Ari Aster's MIDSOMMAR (2019)

I mean didja expect they were all going to go to this mysterious Swedish festival nobody else in teh world had heard about it and it was all fun and everybody played games and had punch and then went home and then on the way home there was a wolf in the car?

― papa stank (Neanderthal), Monday, 13 January 2020 21:26 (eleven minutes ago) link

"this fairytale was so predictable!"

― Οὖτις, Monday, January 13, 2020 4:51 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

it's funny how ppl in film threads try to use logic to justify liking shitty movies

OneEyeOpen makes an otm post about how the entire movie had zero suspense or surprise or tension (and max 2 scares), and yall are like "it's a horror movie, SPOILER ALERT people get killed"

like oh, now that you put it that way, it's actually good that this bored the shit out of me

it was maximally tense even though we knew sorta what was going to happen bc of the plotting and imagery. everything feels kind of out of control at all times

however if you just wanna yell at us for enjoying a movie that bored you, go off

You're being disingenuous af in suggesting that most of us agreed with OEO's thesis but suggested these were features, not bugs. Most of us disagreed with most of the criticisms in their post outright, and were pointing out having an idea of what would happen in the movie didn't prevent it from being tense, suspenseful, disorienting, or thrilling.

For fucks sake, wanting big surprises and constant rug pulls is how we got the M Night era of horror.

Xxpost

BradNelson otm throughout this thread, basically

there's only one person here trying to apply mathematical principles to the enjoyment of film imo

zero suspense or surprise or tension

don't feel any of these are required to make a film interesting or worth watching

would argue that the movie has plenty of tension though, not so much based on "what is going to happen!?" but more on the "what the fuck is going on" with the particulars of things like the drugged tea and a bear and people running away screaming in the background or heads getting smashed in with a hammer etc.

im like the opposite of brad in that I loved hereditary and it set my expectations way too high for this

sorry for being mean. here are some things i liked about this movie:
-casting of the scandinavians (they looked genuinely inbred)
-score
-cinematography
-costume/set design
-humour (should have been more of it though)

I think Hereditary was genuinely more WTF and unexplained weirdness than Midsommar (certainly more Lovecraftian). Midsommar probably had the better/more interesting design/visuals, though this may simply be a function of USA domesticity v. Swedish folk cult.

Hereditary was a horror movie disguised as a family drama, and Midsommar is a family drama disguised as a horror movie

I'd agree with that but add that Hereditary was a good movie and Midsommar was a cult movie.

Midsommar is a family drama transcendental comedy* disguised as a horror movie

*quite like this term. applies as well to...ooh, Toni Erdmann? some von Trier?

Midsommar’s wikipedia plot summary made more sense and was easier to follow than Hereditary’s

just watched this and i felt i saw a bjork music video fleshed out for 2+ hours.

https://a24auctions.com/auctions/midsommar-harga-collectibles/

"put your disgusting dick away!"

this is one of the most idiotic films I've seen

in that case, will I watch this a third time? maybe

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 8 January 2020 19:57

someone watched it three times. The idea that a ritual could occur every 90 years is the stupidest thing I've encountered in any stupid movie script.

wait til u hear about the "bicentennial"

I resist posting on popular movie threads about terrible films that people have enjoyed, for whatever reason. Fine, who cares... but this film is just enragingly stupid in every way.

You don't get it, man, it's a horror movie. It's supposed to be dumb.

good movie

I enjoyed it

but jed_ said you're wrong

And I'll never get over the shame of my rongness

It wasn't great but it was very good. Sorta like It Follows. It doesn't hold up to close scrutiny but I really liked the thrills.

The idea that a ritual could occur every 90 years is the stupidest thing I've encountered in any stupid movie script.

?????????????????????????????

EVER??

not even the stupidest thing about this great movie

The idea that a ritual could occur every 90 years is the stupidest thing I've encountered

I bet you hated Chrono Trigger then

would absolutely watch Ari Aster's Chrono Trigger

I know a ritual that occurs only once every 90 years YOU HAVING SEX ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

but jed_ said you're wrong

― muntjac wagner (Neanderthal),

I did?

What a bizarre gripe to have (xps to jed_)

the most nonsensical plot point of all time will always be the plot to Double Jeopardy with Ashley Judd

I mean...fucking Signs...

dicks out for Halley's Comet 2061

clearly none of you have seen the life of david gale

a film that fairly dared you to see it

oh haha, I haven't, but I read the plot summary, and....you ain't wrong.

Oh come on, the most nonsensical plot point of all time is "Jaws 4: The Revenge," in which the vengeful shark (I assume not the same shark that blew up in the first movie, though who knows) now has a psychic link to the Brodys and follows the family from New England down to the Bahamas. And then when they get there they all get wasted and have this weird pagan sex ritual.

The people or the sharks?

All of them, together.

"It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all."

I worked for the sharks

I was determined to read this entire thread before commenting because I didn't want to just reiterate what others have said and also because I always think it's rude to just barge into a long thread you haven't read and just start pontificating. Which is why it took me a year to return to this thread and post something! There are some really great insights above, learned a lot from reading the whole thing. But I just re-watched and wanted to comment on a few things:

Maybe the most true-to-life depiction of the psilocybin experience I've seen on film
The whole 'I don't want to meet new people' is perfect psylocibin talk
― frame casual (dog latin), Monday, July 15, 2019 6:50 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is otm, and I agree that it’s the most accurate depiction of a trip I’ve seen on film. Now, I know nothing about making films, so for all I know this simulation of a drug high is to fledgling filmmakers what the “looper pedal” is to people who don’t know anything about guitar effects (“but there’s only one of her! How is she doing that?”) but I thought it was really well done.

I also thought to myself that all of them should have realized they were doomed at the antestuppa ceremony. No community would let outsiders see that, for fear of them fleeing and exposing them. You either die or you become a Horge!
― Fuck Trump, cops, and the CBP (Neanderthal), Sunday, July 21, 2019 3:58 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, to me this was obvious. Like there’s no way any of the outsiders would be permitted to leave after witnessing what they did, which is why at some point Pelle is like “sure, you guys can totally write your thesis about this place, go nuts,” because he knew there was no way they’d live to tell about what they saw.

I also want to echo the praise of the sound design. The way sound for Dani sort of gets kind of muffled and narrowed when the elderly woman jumps rang really true to me.

My other very unusual reaction to seeing this film was that I – again, a person who knows literally zero about filmmaking – feel this compulsion to want to EDIT the damn thing. Like, I feel like if you lost, say, 30 minutes of this film by omitting or abbreviating certain scenes that either went on too long or were gratuitous or excessive, it would be a much better film. Many of you have mentioned the recurring shots of the smashed faces, and this is a great example, but I also feel like one or two shots (maybe through the crack in the door?) of the, err, fertility ritual would have sufficed. I've never had this kind of reaction to a movie before: not "this should have been edited better," but "I want to edit this into my perfect version of the film."

Anyway I think I’m ready to finally see Hereditary now

It is a better film imo

rewatched this last night. really held up.

- Christian's low-key obnoxiousness was felt much more strongly this time around. He's a true coward and there are very few scenes where he's not squirming around trying to cover his tracks, pass on blame, elide truth or just plain gaslighting Dani and his friends. Still, I don't know if he quite deserved to burn to death in a bear suit while physically drugged.

- The film never lets up, does it? Or at least for the first two-thirds. It's just relentlessly twisting and turning in terms of plot, mood and style. The opening scenes are just so intense, truly upsetting. Then we actually get to the vilage and the mood lightens for just a short while as Will Poulter does the best depiction of someone on shrooms I've ever seen. In fact I'd maintain that these are the best screen portrayals of the psychedelics I've seen on screen.

- The ending could have been shorter. By the time the denouement plays out, the film's most shocking and arreasting scenes are long gone, and whatever's left feels relatively light, almost comic (in the darkest possible way). The communal singing and groaning, the bear suit - these are entertaining ideas but they elicit a morbid chuckle unlike the opening sequence and the cliff diving scenes which definitely don't. These final scenes feel like they're tipping ever so slightly into farce or a parody of folk horror.

- That said, I think complaints of the film containing too much foreshadowing is missing the point. Yes, it's obvious how this narrative arc is going to play out, but this is very much about the ride

- Despite my complaint that the film tips into farce towards the end, save for a few of Poulter's lines I seem to remember it being a lot funnier the first time around.

- Also, but what a great cast. Flo Pugh is obviously fantastic, but everyone else (including the bit-parts) are so perfectly acted. They didn't do enough with William Jackson Harper though.

I couldn't tell you Herediatry is a better film. It's really not.

i probably just repeated a lot of what i said the first time around there lol