Harry Aster, author and director of Hereditary (Hereditary), last summer, and Midsommer, described this kind of film as "existential horror." It is a strange branch of the horror class that we do not usually find in the halls. The horror films in cinemas rely heavily on the sudden moments of panic and cheapness, and this is not here.
Medsumer, as "hereditary," depends on what we can call a tense atmosphere that is rising up to the peak point. This method may be seen by some as slow but especially necessary for horror, because the maker of the work wants to introduce the viewer to the general mood of the film or its atmosphere if the word is more accurate.
The two films are opposite in terms of the cinematic scene. The former took place in darkened corners of a house, while the Medsumer took place directly under the sun.
Although "hereditary" was a good film, its climax was far too shocking compared to the front and center parts. In Medsumer we do not find this and we do not find many shocks, but there are no surprises because the film goes to the expectations of the viewer, and the reason that Astr is not intended to scare the scenes but annoyed.
Filmmakers do the same, a rather slow start, to keep the ambiguity and then throw the surprises or shocks one after the other to reveal the final picture of what is happening, and answer the questions in the mind of the viewer.
"Medsumer" is not like his predecessor, some might mistake him for comedy because of contradictory positions between people from two different cultures, and we might say that it would be better for Aster to employ a more restrictive approach in directing some scenes.
The film begins with a dark scenario: Danny (Florence Pio) loses her family when her sister, who is mentally ill, kills herself by inhaling exhaust smoke for two cars she fired at home and killed her sleeping parents. A friend of Danny's friend, Christiane (Jack Reynor), decides to postpone their separation and invites her to travel to Sweden with his friends to meet a Swedish friend's invitation to attend a secluded gathering in the north of the country.
Christian and Danny accompany their first friend: Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter). The four Americans have been guests of their Swedish friend Billy (Wilhelm Blumgren) in his country, far north of the European continent. Billy is originally a student in the United States.
At first, the celebrations look like drug and sex rituals and dance to music. The members of the congregation or the pagan community distribute narcotic substances that cause hallucinations, affect the mind and change or change the person's perception of what he sees.
For example, you see that a thick hair grew on her feet or that the flowers around her are opening and closing and all these visual tricks from the Polish camera Pavel Bogorzelski, who also filmed the previous film and some special effects. Logic and because this is a horror film, the journey of the four Americans, along with a British young man and girl, turns into a nightmare when they see the pagan rites before them, which contain details that are somewhat disturbing to some.
Like "Legacy" inspired by Roman Polanski's "Rosemary Pepe" in 1968, Medsumer is also inspired by the classic Robin Hardie The Wicker Man in 1973. It is not, of course, the mockery of Nicolas Cage in 2006, Hardy himself.
Medsumer and The Wicker Man share pagan rituals and the desire of these communities to attract visitors from abroad. The film deals with the sexual life of the followers of the community. The first deals with the subject in terms of documentation, while the second is only by showing the then beautiful Swedish Bret Eckland to convey the idea.
Medsumer has its rhythm, which is slow in comparison to its duration (147 minutes) but is not necessarily boring. Aster's Slow-Sliding Platform Concept here is an acquisition of the story's atmosphere on the viewer's attention. The film combines two antagonisms: the seductive green nature of the souls and the bloody pagan rites.
Aster relies on the wide shots because he is portrayed in nature, and then highlights the aesthetics of the image, especially the scenes from the top, which show the harmonious human formations of the members of the community while performing her dance rituals. At the same time, wide shots serve another purpose: to highlight the weakness of characters in front of the danger before them, which they do not see because they are represented in the pagan rituals themselves.
While the special effects used to depict hallucinations give the desired sensation, the blood sights were not all of the same effect. The first two shots need not be described so annoying that the viewer with a sensuous feeling may come out of the hall or cover his eyes.
But the scenes of blood at the end of the film were largely cartoon, for the bodies looked like waxy dolls dripping with red liquid, like corpses from poor quality movies from the 1960s and 1970s.
This is the second film by Aester, who describes himself as a horror horror filmmaker, dealing with the criminal impact of religious beliefs on members of a sect in their behavior, the second directly inspired film of a classic, the second film about a woman losing a family member in an accident, With its dark end.
Sometimes, the most powerful test of a non-traditional horror film is not the public's fear, but rather the annoyance of the audience. "Medsummer" achieves a full mark on this side, and is better than many horror films worthy of the trash instead of in the lounges, such as the modern version of the deadly Chucky doll, and "Anabel returns home!"
Last word: If you want to watch a film of unconventional horror, this is your goal, but be patient, and rewarded in the end.
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The horror films found in cinemas rely heavily on the sudden snap horror moments, and this is not here.
If you want to watch a film of unconventional horror, this is your goal, but be patient and rewarded in the end.