Can a horror film be good if it wasn’t scary? That’s the existential question when it comes to the genre currently. Horror has historically had a niche audience but the fear factor has been gradually ratcheted down over the years in search of larger audiences. For the most part, the strategy has worked. Audiences have grown and even the most asinine offerings have been mostly successful, financially. But are scary movies still scary? While the promotional material for Midsommar certainly peddled it as horror, it’s a creepy and marvelously disturbing film that will be divisive among fans.
Writer/Director Ari Aster certainly has a skillful eye when it comes to filmmaking and its paired with a madly unusual brand of storytelling. There is a genre-jarring lack of specificity permeating his films, creating tension below the surface which gets under your skin more than it gets in your face. Somewhere between psychological thriller and slasher flick, his work leans heavily into emotional gravity…a space mostly unexplored in horror. In his freshman film Hereditary, the characters’ relationships are torn apart after a tragic accident. His new film also begins with a powerful tragedy but, beyond the visceral tangibility of death, the two thematic core elements are the same. Grief and Family. Aster’s sophomore project focuses more narrowly on the weight of grief through the eyes of the individual and the importance of communal bonds. However, this time out, he traded the relative vagueness of the supernatural for the interpretive nature of psychedelics and the anonymity of foreign customs. It reminded me of Eli Roth’s work with a hint of Robert Eggers’ The Witch (aka The VVitch). Typically, the audience knows what they are supposed to fear when they walk into a scary movie. However, manipulating those norms is the beauty of Aster’s style.
Character interaction is always one of the sticking points when it comes to ensemble casts and he wrote the screenplay with richly organic dialogue. The plot centers around a young woman, Dani, who is beset by devastating circumstances and is left with no one to turn to except for her more-than-slightly disinterested boyfriend, Christian. Feeling both guilt and pressure, he invites her to tag along with him and his group of college buddies on a two-week retreat at a secluded community in Sweden. Still reeling, Dani and the guys dive head first into a world they know nothing about and things begin to get progressively more unsettling. The plot flows through the shared opposite views of their romantic relationship as the rift between them grows. I know that sounds like some heavy lifting but there are still plenty of laughs to be had as well. In that sense, it’s really a break-up movie that’s punctuated by the conversations of Christian and his friends and the path of actions it leads them down. Accurately capturing the sardonic nature of a relationship like that isn’t easy but Aster brought it all together in a substantive and functional way.
Leading the cast, Florence Pugh gave a striking performance as Dani. She wore the pain and uncertainty in her eyes and displayed a lot of the skill that landed her my Breakthrough Performer award for 2017. With six films under her belt in the last two years, the 23-year old English actress has established herself as one of the fastest rising stars in the business as Little Women wraps up post-production before its Christmas release.
Jack Reynor isn’t exactly a household name but he’s actually been in a couple of sleepers (Free Fire, Kin) that I’ve really enjoyed over the last few years. If you follow him on Instagram, you’ll know he’s into some very obscure and artful films which kinda made him perfect for this role. Subtly, this was one of the most alarmingly accurate portrayals of a dysfunctional relationship I’ve seen on film and he plays a large part of that. Reynor’s detached apathy was readily apparent as Christian’s reality unraveled around him but his behavior landed with the audience due to its prevalence in our society.
Jessica Kelly and Jeanette Klintberg were tasked with casting a group of friends that was both realistic and humorous. It was not an easy job given the script but they surrounded Reynor with strong and equally dismissive portrayals from Will Poulter, William Jackson Harper, and Vilhelm Blomgren. The group of friends may have been a bunch of pricks but that didn’t make them inherently good or bad. It did, however, present their camaraderie as tangible, amusing and disarming when the film needed it the most.
Thanks to some returning collaborators, the film’s technical presentation was above reproach. The filming location is fairly redundant and you can only lean on the beauty of the landscape for so long. Thankfully, Cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski understands the value of close-ups and framing. The eyes have a unique trance-like quality that can capture viewers in a more meaningful way and using the existing backdrop to frame the characters is a vastly underappreciated skill. With help from Film Editor Lucian Johnston, things flowed together smoothly and the work from the prosthetics and practical effects teams had a substantial impact. A very odd but completely appropriate score from The Haxan Cloak punctuated the artistry surrounding the project, inside and out.
So, the million dollar question: Was it scary? I wish there was a simple yes or no answer for that. Unfortunately, it’s not scary in the conventional sense because it’s oddly predictable…at least it was in my case. Yes, there are some frightening moments but horror fans are likely to be disappointed. Much like Hereditary, it starts with a strong opening act and positions the audience to be scared but the final two acts dawdle along in an overly self-indulgent manner. At nearly two and a half hours, you’re often wondering: where exactly is this going? There was a great deal of mystery at play which distances the audience from tangible fear but a good 10-15 minutes of the pageantry could have been trimmed. While the stylized approach was exceedingly creepy, it’s also tough to be appropriately scared when you have no idea what’s going on. It’s an intriguing way to tell a story but maybe not the best way to generate fear.
I like bizarre things so I enjoyed Midsommar, even though it was a bit too long. It’s unique and well crafted with a foundation of strong performances. It’s also a lot weirder than Hereditary, and that’s saying something, so whether or not it resonates with horror fans and general audiences remains to be seen.
Recommendation: If you enjoyed Hereditary, give Aster’s follow up effort a chance. If you’re a fan of the horror genre, watch it because it’s unlike everything else. It will require some active adult viewership either way but movies such as this aren’t going to come along very often.