PROVOKR Pick: Midsommar
Ari Aster’s Daylight Horror
Florence Pugh is having a moment. And why shouldn’t she? The young British actress has proven her chops time and again with captivating roles in Lady Macbeth and The Little Drummer Girl, this time she’s diving into the horror genre in Ari Aster’s (Hereditary) newest film, Midsommar.
Midsommar follows the young American couple Dani and Christian (Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor) whose relationship is on the verge of crumbling, when a personal tragedy in Dani’s life keeps them together, they decide to travel to a small village in Sweden with their friends Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter.) Once there, they are invited to take part in a festival that occurs only every 90 years. What they don’t know at first, is that this festival consists of some gory pagan rituals in which they are forced to partake.
In breaking with traditional horror narratives, this film was shot entirely in daylight, making the horror not come from what lurks in the dark. This will not be a Dionysian festival for sure. It will be fascinating to see how horror is created while everything is bathed in light. Perhaps that will actually add to the horror of the film, taking daylight, something that is often associated with safety and turning it into our worst nightmare might add a whole new level to its creepiness.
Aster has described the film as “a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film,” using horror as an analogy for a deteriorating relationship is an interesting idea, one that I am fascinated to see how it pans out.
Midsommar comes out in theaters July 3, 2019.
