Midsommar (Ari Aster, July 3, 2019) Movie • Page 20

Well that was something!

I found it less disturbing / more entertaining to watch then hereditary, closer to a traditional horror movie, but still pretty fucked. Incredible imagery.

 

This was like 100x more terrifying than Hereditary for me, probably because it’s all real. Like, there’s no supernatural element to this at all and that makes it way scarier. Although one thing it did share with Hereditary was the powerlessness of the main characters to stop what’s happening, which really gets to me on a visceral level. I was fully clenched for the entire run time.

 

I said something like this a couple pages back, but this is why Ari Aster is killing the horror game for me. In most horror stories, the threat is limited to a haunted house or a guy with a chainsaw. The horror in these stories feels all-encompassing and inescapable, like an awful dream.

 

Thought this was terrifying and visually very beautiful. Some truly upsetting images that will stick with me for a long time simply because of how artfully they were colored and framed. whats his name with the flowers for eyes, strung up with his back exposed and the chickens feeding on him. Deeply disturbing.
That’s all I really took from it, though. I didn’t care about the male characters at all. I also couldn’t tell if Christian was joking about his thesis topic because that whole subplot was profoundly underwritten and ultimately meant nothing. Florence Pugh is great in this but her arc is dropped like a hot potato after the first deaths and doesn’t really come back until, maybe, that last shot, which I just thought was stupid / emblematic of a writer who knew where he wanted his story to end but didn’t know how to get there. I also loved the beginning of this movie before the title card and i feel like every interesting theme raised by Dani’s backstory is mismanaged in the following 2 hours.

I think Aster’s greatest accomplishments in Hereditary were A) characters who were easy to invest in (which makes their unrelenting anguish more palpable) and B) a genuinely and surprisingly subversive plot that made the whole ride terrifying and unpredictable through the very last scene. This movie doesn’t have either of those, and because i know what Ari Aster is capable of doing, their missing felt like shortcomings to me.

 

The thesis subplot is my biggest gripe with the film, though I need to rewatch it still due to the ruined experience the first time.

 

i audibly said “he’s such a little shit” when christian said he was gonna do his thesis there

 

It’s necessary to cause a divide between Chidi and Christian that gives Chidi the competitive edge to go take pictures. Maybe there’s a bit too much dialogue about it but I like it, especially when it’s established earlier in the movie that Christian doesn’t seem to care about or be thinking about his thesis at all so when he suddenly wants to do the same thing Chidi is doing, Chidi is even more appalled since he’s been focused on it since before the trip

 

Yeah, I liked it a lot. It worked on a pure plot level as an excuse to make them go on this trip that makes no sense otherwise, it worked to play up how narcissistic and terrible all the guys were in their own ways (especially how truly slimy Christian was), it added to the idea of being disconnected emotionally and only understanding someone/something on a surface level from the outside, and then it worked again as a plot device to explain away some of the more dangerous or questionable choices of the characters. The criticism that it “went nowhere” doesn’t really make sense to me considering it was only dropped because everyone started dying.

 

I also wouldn’t even call the thesis thing a “subplot”, precisely because it was literally the entire reason they were there in the first place

 

(I think you could have ditched the Thesis subplot and just made it a group of friends going on a summer vacation to a mutual friends hometown, but I didn't mind it as is)

I love how we're all just calling William Jackson Harper's character "Chidi" and it's all good. Because I'll never know what characters actual name is.

 

Honestly, him “stealing” chidi’s thesis was the most disturbing part of this to me

 

There's apparently a big debate regarding Simon and the blood eagle. When it pans over his body, you can see parts of him splayed out and apparently his lungs are still taking in air as if he's still alive. I saw the movement and assumed it was from Christians trip, but people pointed out that nothing else is moving. If Aster was actually saying Simon was still alive and breathing, then that is fucking stupid.

 

I took it as that he was alive at first, then afterward remembered Christian was on drugs and that would make sense if it was just a hallucination. But when I looked up stuff regarding the Blood Eagle online, the descriptions of it make it sound like people are kept alive through it? So idk. But I guess with how things go at the end it doesn’t matter a whole lot anyway

 

The relationship shit between Dani and Christian in the beginning was the most unsettling for me tbh. The scene when they get back and discuss him planning the trip was horrifyingly realistic to my own experiences lol I felt personally attacked.

 

The entire beginning with her sister and family disturbed me the most.

Right after Josh gets hit, there is someone wearing a skinmask? And just breathing heavily. Was that the incresteal oracle or whatever?

Also, is the May Queen selected only after being the last standing from that dance? So basically it’s a stamina test - and whoever could handle their trip these best haha?

And the girl Christian had sex with, she was allowed to lip stick only after? Was that anything?

Ari Aster sure does love bashed in faces.

 

the thesis was imperative to the plot and the two of them fighting over it was an important example of male competition in the film

This wasn’t long, it was deliberate. People are really going to see a three hour Avengers movie and saying this is long?

Knowing that the cliff scene was coming from the trailer didn’t diminish its impact, that was such an incredible use of image and sound and lack thereof

Something I haven’t seen posted yet unless I missed it: Ari and Florence said watch the walls
when she was sobbing over the loss of her family, it pans up to a painting of what looked like a girl overpowering a bear

 

chidi’s name was josh i think.

i loved this a lot. that opening scene was amazing. when the a24 logo appeared after that i just couldn’t react properly

 

But how did they know she wouldn’t just fall down in the beginning? Also, it wasn’t like they knew she was coming right?

 

I remember seeing that picture on the wall, and it looked more to me as a little girl kind of snuggling up with the bear - living in harmony.

Was there anything more to their breathing exercise? Can’t figure that out. Not the mimicking/emulating each other’s emotions and wails, but the quick breathe in and out.

 

Ah, probably correct

 

All of the paintings in the house seemed to tie into the story, although the bear one was the clearest to understand. There was one that was incredibly disturbing from what I could see, but it was a lot darker and harder to make out so I may have been projecting that.

I spent so much time looking at the walls of the sleeping area that I probably missed some character interaction. Those were so creepy.

 

Been on vacay recently so haven’t had a chance to catch this. I’m super excited. I loved Hereditary and @michael_gatto thinks I’ll love this too.

I think I’m going to see this alone as I saw Hereditary alone and it was perfect

 

Saw it alone here , felt pretty awkward when 8 teenage girls sat down next to me

 

I saw it alone too

 

The blood eagle thing was an actual Viking torture technique and they did keep the victim alive during it.

Maybe to help the drugs work better? They often did it right after taking something.