"Midsommar" - new folk horror film from "Hereditary" director Ari Aster*

Where did you see the long version?, 171 minutes?
the Blu-ray i watched is 147

 

That would be a mistake. It's a good movie and somewhat unconventional (which is refreshing). I highly recommend it. I definitely plan on seeing it again despite its length and sometimes disturbing imagery. A good movie is a good movie.

 

It was bundled on blu-ray along with the 4K release in UK & Europe I believe, but not sure about NA. I see it's available on iTunes & Apple + but I just downloaded & watched it.

 

Somewhere, you just know Chevy Chase is going to be approached about the possibility of developing...

National Lampoon's Midsommar Vacation.

...and in his current state of sanity - he's likely to consider it!

 

SPOILERS


I just watched "Midsommer" last night. I didn't like "Hereditary" very much because I felt it depended too much on a freak show exploitation of the young actress. Ari Aster does not shy away from the "gross out" in his horror films, he likes nice close-up wounds and deformation (always among the horrors: naked seniors! Yikes!), but he applies a very artful bandage of filmmaking to his carnival act. "Misommer" is a beautiful film to look at, wonderfully acted, well-directed and, along the lines of "Hereditary," it hopes to make you winch in disgust. Let's face, that is what a horror film is, in many forms. And, despite a somewhat slow start, (in addition to a running time of 2:27) I actually finished the entire film - which tells you something right is going on. Most films don't make a ten minute cuts in my house. If I'm going to spend two hours on a film, it better be doing something for the cinematic arts. So finishing "Midsommer" tells me I felt the film was an achievement of sorts.

I was mentioned this film made it past the ten-minute mark, and that was just barely, despite a nifty opening. The shock opener tragedy was a pure Ari Aster "show it all" gross out. Cool. I enjoyed the ballsyness of the death scene, suitably nasty, but the next twenty minutes - intended to snare in its target age audience - bored me establishing the Generation Z concerns, i.e., lousy relationships, school, and "where's the love?" Well, interesting enough subject matter for kids, I guess, so I'll let it pass. And I have to admit Aster does get the lead female character right. She's is so in need of someone "to be there for her," that I don't think she needed a suicide to set off her raging neurosis, her incessant worry about not getting enough support or love in all the right places really sums up the neurosis sprung out of the whole #feelingsfirst movement of today. I don't think Aster is that old, for all I know he's still living the neurosis surrounding relationships - boys wanna play, girls want their their emotions stroked. He must have had his share of weepy, "I'm just not sure where I'm at with this, right now, okay?" kinda girlfriends, because he nails it with "Dani" - the 20-something lead female. Her incessant worry about not getting enough support from her boyfriend is meant to play into her "accepting" the community, but it seems more sprung out of the awokeness of today's cafe set, than set off by her horrific loss in the opening tragedy. Half the horror for me was spending time with these overly sensitive dweebs. Lol.

I'd probably would have liked the film better if I was twenty. Chris Davoe raised the specter of Anthony Shaffer's classic, "The Wicker Man" in post #3, and, like him, I was riding out the "but what's going to be different?" train for much of this film. I'm sure the old horror film fans here had their radar going off with every mention of "village traditions" and "choosing a the May Queen" (and the perhaps, not unfortunately, the unseen "skin the fool" teaser. Lol.). But unfortunately, I'm going to say I didn't love the film because the idea kinda stopped there with "The Wicker Man." It was way too long into the film before I knew wasn't going to see any new twist, or clever plotting, or IDEAS. There would be a big, Burning Man-style human sacrifice and that's that happy, kooky pagan ritual will be over for another year. Another lottery. Another stoning. Another burning. Except, then what? If that was the story -- what more was Aster going to do with the story?

Unfortunately, again, not much. There's some minor league murders, and off-screen disappearances, but instead of new story, we were just treated to elaborate ritual after ritual, the whole affair started feeling prolonged and a bit ludicrous. I laughed out twice during the "sex" scene (the sex palace guarded by someone in what looks like a beaded Shriner's hat - didn't help the silliness. Nor did casting Chris Pratt lookalike Jack Reynor.) and by this point the film was generating unintended laughs: ruining the ending. I guess if Aster is bringing something new here to the slasher film, it's imparting the 2020 sensibilities of "awoke" young people to the slasher film. Frankly, give the the 70s and 80s slasher films where at least the good looking young people where partying and getting naked before getting slashed. Here, all we get to do is here about their "disappointment" with each other. Lol.

Once again, like "Hereditary," the build-up meant to shock, falls flat in with overwrought, arcane "Lucifer Rising" pageantry. There's no real sense of the sinister, just a lot of naked seniors with torches. Early on I started asking myself "Why would anyone bother with this elaborate, arcane nonsense for some lousy corn? Haven't they heard of crop rotation and fertilizer?"

But, anyway, I think it's worth seeing. Some very beautiful bits for sure. But I don't know why you'd want a longer cut. I'd like a 2-hour cut, myself. Maybe 90 minutes for the drive-ins.

 

Lol. Right on. You nailed it.

 

It's been a while since I last saw it at the theater, but I still thought Midsommar made bright, outdoor sunlight in which most of jarring scenes took place look terrifying and kinda' sickening. Nice write up BTW. I read every word.

 

GREAT film but it should be preceded by "The Wicker Man" ( 1973 ).
Then wait awhile. Note: I've not seen either version of "The Wicker Man"!

BTW, "The Blood on Satan's Claw" ( 1970 ) is another possible precedent
and even "City of the Dead" aka "Horror Hotel" ( 1960 ).

 

Not seen Aster's first as yet; was initially intrigued until the fanfare petered out.

I agree there's a number of overt grisly scenes in which it's clear the production
dep't immersed itself in actual photographs of head trauma prior to filming. The
hallucinations provided in-camera and post-production are the truest I've seen
committed to film yet. Better, those effects obscure things front and center and
made me question the entire proceedings in real time. For example, what's on
the "groaning board" during one of the feast scenes?

Possibly one critique I can offer is we see a bit too much.

Personally, it's a welcome and all too rare film that's mostly shot outdoors. The
landscape is a feast for the eyes. Because of this, one of those few genre films,
if one can call this one, that loses impact when viewed on the small screen.

 

Now's a great time. There's a May Pole scene.

Trust me, it's a REAL slow burner, but in a good way. No cheap scares here.

 

We can now see the director's cut on Google Play and Neon.
That pushes the running time to nearly three hours. Still doesn't
best "The Irishman's" running time though.

 

!!!"SPOILER WARNING"!!!

BTW, some things connected to this cult are true, according to one
art director connected with the film. It seems that elder euthanasia
WAS practiced.

For example, during the sequence known as Ättestupa, one elder
misses the mark. The artist claims they based that sledge on an
actual piece in a Swedish museum.

 

I would have preferred disc myself. I have a hard time believing it could hold that tension nearly three hours.

 

I think it could.

 

I originally saw the director's cut the first time I viewed it . I didn't think it seemed overly long (for a 2:47 movie). From what I read the part of what was added was to flesh out the relationship issues/strain of the main characters.

 

A pretty good movie, well worth watching. Better than Hereditary as it didn't relay on supernatural mumbo-jumbo to create the fear and tension. Well acted with good pacing. Some scenes came off as unintentionally comical, but others were spot-on creepy. The pacing was pretty effective -I never was bored. It would make a great double feature with the original Wicker Man.

 

Kinda takes me out of the movie....ANY movie that has Will Pouler in it, 'coz I always think to myself;
"What are you gonna do about it, EYEBROWS!"

 

For a movie where I found every character a sad mixture of insufferable and boring I really enjoyed it. The pacing, mood, scenery, direction and trippy story carried me along. Couldn’t give a rats ass about what happened to anyone of them though. Like a Friday the 13th cast. Person gone/maybe dead? Oh well, let’s pick flowers. Working as a revenge story it failed.

The May queen court crying circle was really funny.

The plot giveaways with the needle quilts was not a positive.

 

I've always enjoyed the youtuber Comic Book Girl 19. Her Midsommar review is fun. The first 10 minutes or so are about Hereditary, and has spoilers for that if you haven't seen it.

 

PSA: she models nowadays as well as doing her shows. She sells pictures to patrons, and no, they are NSFW.

 

Heads up: Director's Cut BluRay available for pre-order now at the A24 site. There was a 4K edition but it sold out yesterday.

Blu-ray disc comes enclosed in a clothbound, Hårga-yellow slipcase, accompanied by an illustrated 62-page booklet featuring original artworks from the film by Ragnar Persson and a foreword by Martin Scorsese.

No bonus features on the disc, and it ain't cheap: $45 + shipping. Which, for me up here in Canada, was a further $20.

 

I'll check it out. What I'd really like is something like this Japanese edition. BEAUTIFUL packaging!

Midsommar Blu-ray Release Date September 9, 2020

I really would like to have both cuts available in one deluxe package.

 

Didn’t the regular bluray of Midsommar have the director’s cut? I’m sure I have it.

 

The UK disc did. It had both the theatrical cut (147 min) and longer directors cut (171 min). Here in the US, the blu-ray had only the theatrical cut.

 

I didn’t realise it was excluded from the US release. Any reason for this?