a review of 仲夏夜惊魂

Anyone up for a trip to Sweden? 😁 Just before watching Midsommar, a friend told me it's from the director of Hereditary. This became more and more obvious as Midsommar fully exposed his fascination with cults and paganism. Midsommar left me with ambivalent feelings.

On the negative side, two of the American actors were downright annoying and unconvincing, which made it hard for me to really get into the film (although afterwards I learned that one of those actors wasn't an actual American actor). The performance of the lead actress was solid though, and her boyfriend was good enough.

I really liked the imaginative concepts and haunting imagery of Midsommar. It felt like a homage to The Wicker Man (1973), and the uncanny atmosphere and shocking scenes were very 'Lynchian', so to speak.

Midsommar managed to establish an intriguing blend between beauty and horror, surrealism and absurdism. I think some of the madness balanced on the border of ridiculousness, which was also my impression of Hereditary's final cult worship scenes. But I definitely enjoyed Midsommar.