Misommar: Does its Job Too Well

I was not impressed with Hereditary, and though there was lots of buzz about Midsommar when it came out, I thought my feelings would be the same. Perhaps it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I was right. Midsommar follows grieving Dani (Florence Pugh) as she tags along on her boyfriend's research trip to Sweden, where the remote society is actually a sinister cult. Its similar to Hereditary in that the film relies on over the top gore, with the camera lingering on bloody scenes as though it's trying to have a staring contest with you. On top of that, it uses weird, gross-out horror seemingly just to make everything as messed up as possible. Perhaps it works, but it honestly feels juvenile. The gore and the substances put into Christian's (Jack Reynor) food and drink would be a lot more effective if they were done either more subtly or in much lesser doses. Instead, it feels like at every turn, "this place is weird! These people are weird!" is screamed in the audience's face. Add on the constant drug use and you get something that feels like it was written by teenagers trying to have the wildest horror imaginable with their toys. That being said, the use of Dani's hallucinations whilst high are actually clever. They show us when she's been given something in a simple way and provide some good, creepy imagery. Florence Pugh is, as everyone has already said, fantastic in this and plays a complicated and emotional taxing role very well. It may be the point of the movie, but most of the teens are unbearable in this. They feel like their trying to be shoe horned into stereotypes and their behaviour is baffling. We expect them to act dumb, not like complete asses all the time. There's dumb, and then there's infuriatingly not taking the hint that something is terribly wrong and at least trying to get away – which would lead to some tension filled escape scenes that would be quite exciting. We, as an audience, are clearly meant to chalk the dumb behaviour all down to substance abuse, but that feels like a very easy excuse. It might be that we're supposed to take into account the (!!), which means that it is always bright sunlight. This is another aspect that works in the film's favour for its subtlety. Its easy to lose track of time and days whilst there is no sunset or sunrise, and the disorientation this creates could have been played into more, especially if there were less characters to worry about. It seems most of our foolish teenage cast only exist to go suspiciously missing and fuel into the gory elements, instead of the psychological. Because, really, Midsommar's purpose is to explore the psychological. The isolation of the situation and how cults prey on vulnerable minds. Watching the film over is a great chance to see just how the cult, and specifically Pelle (Vilhem Blomgren), draw Dani into their circle. Although the reasoning is a little unclear – yes, the cult needs outside members to avoid inbreeding (but they don't really care about inbreeding with Rueben. (Levente Puszkó-Smith). Simple!), but was it entirely necessary to have turn Dani on her boyfriend by making him cheat on her? It just seems like a strangely elaborate plan to break them up. That said, Christian is an interesting talking point. Many viewers seemed to think he got exactly what he deserved, and sparked a discussion, perhaps an awareness, of emotional abuse in relationships. Don't get me wrong, Christian isn't a great boyfriend, and he really should have just broken up with her before the trip. Because Dani would be just as draining a girlfriend; the opening shows us that she's been high maintenance for a long time, relying on Christian for an incredible amount of emotional support. Having been in similar situations, I can see why it would be difficult to be with someone in constant need of hand-holding. There's also the elephant in the room in that Christian has been drugged and coerced into cheating on her – the kicker being that he didn't even enjoy it. That one sex scene is the most effective part of the movie, the sheer awkwardness, creepiness and facial expressions make your toes curl. It’s a scene that makes you feel like your parents are in the room with you. But is being horribly awkward and uncomfortable still horror? I guess, when it's not played as comedy. All this to say, this guy's a bit of an arse, but ritualistic sacrifice feels a step too far. Which is why it's interesting that Dani has been hailed as a girl boss, when they were both toxic for each other. By tapping in, just slightly, to the asshole boyfriend trope, the audience jumps onboard and is essentially just as groomed as Dani that she's made the right decision. Is this a display of a lack of critical thinking skills when it comes to analysing story? Was it Aster's intention to show the subtle brainwashing cults employ? It's impossible to say. But Dani has now become a horror icon of #yesqueen in a way that is decidedly against the messaging of the film. Midsommar brainwashed its characters so well that it managed to brainwash its audience too.

All I can say is if you liked Hereditary, you'll probably like Midsommar. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't get the hype. It was written and shot well, but fell into the same traps Hereditary did, and that makes it hard to like.