A young couple and their two friends decide to fly to Sweden and visit an isolated community’s midsummer festival, only to experience events they never expected they would.
Ari Aster knows how to portray death. He has mastered the art of perfectly shooting people to die – one way or another – and then how to cut to either their beloved finding out or straight to their reaction after it happens. That said, I can see why the film was critically and financially disappointing. Did I like it personally? Yes, I did. Would I recommend it? Before I answer with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, I would ask myself, ‘Who would I recommend it to’? Horror fans are disappointed already – is there such a thing as mystery or drama fans? I’m not going to answer with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but I would hint at the following:
- The film is unnecessarily two and a half hours long, and Aster promised (threatened?) that the director’s cut would be thirty minutes longer!!! For a horror film, the first duration is too long, and the second is way too long.
- About an hour into the film and I wanted it to end and go on IMDb to find out if there is such a Swedish or Scandinavian paganistic/folklore festival. As much as this is a good sign, I couldn’t help but wonder that if there, it’s shocking, but if there isn’t, why on Earth would he go to such great lengths to elaborate/analyse/delve into something that doesn’t exist? Wondering that, I missed a third of the film and then wanted to cut to what the trailer had promised; some thrill.
- As stated above, the deaths taking place in the film are definitely worth watching.
Now that you know, it’s up to you to decide whether it’s going to float your boat.
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