Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Midsommar

October 8, 2019

Midsommar - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack
Video on Demand (Movie Only)
Video on Demand (With Commentary)
Video on Demand (4K Ultra HD)

Midsommar is writer / dirctor Ari Aster’s second film. His first, Hereditary, only managed a D plus from CinemaScore, which is bad, even for a horror film. However, CinemaScore tends to measure not just quality, but expectations. A good movie that doesn’t match audience expectations in terms of tone and subject matter tend to get very weak scores from CinemaScore and no one going into Hereditary day one could have know what to expect. Midsommar earned a C plus, which is actually about average for a horror film. Is it also merely average in quality? Or is it just not as accessible as most mainstream horror movies are?

The Movie

We meet Dani on what turns out to be the worst night of her life. She got a cryptic email from her sister and couldn’t get into contact after that. Dani tries calling her parents, but no one picks up there either. She calls her boyfriend, Christian, who is less than supportive saying Dani is overreacting and even says Dani is unwittingly encouraging her sister’s outbursts by being concerned all of the time. After the call ends, Christian’s friends, Mark, Josh, and Pelle give him crap about this, telling him to dump Dani for her own sake, since he clearly isn’t into her anymore. He doesn’t seem to care about her anymore, but doesn’t want to dump her, in case he wants her back later on. We then learn Dani’s sister killed herself and her parents.

Flash forward to the summer and we see Dani, Christian, and the rest at a party and Josh talks about their plans for the summer. Apparently Pelle’s home village is having a Midsummer festival, one that happens only once every 90 years. Since Josh is an anthropology student and his PhD is on Northern European Midsummer festivals, this is a perfect opportunity to get some first-hand experience to complete his thesis. Mark is also going, because party, and Christian is being really non-committal about it. He didn’t even talk to Dani about it. (He’s a bad boyfriend.) Since she learns about the trip at a party, the awkwardness of the situation, Christian feels obligated to ask Dani to go with him. He assumes she won’t go, so he doesn’t even ask his friends if it is okay to ask her to go. (He’s also a bad friend.) So when she does accept, it is even more awkward for everyone, except for Pelle. He seems to be the only one actually happy Dani is going to go with them.

When they get there, spoilers happen almost immediately. Midsommar is a horror movie, so you know the village will look idyllic when they first get there, but things will go wrong. How that plays out is a key element to the film’s effectiveness and too deep into spoiler territory.

Review

Midsommar is a more accessible film than Hereditary was, but we are marking on a curve here. Midsommar is still an art house horror movie and that’s going to be a put off for those just looking for conventional scares. That said, those that are interesting in an art house horror film will be rewarded with stunning visuals by Ari Aster and an emotionally powerful performance by Florence Pugh. The film does have a dark fairy tale feel to it that adds to the atmosphere and it is this film’s atmosphere that elevates it above the competition.

There are still some issues that hold back the film. Despite Florence Pugh’s stellar performance, Dani is still a little off-putting. Additionally, while the film’s fairy tale-like atmosphere is part of its selling point, it does mean some of the characters act in less than rational ways and this is a pet peeve of mine. Finally, Dani and Christian’s relationship is beyond dysfunctional and that can be off-putting as well. However, “off-putting” is about as negative as I can get and I enthusiastically recommend this movie to anyone interested in art house horror. Even those usually interested in mainstream horror should at least give it a rental.

The Extras

There are only two extras on the DVD / Blu-ray. The first is a 25-minute making of featurette called Let the Festivities Begin. The second is a short promo called Bear in a Cage. I can’t explain it.

The Verdict

Midsommar has enough replay value for fans of this particular subgenre that even though the DVD / Blu-ray doesn’t have a ton of extras, it is still worth picking up.

C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Video Review, Midsommar, Will Poulter, Jack Reynor, Florence Pugh, William Jackson Harper, Ari Aster, Vilhelm Blomgran