Midsommar thoughts

[beer_good_foamy]

OK, so movie review time. I watched Ari Aster's (alleged) horror movie Midsommar yesterday, in which a bunch of American college students have a really bad time at a Swedish midsummer celebration, and as an actual Swede, I have to say...

...that was really fucking funny. I mean, as in, the whole audience were laughing out loud for the entire last hour or so. I've watched a ton of exploitational horror movies in which the (usually white, and therefore supposedly relatable) idiot protagonists go to a part of the world they're not familiar with and get their comeuppance. That's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that's Cannibal Holocaust, that's Hostel, etc etc. But being the target of that, and being expected to react with confusion and dawning horror at something as normal and innocuous as midsummer ("They're wearing (not very accurate) folk dress! It never gets dark! They EAT HERRING!") just doesn't work for me.

Which is a pity, really, because there's certainly something to be said for Ye Olde Traditions being scary, especially in the current political climate. Early on in the movie, Our Heroes pass under an anti-immigration banner hung over the highway, and the movie comes out just a week after the leader of the Christian Democrat party (who are surging in the polls) declared that Swedish Jews shouldn't be forced to celebrate Christmas, by all means, but they should think long and hard about whether they want to be accepted in their "new" country. And there are bits of actual Swedish myth - not just the Old Gods Of Recent Marvel Fame - in there; I love that they named the village Hårga, after this folk song describing how the Devil takes over a dance and plays the fiddle so well that everyone dances until only their skulls remain.

"Horgalåten" (Watch on YouTube)

But as a horror movie? Well, I guess. There are certainly scenes that work as such. But where Hereditary built up some unbelievable tension only to squander it at the end, this movie never really does that for me (might be the numerous gut laughs that ruin that). As a remake of The Wicker Man it's certainly a lot better than the remake of The Wicker Man. And as in Hereditary, Aster gives the characters more than one level to work on, making it a movie about a dysfunctional relationship within a horror movie. Also, kudos on getting actual Swedish actors to play all Swedes, even if it's filmed in Hungary. But it just puts all its eggs in the basket of building tension by going "aren't foreigners weird?" which... we're not? But I hope at least one or two viewers, after wiping away the tears of laughter, went home thinking about exactly what it is they want to preserve and how silly any traditions look when viewed from outside.

So: not very successful as a horror movie, some nice gore notwithstanding, but as a black comedy I loved it.

I now really want a Swedish film maker (say, Ali Abbasi who made the excellent Border) to make Thanksgiving: A horror movie in which European college students visit a friend's family in Wisconsin, are forced to observe a violent ritual in which so-called "football players" are torn limb from limb while fighting over a dead pig, and slowly realise that they will be the stuffing in a giant bird.

Comments

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Hee, glad to hear the Swedish audience had so much fun with that one!

"Thanksgiving: A horror movie": very nice. :D

[beer_good_foamy]

I can't quite shake the notion that the backstory here is Ari Aster went to a perfectly normal midsummer celebration, got very drunk on aquavit and hooked up with a hot blonde, and this movie is his explanation to his partner back home afterwards. "Honey, I swear, they had, like, pagan rites and fertility magic and psychedelic mushrooms and human sacrifice and pickled herring and I ONLY DID WHAT I HAD TO DO TO SURVIVE!" "Yeah, right, Ari."

[thenewbuzwuzz]

:D Oh NO, not fertility magic!...

Wait. It's just... regular pickled herring in the movie?! I thought we were talking something on rotten shark level. Now I want pickled herring.

[beer_good_foamy]

Well, it's a whole herring filet that she's supposed to swallow in one bite. Which is a bit much. (Also, I think it's a salted herring rather than a pickled one, which... who the hell eats salted herring for midsummer?!? It's the pickling that gives it taste, ffs!)

There's also not nearly enough drinking going on. And also, it doesn't look fun. Why would anyone want to celebrate Midsummer sitting in long, solemn rows with one (1!) glass of aquavit when you can get drunk off your ass in the sunshine singing songs about how many shots you've had?

[thenewbuzwuzz]

That is a very sunny video! Midsummer is more of a twilight thing over here (at least the parts I tend to remember). Also, "solemn" and "one glass" does sound Wrong.

[beer_good_foamy]

Well, I mean, you start in daylight and it goes on the whole night, so you get some twilight depending on how far north you are. (Unless of course it's overcast, which it tends to be.) Which is another thing that bugs me about this movie; they have the Americans spooked by it still being daylight out at 9PM, which of course it would be, but they never use that magical almost-twilight that you get around 1AM... which of course they couldn't since it was shot in Hungary. At least they don't make the mistake that The Ritual did and have it get pitch dark in the middle of summer.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

The part where the "Ritual" trailer abruptly goes dark is hilarious. Everyone waving flashlights around like "where'd the sun go?"...

[dragonyphoenix]

Thanksgiving: A Horror Movie. Aw, now I want to see it! ;-)

And I'm thinking about traditions, little details, that could be messed up. The potatoes aren't mashed. That's just be way wrong.

And that clip for The Ritual reminds me of a story my Dad tells. He was off canoeing and camping by himself. All the trees had lost their bark (flooding I think) and were a creepy off-white color. There was no noise. At one point he saw a bird, goose maybe, flying off by itself. After dark some noise woke him, like someone stepping on a twig. He was reading a book on the Rosenbergs and was nearing their deaths. He realized everything around him was a symbol of death, closed the book, went to sleep, and got out of their ASAP the next morning.

[beer_good_foamy]

Yikes. As Portents Of Incoming Evil go, that's not quite up there with Mutilated Moose Hung From Tree, but almost. Good call by your dad.

[shadowkat]

Thank you -- ever since I decided to read all the reviews on the film, and talked to a co-worker who saw it -- I really wanted to know your take on it. And how someone who actually lived in Sweden would view the film.

Actually, from what I read? It was filmed in Hungary and Utah. And interesting that they got the whole lighting thing wrong. It's not necessarily bright sunlight all night long

I'm guessing it's not at all accurate and Ari just sort of grabbed this stuff out of the air?

The description of the plot in all the reviews reminded me more of "The Dark Secrets of Harvest Home" -- a 70s television miniseries than the Wicker Man, or a combination of both.

Let me see if I can find the most interesting review I'd found on it...ah, found it:


Midsommar Ending Spoilers -- the Movie's Ending Explained.

From that review and various others, it appears to be inspired by a really bad breakup that the director went through a few years back. And the focus is toxic relationship as horror film -- with the point of view solidly the woman's. (Interesting that he chose the woman's point of view in the breakup.) And a lot of feminists have really fallen in love with the film, apparently, as "revenge" flick. While most of the male reviews either find it horrifying, disgusting, or disturbing.

Has had odd reviews from the US. People who hated Heredity loved this, and people who loved Heredity hated this.

ETA: According to Bloody Disgusting Movies - the movie originally received an NC-17 rating, and there's an extended cut on the way

Considering this is almost a three hour movie to begin with...why?
There's a

[beer_good_foamy]

And interesting that they got the whole lighting thing wrong. It's not necessarily bright sunlight all night long

Well, it's not like they could do much about it. The neat thing about summer nights here is that it never gets completely dark, it's just twilight for a few hours. Further south, you'd have to shoot during the 10 minutes of twilight every day and it'd take weeks to get just one scene. But still, it's a pity.

Thanks for that link. I'm not entirely sure the plot works for me (There has never been a boyfriend who’s more of a wet lump of nothingness than Christian is pretty much spot on, he's not even an asshole worthy of revenge, just... boring) but I do like that it's about more than just Who Will Live And Who Will Die.

This article has a good rundown on how closely the movie sticks to actual midsummer traditions (not very).

[shadowkat]

Thank you for the link -- doesn't appear they got any of it right. Hardly surprising. The writer appears to have relied heavily on items taken from Medieval rituals, mostly in Germany and England or rituals taken from horror novels and Christian superstition.

The neat thing about summer nights here is that it never gets completely dark, it's just twilight for a few hours. Further south, you'd have to shoot during the 10 minutes of twilight every day and it'd take weeks to get just one scene. But still, it's a pity.

Here -- it may stay light until roughly 9 depending on where you are. In Winnipeg, Canada, it's daylight close to 10 pm, then falls into twilight, but I don't think it ever gets dark. And the sun is up roughly around 4- 5 Am, depending on how far North you are.

I think what the director of MidSommar was going for -- was to see if he could do a horror film in broad daylight, where there are no shadows to hide in. Which had mixed results. I don't know why he picked Sweden of all places. I wonder if you may be right and he visited it and had a weird experience.

I'm not entirely sure the plot works for me (There has never been a boyfriend who’s more of a wet lump of nothingness than Christian is pretty much spot on, he's not even an asshole worthy of revenge, just... boring) but I do like that it's about more than just Who Will Live And Who Will Die.

Yeah, from what I've read -- I don't think the plot would work for me either. We have what amounts to a wet noodle of a boyfriend, who just floats through life with a woman who is going through a traumatic experience. And they've been together for "two" years and she is still with this guy? Why? Wouldn't she have broken up with him by now?

Also, the men in the film seem to be rather one-dimensional, which also doesn't work for me. And they go to a festival that is only practiced every 90 years in a foreign country, in a community that doesn't admit outsiders except in this instance? Okay.

My difficulty with a lot of horror films is that so many of the characters they choose to kill off -- I don't care about. And the deaths often don't fell earned, so much as random gory shockers or the result of something dumb, that the character did because the plot required it. I'm not sure this is the case here -- from what I've read, it seems that they did dumb things in character. Like urinate on a sacred place, or sneak into a sacred place to pictures without permission, or mate with someone they were told not to. Although from the review -- it also appears they'd have been killed anyhow, so it doesn't matter.

My other problem with it -- is the reliance on pagan stereotypes and cliche. I like what you stated above about someone doing a horror flick about Thanksgiving or how about Passover or Easter? Honestly, the whole Wicker Man thing has been so over done by now -- it's become a humorous cliche.

[beer_good_foamy]

I don't know why he picked Sweden of all places.

Supposedly the idea came from a Swedish production company who approached him. They wanted a regular slasher with a midsummer theme until Aster brought in his own ideas.

And they've been together for "two" years and she is still with this guy?

Four, supposedly.

And I don't really mind the pagan thing, mixing myths is fun. It's just a bit silly when you consider that paganism was stone dead in Sweden for 700 years or so before people brought it back. If they'd just had a few hints that this "ancient ritual" was actually made up by hippies back in 1971 or so and that they were really trying hard not to let on, or if they'd skipped the mythological bit and just exaggerated the ritual, a lot about this movie would have made much more sense.

[shadowkat]

It's just a bit silly when you consider that paganism was stone dead in Sweden for 700 years or so before people brought it back. If they'd just had a few hints that this "ancient ritual" was actually made up by hippies back in 1971 or so and that they were really trying hard not to let on, or if they'd skipped the mythological bit and just exaggerated the ritual, a lot about this movie would have made much more sense.

Ah, this explains why the Swedish found it hilarious and most US reviewers didn't. Nor did the British reviewers for that matter. In fact quite a few found it really scary -- the woman in my co-worker's little group who saw it and thought it was the scariest thing she'd seen -- knew a lot about pagan rituals (also never been to Sweden and knew nothing about Sweden). Because over here and in Britain -- paganism isn't dead. It's been going on since well...for a long time? I know a lot of pagans and Wiccans. (And no, they don't do all of that -- although they do act out the ritual of feeding the son to the mother, and having her devour him -- but more like a play.)

Although -- according to some of the interviews, I got the feeling the director wanted it to be more of a black comedy.

Eh, too gory for me. I like my comedy sans gore. ;-)

Four, supposedly.

Oh dear. I honestly think he may have meant it to be a black comedy about a toxic relationship.

I was told by co-worker that the first part of the movie is really good -- where her family is horribly killed, and in graphic detail, and her grief regarding it. Co-worker liked how it was shot and was somewhat disappointed by the rest of it.

[beer_good_foamy]

Because over here and in Britain -- paganism isn't dead.

Oh, it's not dead here either. It was, but it's not anymore. But just as in most other Christian countries (certainly in Britain), it took a rather long vacation after Christianity became the law of the land before a few enthusiasts brought it back starting in the late 19th century. The Old Faith has had a few resurgences (by romantics and nationalists in the 19th century, by hippies in the 60s, and by nazi skinheads in the 80s, much like Wicca was invented in 1954) but it's very much a fringe thing as a religion. Then again, it's hard to tell when a myth dies; the Old Faith was dead as a religion by the 13th century, but there were always fairytales and superstitions that kept elements from it even when we were good Christians. Midsummer is a great example; there are bits of it that look pagan, but most of them go back no more than a couple of hundred years.

So the point is, a commune like the one in the movie wouldn't have had an unbroken tradition going back to the Olden Days with festivals every 90 years. Having it be a community of hippies who just reintroduced their approximation of the Old Faith (much like Lord Summerisle in Wicker Man) both makes more sense, and gives the villains here more agency as opposed to making them curious foreign cultures that must be accepted for what they are.

[shadowkat]

So the point is, a commune like the one in the movie wouldn't have had an unbroken tradition going back to the Olden Days with festivals every 90 years. Having it be a community of hippies who just reintroduced their approximation of the Old Faith (much like Lord Summerisle in Wicker Man) both makes more sense, and gives the villains here more agency as opposed to making them curious foreign cultures that must be accepted for what they are.

I'm trying to think if that would be true over here? Yeah, there could be a 100-200 year backwoods cult, it's possible. After all we had the bloody Pilgrims...and their witch burnings. We have some weird stuff, like the town that sort of disappeared. Also it could be true in the British Isles, which did practice the Wicker Man or a relatively less brutal version of it. They filled it with various crops and a cow and burned it.

Here's the 1970s film Dark Secrets of Harvest Home based on the Tom Tyrone best seller. (The book is better, and I saw it in the 1970s, I found it scary then, I don't now. It's sort of cheesy.)

Tyrone apparently based his story on an English religious sect that came over in the 1600s and practiced the pagan rituals. And I know from my own myth studies in Britain that they combined a lot of the Christian rituals with their own. Some really lend themselves to it. I don't think they did ritual sacrifice though -- the early Christians had a tendency to exaggerate and state this was the case. But I'm uncertain. We have some unreliable narrators when it comes to the historical record.

[beer_good_foamy]

Again, all that depends on where you draw the line between religion and just ordinary folk tradition.

and their witch burnings

You had, what, one witch trial? We had hundreds. Normally, if there was anything at all to the accusations, it wasn't that they'd prayed to the old Gods (which were long gone by the 17th century) but that they were Christian heretics (hence the accusations of communing with Satan) or that they used folk medicine or the like. It was Christians burning Christians, as much as present-day neopagans like to claim them for their own. Same with the wicker man and similar traditions, inasmuch as they existed before the 20th century brought them back; those are rituals that may at some point have had pagan roots, but I'd be very surprised if they were part of consciously pagan celebrations post-Christianity. I mean, Europeans spent most of the time between 600AD and 1800 or so killing each other in millions over slight disagreements on exactly how Jesus said "do unto others", anyone caught praying to Odin or Minerva or Toutatis would quickly have been, um, persuaded to stop doing that. That said, history is never a clean slate, and part of the reason Christianity became the most successful franchise in history is because it easily adapts to include some non-Christian overtones as long as you didn't overdo it - the Mexican Catholics till celebrate the Day of the Dead, we still venerate Santa Claus whose look is borrowed from creatures who started out as Germanic house gods, became house and forest spirits in the middle ages and fairytale creatures after that...



Which is all to say that modern-day religion and tradition and ritual is an incredibly rich and complex weave of a lot of stuff that has come before, and we don't typically know the reason we do half the things we do. :)

I think that's, like, the tenth time you've recommended Harvest Home to me, I'll really have to find it one of these days. It sounds like something I'd like. It doesn't seem to be easily available, though.

[shadowkat]

No, we had more than one. ;-)

See, someone actually did a historical chart. Historical Witches and Witch Trails in the US. They are harder to track because we don't have some of the record keeping. But keep in mind the pesky European Christians doing it in Europe, came over here -- and did the same thing for the same reasons. Also a lot of them were refugees from Europe for practicing harsh religions. The US was partially founded on Christian Religious Freedom for crazy Christian religious sects. (Puritans a prime example).

It's just we only had one famous one -- that Arthur Miller chose to write about. But there were 100s. Some recorded, some not.

Granted people had more room to run and hide -- so it was harder to catch witches.

[shadowkat]

I think that's, like, the tenth time you've recommended Harvest Home to me, I'll really have to find it one of these days. It sounds like something I'd like. It doesn't seem to be easily available, though.

I have? Damn. Sorry. It's just it's the best pagan horror flick that I've seen. (Not that I've seen that many. I couldn't get through Wicker Man (the Chris Lee version) and haven't tried Nick Cage's.) And whenever anyone brings folk/pagan horror-- my mind goes to it. It's probably not as good as I remember. The critics hated it. Keep in mind for my cultural anthropology minor -- I studied British pagan rituals, specifically in the area of Wales. This was however back in the 1980s. And was rather fascinated by the whole Goddess traditions and horror novels situated around it -- even tried to write one. I read Donna Tartt's Secret History (which I liked the best), Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand (the least) and Tom Tyron's Harvest Home, along with more romantic novels not worth mentioning. It's not easy to find. Tends to be more cult.

[shadowkat]

Oh this is fascinating -- I spoke with co-worker who saw the film, and he said when he saw it -- the theater was very quiet during the last part, and it was intense, and no one found it funny, outside of the intentional bits early on. Also that it was beautifully filmed in sections. (Co-worker looks like Chidi from the Good Place with his glasses on.)

[beer_good_foamy]

Just like all non-US watchers will at the end of Thanksgiving: The Stuffening! :)

[shadowkat]

LOL! I told him your story about "Thanksgiving: The Stuffening", which I thought was a really good analogy.

He didn't get it at all. He did find it interesting though.

Personality wise? He's a bit like Chidi in the Good Place.

[cjlasky7]

As someone who thought the remake of The Wicker Man was one of the (unintentionally) funniest things he'd ever seen, this review does not discourage me from wanting to see Midsommar. (In fact, if I do go, I'll hit it with a "black comedy about a bad breakup" mindset and enjoy it more.)

I also want to see Thanksgiving: the Stuffening. What IS in that cranberry sauce?

[beer_good_foamy]

The WM remake was definitely hilarious. All the more so because I'd just watched the remastered version of the original with the cast commentary, and so I heard this quote by Sir Christopher Lee one day and then had it juxtaposed with Nic Cage's.

Sir Christopher: This attitude that "people wouldn't understand" is far too prevalent in cinema today. People should be able to use what's left of their minds when they watch something.
Nic Cage (offscreen): AAAAAAH! MY LEGS! MY LEEEEEGS! KILLING ME WON'T BRING BACK YOUR GODDAMN HONEEEEEY!

[cjlasky7]

Stop it! You're killing me here.

[shadowkat]

LOL! That's hilarious. The reviews of Wicker Man are rather funny. Has Nick Cage done a decent "live action" film in the last ten years?

[beer_good_foamy]

He did Mandy, which was AWESOME.

[shadowkat]

Ah, I forgot about the revenge flick Mandy.