What I thought about: Midsommar

This one had been sitting on my to-watch list for a while. I can’t say that I care any more about it after having finally gotten round to watching it.

Just like the movie – visually stunning, but you’re still unimpressed

What’s it about?
A college student, her nearly-estranged boyfriend, and his friends are invited to attend a midsummer celebration at one of the friends’ ancestral commune in Halsingland, Sweden. Effectively a cult of sorts, the Hågra believe a lot of really weird shit.

After initially receiving a warm welcome, the group become increasingly disturbed at the traditions of the Hågra, and this escalates as they are encouraged (or forced) to join in with some of them.

What do I like about it?
It’s visually quite good. Most of the scenes take place outdoors in lush green fields, and there are a lot of pretty flower crowns and what not going on. Also, there are some really well detailed gorey bits. Not wanting to spoil any plot here, but most of the ‘horror’ aspect of this film is found in the rather sickening scenes which, shall we just say, involve human flesh.

To be fair to the movie, it also performs well at being plain weird whilst also being, in a sense, coherent. It’s as if the writers got together and thought “what really crazy stuff can we put in here and for it to still make a little bit of sense?”

What do I not like about it?
It’s slow, and to be honest I’m not really sure what the point of it is. Maybe I’m just the type of person that prefers more action, something a bit more hands-on.

A lot of the bad stuff happens off screen. We see the characters go to bed one minute, and the next there’s a shocking discovery. I suppose it’s required to build up the suspense and keep everyone guessing, but I just found it a bit boring.

Worth a watch?
No. It really isn’t, unless you’re the type of person that’s into really creative films which, to most people, lack purpose. But then, to me, that’s most Oscar-winning films anyway.

By the way…

  • It’s set in Sweden but filmed in Hamburg, for some reason.
  • At one point there’s a lot of nudity, so be careful about that.

385w