Hallowatch 2026 No. 7: Midsommar (2019)
How did I miss this one. What a movie.
Here's the plot summary if you need that. Spoilers follow.
The only other Ari Aster movie I've seen is Eddington and from that sample size of two I think he really excels at laser-targeting feelings of despair, revulsion, and the uncanny. From this one, I think he has an interesting sense of when to invoke the Brechtian distancing that reinforces that you are watching a work of fiction (the choreography and framing of the sex scene between Maja and Christian, the comedic timing of Christian finding Josh's leg, even the invocation of the raunchy Superbad-alike comedies of the 2000s when Christian finds the pube in his pasty), and when to immerse the audience, linger in the moment being depicted (the old folks jumping off the Ättestupa, the opening murder-suicide).
I did find it very fun when everything was moving on hallucinogens and both Jack Reynor's Christian and Florence Pugh's Dani are emoting directly to the camera like they're in a Roscoe Arbuckle picture.
or the Mogwai video for "Stanley Kubrick"
I especially liked the soundtrack — The Haxan Cloak was a favorite during my transition from "listening almost exclusively to post-rock" to "listening almost exclusively to post-dubstep" and i think embodies one of my favorite things to do in art: Eluding the icon. For music, that means getting someone "in"/actively listening without something easy to get people in on (which usually precludes more attentive listening to the non-catchy parts) - avoiding putting in things that are easy to grab onto like icons, riffs, motifs and still making something interesting to experience. When you can't hum a few bars, but can still recognize a music object as "oh that's The Haxan Cloak", that's interesting to me.
I think the nature of the sound mimicry of the cult is a neat inclusion on Aster's part; We see it done in mockery, as a moment group-empathy — "we also feel these intense emotions you are feeling" — and, in the final scene, as a cathartic group release. A "yes, yes, you are heard, we have experienced this also" that allows them to move past what would otherwise be a socially uncanny or uncomfortable situation like "an old man has jumped off a cliff and didn't die" or "Dani is having some Big Feelings and needs to be comforted" that transcends language, provided the originator of the sounds is part of the group that is bought in; note that Mark and Simon don't get these, because Mark and Simon disrespected their rituals. Josh does, but mockingly after his head trauma.
Big recommend, but you don't need someone seven years late to the party to tell you that.
