Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Will Poulter, Ellora Torchia, Archie Madekwe, Liv Miones, Anna Astrom, Isabelle Grill, Julia Ragnarsson, Louise Peterhoff, Henrik Norlen, Bjorn Andresen, Gunnel Fred, Austin R. Grant, Anki Larsson, Levente Puczko-Smith, Rebecka Johnston, Johan Matton, Mats Blomgren, Hampus Hallberg, Tove Skeidsvoll, Lars Varinger, Balazs Megveri, Anders Back, Lennart R. Svensson, Katarina Weidhagen, Klaudia Csanvi, Anders Beckman, Agnes Westerlund Rase, Maximilian Slash Marton, Tomas Engstrom, Dora Ferencczi, Dag Andersson.
We look upon the world as if we know everything, that the strange ways of old have all been catalogued and researched, we believe we are enlightened enough, grown up to now see that fairy tales are mere effigies of a time and place that no longer exists, the three witches that plagued Macbeth would now be treated in a different manner, that creatures that can take human form are best left to the imagination of 19th Century writers and those searching for an extra bite to their romantic lives.
The monsters are real though, and they wear our faces, they practise in the quiet solitude, and everything about them is normal, but it is in that sense of outdoor freedom that the cult survives and becomes a concern of worship, an offshoot of any religion can take on this sense of the unnerving and frankly disturbing, but it takes a detailed study to see how dangerous such people left to their own ways can harness such energy, and it is one explored with brutal and unashamed effect by Ari Astor in the Pastoral Horror, Midsommar.
If anyone could have doubted the range of emotions that Florence Pugh is willing to put herself through as she continues her career, then a Pastoral Horror built upon by the imagination of Ari Astor is not the place to air any qualms, the utter drama portrayed by Ms. Pugh as she is sucked in to the events around her, dragging her in till she takes an active part in dealing with grief and the mysteries of a pagan cult which has begun their once in 90 year ritual, is astonishing.
Ms. Pugh may have less than a dozen films behind her but she has shown in each one that she has absolute depth and willingness to seize the role and bring it to a place in which the cinema goer has a natural affinity with her character, but also is concerned by the sense of the enigmatic fury within. This wave of feminine wrath, of female provocation is what used to be one of cinema’s more dynamic effects and is rarely caught in the same fashion without descending into pastiche and hollow sentiment. Thanks to the subtly of performance and channelling of grief used as a precursor to rage, Ms. Pugh’s Dani evokes memories of the golden age of cinema but with the power of 21st Century resentment added in for excellent measure.
It is in nature that we expect safety, a laid-back reminder of all that we have left behind, but it is also in that closed off world that we are confronted with some unpleasant truths, that there are those willing to sacrifice a certain level of humanity in search of their own belief, the ritual which takes on the guise of law, and to get in the way of that belief is to court an evil and set yourself up as a victim.
Midsommar is excellent horror film but one that will stay in your mind for different reasons, not because of the supernatural, the chase, the mind-set of the victims, but because it is all so ordinary, the whisper of the cult should never be underestimated in how conventional they appear.
Ian D. Hall