Today's film is quite odd. Not for the genre standard dynamics it uses, but for the fresh and unique mise-en-scene. I am talking about Midsommar (2019), directed by Ari Aster.
The plot is quite simple actually, we have the typical group of college students (including the main character, who is passing through the loss of her family) visiting a commune run by a sort of neo-pagan cult. In our story, the village is located in the Swedish countryside. The locals will be all nice and welcoming to the visitors at first, but they will soon show them the most morbid and perverted side of their belief. The adepts justify their madness as being necessary for their life, showing how deeply their mind is conditioned. In fact, there is no supernatural force in Midsommar, the only danger and element of tension is due to the way the cult behaves.
What makes this film outstanding is how it's being realized. Starting with the cinematography, which in horror is usually really dark and gloomy. The bright colours
of flowers and the sparkling green grass are dominant, constantly illuminated by the intense light of the Sun (the set is in Sweden by Summer, after all). The light is present also in the goriest and most disturbing moments of the film, putting them on full display. The directory makes huge use of wide shots, interrupting them just with really tight close-ups, probably for giving emphasise the sense of alienness of the main characters. In most of the frames, there is something out of place, mostly in the behaviour of the locals, even when they are smiling the vibe they give is quite anxious. The rhythm of the movie is also really slow, exploding every now and then in moments of pure madness and violence.
Midsommar might not be a film for all, because of the realization, really far from the standards set by horror movies and also for the slowness of the film itself (there is not even one single jump-scare here). Even so, it is a film highly recommended to anyone who wants something really capable of disturbing the audience, and not only with the superficial view of gore.
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