After debuting with “Hereditary” only last year, Ari Aster steps up the horror game in 2019 with “Midsommar”.
A24, the American distributor who already gained a cult following (rather unprecedented in the film industry), begins to skew toward borderline experiences in cinema. My personal affection for A24 dates back to 2014 when they laid their hands on “The Rover” by David Michod (one of my favorite modern flicks and an immensely underappreciated one too), but since then the list of unique titles grew quite significantly. The astonishing list of A24 releases includes “High Life”, “Climax”, “The Disaster Artist”, “Good Time”, “The Florida Project” and many, many more.
Only last year, A24 released “Hereditary”, a horror movie that made it to the top 10 of Cultural Hater’s 2018 Bests and gained an instant classic status. The movie portrayed a family wallowed in grief and followed by haunting experiences that deepened their instability and fracture, only to reveal a mind-blowing cult hidden behind all of it.
Both the story and the direction were helmed by debuting Ari Aster, who – only few hours ago, sparked another heated discussion with the trailer of his second feature film, “Midsommar”.
Watch the trailer below.
“Midsommar” refers to festivities that circulated around the brightest day each year, celebrated in Sweden. While details concerning the plot aren’t known just yet, the trailer reveals some nightmarish cult that drugs a group of young people mislead into belief the whole thing is a unique kind of hipster festival.
The trailer reveals a strange mixture of Alejandro Jodorowsky and the ultimate cult-themed classic, “The Wicker Man”.
What’s to be expected from “Midsommar”?
Given Ari Aster’s sharp direction style, “Midsommar” will trade jump scares and gore for disturbing atmosphere and unnerving tension that worked so well in “Hereditary”.
Other than that, the trailer reveals that Aster’s second feature elevates lighting in a nonconformist manner – while most horrors buckle up with darkness, “Midsommar” embraces terror in more than broad daylight.
The best summary of why I can’t wait for it is captured in the reaction of Elijah Wood that you can see below. We won’t sleep for a long time and that’s exactly what’s expected.
What are your thoughts on upcoming “Midsommar”? Are you jumping on the hype train all the way until mid August?
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