Midsommar (Ari Aster, July 3, 2019) Movie • Page 49

It is getting a blu-ray release. Oct 28th but UK exclusive. Can still be ordered on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Midsommar-..._1_1?keywords=Midsommar&qid=1570748757&sr=8-1

 

I know, that’s why I said I can’t afford another all-region player!

 

Wish there was a 4K blu-ray for this.

 

oh duh

 

Finally got around to seeing it. Unsurprisingly it was pretty disturbing, but something about the cult being the most obviously culty cult and none of the characters realizing it or having the sense to decline the dozens of "here ingest this weird substance you've never heard of and join us in this ritual" moments kinda cheapened the horror factor for me until I found myself watching it mostly as a subtle dark comedy with some shocking moments. Hereditary was probably the scariest movie I've seen since seeing The Shining as a kid so I was kind of let down. Hearing about all the cerebral hidden stuff throughout the film that I missed makes me want to rewatch it though. How's the director's cut?

 

scary =/= good

 

Watched this last night with my wife who hadn’t seen it yet. Still as good as ever, and she picked up on a lot of the shitty subtleties that Christian exhibited that I missed during my first viewing so that was fun listening to her pick him apart haha.

I noticed something weird during the opening scenes that seemed like some kind of motion smoothing that was super distracting to me. There were some shots that basically appeared to have the same frame rate as the Hobbit when it was released in 48 FPS. I don’t remember this effect from the theatrical release, so was wondering if something happened with the blu ray transfer. Oh well

 

Still liked it, but the plot was kinda predictable and because of that and how unrelatable the characters' actions were it ended up being more disappointing than expected. Horror is more impactful to me when characters do things you would do in the same situation, or make even smarter choices, but are still helpless to stop the disturbing events from unfolding. Hereditary did this with how the cult wormed their way into the mentally ill family's home and gradually picked them off. Holy shit that was a mindfuck. Midsommar's story could have been more compelling maybe if it was clearer the stuff they ingested there clouded their judgement or something, leading them to be more easily brainwashed into not wanting to leave sooner. Gonna try watching the director's cut at some point though because I feel like there was a lots of stuff I missed the first time and maybe it improves on the theatrical version.

 

I definitely think reading it as a black comedy horror movie is correct, but I don’t know how it could be much clearer that taking hallucinogenic drugs for days would impact your decision making abilities.

 

Plus it makes sense they would do that - they are trying to indulge in the culture for their own personal gain ie thesis

 

Gotta respect the incestuous murder cult's customs, y'know?

Just the whole going into a lions den without being noticeably concerned you're in a lions den aspect of how the characters reacted to everything made it hard for me to get into the plot as much as I wanted.

Even after the elders jumped off the cliff and were bashed to death, it was like "anywho, back to the festivities" in following scenes lol. Also it would probably inflate the budget a ton, but more visual fx showing they're tripping the entire time would probably help sell that they were disoriented or severely impaired the entire time.

That said, researching it a bit more, seems there's lots of subliminal creepy visual hallucination stuff and subtle psychological mindfuckery throughout the film that I missed on first viewing, so gonna need to see it again before I make up my mind. But first impression is there shouldve at least been a scene where everyone started getting cold feet earlier but couldn't leave, or more scenes better explaining their motivations for staying.

 

They’re able to rationalize it away because they never saw it as a lion’s den. They already had a close friend within the group so they trusted him, and by extension trusted the other members of the group.

Plus as was mentioned two characters were there initially to observe it all from an ~intellectual~ standpoint. Which isn’t about “respecting” their traditions but divorcing your own feelings from what you’re seeing. As far as they knew, they’re not actually participants in the festivities but outside observers. From that perspective the elder death scene isn’t even the biggest red flag

I can’t think of any particular choice the characters made that stood as particularly bad or stupid from a “get out of there!” perspective. But also even if there was then I really don’t care, that kinda stuff is near the bottom on my list of things I think determine whether a horror film is good or bad lol

 

Yeah, their sense of entitlement and narcissism is all you need to know about why they stayed. Add in the toxic attitude of trying to one up each other for the research and the participation makes even more sense.

 

Christian: hyperfocused on fucking the redhead
Chidi: obsessed with it all as an academic, he even already knew about the elder death, also got distracted by Christian stealing his thesis
Dumb friend: was dumb
British people: actually tried to leave, got divided and conquered
Dani: probably would have otherwise tried to leave, but she was very depressed/had little willpower and was constantly pressured to stay by both Christian and cult friend

 

And their rationale makes sense up to a point, and that point for me is about 15 or 20 minutes into the film until it starts being distracting imo. I think a moment early on that established they had no means to leave until the festival was over would've remedied most of the issues I had. Also without knowing much about the film at all I ended up predicting a good amount of what happened including the ending, basically, so my first impression of the theatrical version is it's a bit troped out than hoped.

Which serves the story, but you'd think even (or especially) toxic narcissist characters in that situation would have a more functional survival mechanism than those in the film do. The absurdity of their choices and how they react to several key moments still makes it entertaining enough, it's just more comedy than horror than I expected, and since the premise lends itself to good horror I think maybe it could be balanced out more towards that without losing much of what makes it entertaining.

 

I think they’re so narcissistic they think of course they won’t be taken advantage of by the weird cult. Dani, the only one who isn’t a raging narcissist, legit packs her bags like right after the suicides and is asked to stay and observes the futility of trying to leave when the Brits attempt it.

 

Yeeeepppppp. They don’t fear them because they don’t respect them or value anything about their world, and they truly believe themselves to be untouchable. They are so above them in their minds that the threat would never occur for a second.

 

Narcissism aside, trauma bonding is actually a big part of cult programming. Dani was really the only target of indoctrination, so it’s really only her decisions that mattered in the grand scheme of things.

 

Those scenes of Pelle manipulating situations, getting Dani secluded and doing that were uncomfortable as hell.

 

eh. not a fan. The guy is a true genius in his craft. He gets it in terms of lasting imagery that you'll never forget. Emerging you in an atmosphere of horror. Everything about this was supposed to be his second "amazing" film...but in the end, i just found it okay. It never really broke free from the traditional "americans get killed by foreign cult" cliche movie. While Hereditary turned the haunted house/satanic movie from traditional to SOMETHING ELSE! (and more)...i dont think he ever was able to get over the hump with this one.

Plus, i found the movie to be quite slow towards the second half. Once you realize there are no tricks here and the he is in fact doing a "americans killed off by foreign cult" thing...i kinda lost interest. I'll call it mildly disappointing for what I was hoping for, but still probably a 8/10

 

Not a fan but 8/10!?!??!?

 

an 8 is just two zeroes stacked on top of each other

 

It was a perfect 5/7.

 

This movie for me was today‘s date good.