Midsommar thoughts
Jul. 14th, 2019 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beer_good_foamyOK, 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.
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.
...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.
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.
