Liz and I watched Midsommar tonight. It was fun! A horror movie of a kind that I’ve never really seen before.
It’s by the same director as Hereditary, and while I didn’t love this movie quite like that one, it’s still very, very interesting. Ari has a way of inviting you into his wonderful, terrible world that I really love. And I do mean that quite literally; his main characters are wholly ignorant of the fantastical and ancient worlds in which they’re entering, and we get to learn about that world piece by piece along with them in a way that I find super engaging.
Hereditary, for example, made me want to read about grimoires, which are very real books about very not real demons that have been around for centuries. Midsommar makes me want to learn about pagan rituals and festivals. His horror stories are built on the backs of these real cultures and beliefs that I know nothing about, and I get to learn about them through his stories (which are obviously tragic, given the genre of horror).
It’s just really fun. That along with the dramatic irony: we know the main characters are in a horror story. They do not. It’s delightful to be a step ahead of them and try to see what’s coming.
Fun movie. I liked it. If you want a REAL horror story, watch Hereditary. This film was much more straightforward, much less intense, and downright funny in places in a winking to the camera kind of way.
Also: never, ever party with a cult. It never ends well.
Night.