out as really festive and jolly and then soon takes an eerie turn. This works perfectly in-line with the film’s tone and pace. In some parts of the movie, however, the music volume would be too low to even hear clearly. This might have been done to create a sense of fear creeping in slowly and carefully. But it could have been louder. Other than the soundtrack, the movie is also filled with Swedish folksongs and dances as well. The use of sound is executed really well. During the horrifying scenes, the film chooses to cut the sound out entirely or compress the audio giving a much more terrifying, closed off balls-to-the-face feel.
Overall, the movie was quite enjoyable. It had a fairly good storyline, interesting characters with realistic attributes and excellent cinematography. The film is abundant with build-up elements, keeping the audience intrigued throughout. If you are someone who is diving into this movie expecting to sit alone in the dark and experience fear like never before, then this movie is not for you. As mentioned earlier, this film takes a different approach to psychological horror. We would gladly recommend you to watch this movie with an open mind regardless of your genre preference since it does not exactly settle in any general criterion.
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