Unlike almost any film that has screened in Australia before, Midsommar plays out more like a hallucination than a movie. This is quite intensional. The soundtrack is also consistently creepy with its strange tempos and out of tune notes. It adds much to the ominous vibe.
Dani (Florence Pugh who is almost unrecognisable from her lead role in Fighting with My Family) plays a young lady who has recently suffered a horrible family tragedy. She accompanies her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor – Sing Street and Strange Angel) to Sweden for a vacation.
The vacation turns out to be a visit to a mysterious cult celebration and things seriously unwind from that point on. There will be little description of those activities in this review as the events that take place during the festival defy easy description and the audience will benefit greatly from the element of surprise.
Any film aficionado over time fills their mind with a large number of scenarios and this tends to lead to predictability. Midsommar is very adept at surprising you with unique and strange ways to really creep you out. It’s quite long at 147 minutes but doesn’t drag and will keep you uncomfortably on the edge of your seat throughout.
Rob Hudson
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