‘Midsommar’ Film Review: How Long Until the Cows Come Home?

“What if I regret it later and I can’t get her back?”

When I reached the conclusion of this film and the credits rolled for the first time ever I was filled with uncertainty. I had no idea if this movie was great or if it was just your average run of the mill creepy film. What I will say is Midsommar is a movie you should watch for yourself and generate your own opinion.

Overview

A couple at the end of their rope decides to take a trip to Sweden to visit their friend’s hometown for its midsummer festival. However, as the event continues the more the vacation turns into a abhorrent nightmare.

Something Is Off

During the course of this film something just doesn’t sit well. From the opening events you’re kind of prepared for something to happen you don’t know what exactly but you have your guard up. Which is both good and bad.

A big problem that Midsommar has is that it’s a very slow burn for not enough payoff. This is a long film but admittedly I didn’t really want it to end. Even so I never felt like enough was happening to justify the length of the movie.

Something creepy would happen then a half hour would go by and another odd event would occur making me think that the main characters would try and leave.

Instead they’d shrug it off acting like nothing too bad happened. Which made it really difficult to feel bad for anyone knowing that they stayed when they could’ve at least attempted to escape.

Bad Decisions

My biggest annoyance when it comes to horror films is when the main characters make poor choices. It disconnects me from the product because most of the time one of the people who loses their life could have easily prevented it.

Get Out is one of my favorite horror movies and one of the best aspects of the film is that the protagonist wasn’t an idiot. Anyone could’ve gotten caught in the situation he found himself in. Sadly Midsommar‘s characters feel like they are begging for the worst to happen to them most of the time.

Fitting Score & Superb Camera Work

Easily two of the best aspects of this motion picture is the camera work as well as it’s soundtrack. There’s so much foreshadowing present from very early on you could spend hours trying to find everything. Not to mention the shots compliment the film in ways that could’ve been ruined with some shoddy camera work.

Sounds are incredibly important when it comes to making a good horror film and it feels like Midsommar knew exactly what to play throughout the entire course of the film.

Conclusion

I love the setting of this movie naturally its pretty creepy and I felt uneasy from beginning to end. Sadly I don’t feel like enough happened. Watching Midsommar felt like hitting a pinata but no matter how many times I hit it the candy never came out.

Characters making stupid decisions honestly did affect how I thought about the film since they could’ve all left as soon as weird events started happening. Not to mention none of the characters are too likable.

I didn’t care who lived and who died that goes for the entire cast. I believe they’re all great actors/actresses but just the way their characters were written made me not care for them.

From a technical aspect the film is pretty much perfect the camera work is amazing and the score fit incredibly well over the course of the movie.

However, at the end of the day I feel like the film was a little too long and was just not satisfying. Sitting down for a couple hours with not many exciting moments is a lot to ask for audiences and while I liked what they were going for I feel that it could’ve been executed better.

Verdict 6 out of 10 Stars