By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Ari Aster
Cast: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Will Poulter, Ellora Torchia, Archie Madekwe, Isabelle Grill, Hampus Hallberg, Liv Mijönes, Anna Aström y Rebecka Johnston.
Rating: Very Good.
Ari Aster (“Hereditary” ) brings his second film "Midsommar", whose results were very good and interesting.
The film tells the story of Dani Ardor (Florence Pugh) a college student who is dealing with a family tragedy. Still in pain of losing loved ones, Dani learns at a party that her distant boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) has been planning a trip to Sweden with his friends to go to a spiritual retreat. Dani decides to confront him and in this situation Christian decides to invite Dani to Sweden on the pretext that the trip would suit him and be able to work on his thesis.
Once they arrive in the Nordic country everything starts to happen normally but Dani will soon discover that there is a dark secret that involves the participants of the event, resulting in a pagan cult.
Now Dani will have to decide whether to stay in the retreat or leave it before it brings more devastating results that could lead her to madness.
What made "Midsommar" an original movie was the plot that touched on the theme of grief in a way that had never been seen on the big screen.
He did the same with his previous movie "Hereditary" and what Aster also executed in a remarkable way was to show the internal conflict of the main characters and also the coldness of them.
Despite being a psychological horror movie, the film is very well done and it really impressed me as Aster and Pawel Pogorzelski played with this factor. Each frame had a meaning and both did something that is very difficult to achieve and illustrate, especially in a movie of this genre.
Normally the films of this genre can be very dark and Aster managed to break those barriers which made it unique. Influences of films like the remake of "The Wicker Man" of 2006 were noticed, since the subject is very similar.
The script was very well written and with unique characters. There is no doubt that Ari Aster did a lot of research about what spiritual retreats are like and he put his touch on it that was playing with the psychological factor.
The third act of the film is one of the strangest I've seen in a film of this genre in recent years and I left the movie theater with many questions about it.
The performance of Florence Pugh was very convincing as Dani and gave life to a character that has a void to fill and everything she has to deal with. Pugh is undoubtedly one of the great young actresses of this industry and hopefully we will see more of her.
However this is a movie that has a slow pace and that can make people impatient once they go to watch it. I think the film could have had a shorter duration since it is 2 Hours and 40 Minutes; I feel that with two hours it could have been more than enough but I understand what Aster wanted to transmit and manage to play with the minds of the audience.
What made a film like "Hereditary" superior to "Midsommar" was the rhythm and how Aster played with the conflicts of the characters to the extent of taking them to extreme
There is no doubt that Ari Aster is going to be consecrated as one of the great filmmakers of the horror genre and he has done an outstanding job so far.
I think that "Midsommar: The Terror Does not Wait for the Night" is going to be a film that people are going to be talking about for many years because it is a movie due to theme of the film itself and it will eventually lead to some controversy.
I am going to give you two suggestions before you go to see "Midsommar:"
1. See "Hereditary"
2. Go with a completely open mind and be patient due to the pacing of the movie.
Again Ari Aster did a great job and I´m looking forward to see he´s next project.
That being said I give a great recommendation to "Midsommar" for the originality of the concept, for the visual elements, performances and for Ari Aster`s directing and writing.