I did not particularly care for Ari Aster’s film Hereditary. While the acting was top-notch, especially Toni Collette’s performance, I thought the movie was a derivative knock-off of Rosemary’s Baby.

Now Aster returns with his new feature, Midsommar, which is leaps and bounds above Hereditary. Not only is it visually beautiful, but the world it creates in remote rural Sweden is truly unique. It takes horror to a higher level of creativity as its mesmerizing narrative and action play out on screen.

The story begins somewhere in the United States. Dani (Florence Pugh) is freaking out because her bipolar sister has emailed that she is contemplating suicide and will not respond to Dani’s attempts to communicate with her. Dani calls her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor, Kin) for emotional support.

Mark (Will Poulter) suggests that Christian should dump Dani, as she is overly needy and apparently does not want to have sex very often. This conversation occurs in the presence of two other friends, Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), a student from Sweden, and Josh (William Jackson Harper). All of them seem to be involved with the anthropology department at the university.

Dani gets a call from an unidentified number, which turns out to be the police. Her sister has poisoned herself and her and Dani’s parents with carbon monoxide.

Flashing forward in time, we see Dani and Christian argue, indicating that their relationship has some tension. Pelle invites Mark, Josh and Christian to go to a midsummer festival in his hometown in remote rural Sweden. Later Dani decides that she wants to go, which Pelle encourages although it is not clear that the other men want her along.

Arriving by car at the village, they are immediately turned on to psychedelics and relax while tripping in the bucolic setting. The focus is on Dani and her troubling visions.
The village elders inform them that they are witnesses to an every-90-years feast and multi-day ceremony. They are assigned to beds in the communal sleeping house. Then they eat at long tables with the locals.

At one of these repasts, two older people, a man and a woman, have the place of honor. They sing and chant at various times, which means nothing to either the audience or the visitors.

After the feast, the group goes to the base of a rock face to stand as observers while the two honorees, accompanied by other villagers, ascend to the top. As the female approaches the precipice, she takes an action that is the first notice that all is not as it seems in this summer paradise.

As things start to get crazy and confused, arguments break out among the visitors. Pelle asks Dani if she feels that Christian is really there to hold her when she needs him. The movie ends with a stunning conclusion that will perplex and amaze viewers.

The cinematography in this film reminded me of the works of Terrence Malick. It is gorgeous without being showy and there are nice long shots that make Sweden in the summertime look Edenic. The framing of shots is superb and adds to the sense that something significant is impending at every possible moment.

One of the central themes is what it means for humans to be “green” and live in tune with nature. What is the relationship between humans and nature? Are people the dominant consideration who adapt nature to their ways? What if instead of trying to live in harmony with nature, with all its positives and negatives, you were subservient to the demands of the natural rhythms of the cosmos?

Aster portrays a people who use runic symbols and have a methodology for gaining insight into what they believe is their purpose. They live with the wildness of nature, not only with its violent demands but also its orgiastic, emotional side. Their “greenness” is a codified system whose rules must be followed.

Aster portrays these people as friendly and engaging. Even when the visitors face untoward events, the disposition is swift and meant to minimize suffering, with the exception of the end of the movie where their desires come in second to what their guiding principle dictates.

The movie has a tone of inexorability as Dani and the others play out their roles in the festival. It almost is as if their fates have been predestined.

Besides the gorgeous cinematography, the movie is simply mesmerizing once you get to the village. You watch in both fascination and disbelief but are never truly frightened in the traditional jump-scare sense. The horror is more existential. What if these villagers are truly more aligned with Mother Nature than modern societies are and what are the implications of this realization?

I have a quibble in that Josh, who is researching midsummer events, apparently has never come across sacrificial ceremonies at all. If he had, why did he go to a remote place in Sweden to such a festival? I think that there are two acceptable answers. The first is that he is a terrible researcher. The second is that he is operating on the naïve modernist assumption that such a primal rite is unthinkable among a civilized people.

There are times when I half expected Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” to be played as background music. Just as that premiere was controversial, so I suspect that the reactions to this atypical horror film will be as well.

This film and its themes are a stunningly evocative tour de force for Aster. Truly imaginative and never predictable, it warrants multiple viewings to catch its nuances.

Four and a half out of five stars

Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor) are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing. From the visionary mind of Ari Aster comes a dread-soaked cinematic fairytale where a world of darkness unfolds in broad daylight.

STARRING: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren,
Archie Madekwe, Ellora Torchia, and Will Poulter

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: Ari Aster