A24 has been hard at work drawing buzz for its forthcoming horror flick, Midsommar, the latest from writer-director and resident genre hound Ari Aster. In their most recent push, Aster dished out details about his new film, which he says will be a “Wizard Of Oz for perverts.”
“It’s less overtly a horror movie,” he tells Vulture. “But it’s still working in that same space. It’s very macabre. But people shouldn’t go in expecting Hereditary.”
That’s about as big a development we can hope to expect, being that the film is shrouded still with mystery and intrigue, even though it’s been weeks since its glorious first trailer came out:
In an obsessive bid to make sense of Aster’s new horror film (or as he likes calling it, “Scandinavian folk horror”), we have pooled together everything we know about Midsommar without ruining it for everyone.
First off, the plot. A24 offers a meager synopsis, which reads:
A couple travels to Sweden to visit their friend’s rural hometown for its fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
That leads us to think that the film will tread the same waters as the likes of The Wicker Man or last year’s Apostle. However, we’re certain—as evidenced by Aster’s recent interview with Vulture—that the film holds a certain conceptual weight. Aster says: “It’s a breakup movie, in the same way that Hereditary is a family tragedy.”
We have obviously scrubbed through the trailer more times than what is humanly allowed. And aside from the usual creepy baptisms and pastel-colored murders, there’s one thing that sticks out: the autopsy of a large grizzly bear, as seen in the trailer (timestamp: 1:09, or see here).
The film casts a stellar lineup of young actors, including Will Poulter (The Maze Runner and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch), Florence Pugh (Outlaw King), Jack Reynor (Sing Street), and William Jackson Harper (The Good Place).
On the subject of Aster as a horror director, and whether Midsommar will be next of many horror movies in his lineup, the Danish filmmaker had this to say:
“[Midsommar] is the only other horror movie I have,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And I’m pretty sure that’s going to be it for a long time. I love the genre, I consider myself a genre filmmaker in that I want to play in every genre. I would love to make a musical. I have 10 other scripts that I’ve written that I want to make and there are other things I have. I’m writing a sci-fi film and there are at least four or five movies that I have ready to go that I am excited about making that I’d like to do in succession.”
Midsommar hits US theaters August 9, 2019.
