Ari Aster’s Midsommar leaves you with not just one thing to take with you. Dani, a grief-stricken girl who leans on Christian, her boyfriend, often for emotional support and finds herself in the midst of misery all at once (not calling out the God yet). Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) was one of those movies the made you defenseless to the horror it projected. It was susceptible. While Midsommar has all those shockingly creepy elements that it had in Hereditary, it is flaccid in its flow. It spikes sharp whenever the brutality unfolds.
Midsommar offers the importance of respecting mental health and the consequence of turning back on someone when one needs it. Christian (Jack Reynor) and his friends only see Dani as an emotional baggage who sucks the fun out of everything. The friends, Mark (Will Poulter) and Josh (William Jackson Harper), goes out of their way and tries to untether Christian’s unstable relationship with Dani. Dani, who bereaves the loss of her family, has got no one but her boyfriend, Christian, to pin her faith on until she finds her feet again. Florence Pugh as Dani is extraordinary. Her gasps and wails present to us her headspace to see how crushed it is. Director Ari Aster finds ways to present the misery of Dani’s life in the most irresistibly ravishing manner. The plot point takes its course to a village in Sweden where these people go on Pelle’s ( Vilhelm Blomgren) invitation. We already feel that something awaits there to make our blood run cold.
While Josh pursues his academic interest on this land which regards itself above any significance and Mark tries to exercise his philanderous trait, Christian is apathetic to Dani and makes her feel deserted more than once with his willingness to compromise his loyalty in his relationship. In that course, Dani finds a new kinship to echo her joy and sorrow. She doesn’t feel deserted anymore but at a price. Ari Aster leaves you motionless with his breathtaking sequences. He makes sure that you can’t look away from his ghastly presentations until the very end. With the delightful cinematography and art works, that goes extra notch for perfection, Midsommar tantalize you for a horrific experience and makes sure to gratify you.
