#midsommar review

[hannahwatcheshorror]

MIDSOMMAR (2019)

💁‍♀️Strong Female Lead

This film haunts me. This film portrays grief and I suppose how it can twist and change a person. But that is only one way to look at a very complicated movie. This film is an experience, I felt it in my core. 

(TW Suicide)

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

We hit the ground running as Florence Pugh's character, Dani, rocks us with the news about her sister and parents (with the horrifying accompanying visuals that come up multiple times during the film) and I can still hear Dani scream sobbing. I can still see the look on her boyfriend's face (cause he was just about to break up with her but is now trapped). 

Then, they are in Sweden and it's mushroom tea time. The desire to fit in, sitting in my chair in the movie theater I felt pressured to drink and no one was even offering me free drugs in a scenic location. Things are okay at first when they meet the cult, as most cults seem, they seem nice! Until they watch the eldest of the group commit ritual suicide so as not to bring down the pack. On only their second day there. Yeah, that's a lot.

From there things really devolve a lot and get mad creepy. The drugs are flowing, the flowers are growing, tempers are flaring, visitors are disappearing… But there is such helplessness because of A) the size of the cult, B) being in a foreign country, and C) lack of faculties from being constantly high and hallucinating.

Then it's the ritual impregnation scene which was hilariously haunting but also sad though it does lead us to one of my favorite scenes in modern day horror: The group sobbing scene. The eeriness of the group sobbing scene sticks with me to this day. It is so hard for me to explain why this struck such a chord with me the first time it happens (because the finale is also group sobbing) but this one, just the women, it's so personal. It's Dani and the women who aren't part of the ceremony weeping about Dani's sorrows, feeling as deep a pain as Dani feels, which is terrifying in its own right, these people are unhinged. But Dani is sort of about it. She has spent all her time crying alone up until this point and now, it's being welcomed and joined.

And finally, while I don't think that the boyfriend deserved to die for his transgressions (though cheating is for cowards and subhumans), Dani’s metamorphosis would not have been complete if she did not choose him as the final sacrifice. If she did not sacrifice the last bit of her old life. This is her death too. Her mourning is deep and heavy and real. I have a lump in my chest as I relive this scene. The chaos, death, rebirth, and beauty. Dani was gone. Only the May Queen remained.

[pintsofguinnesmakeyoustrong]

utterly obsessed with this midsommar review

[orchidscurse]

may has been filled with horrors on one hand and the beauty of spring on the other, so it felt right to write about the wicker man in this month's piece. 🌱🪵🩷

[blackandwhlteaesthetlc]

Florence was a guest on Zach Braff’s podcast to discuss her career and their new film A Good Person, which is out today!

I especially loved this bit at the end about her thoughts on possibly Directing films one day:

“I’d love to be a Director. I think I need to learn a bit more. I need to soak it up. It’s such a tricky position to have, and to lead, and to be a leader on a film set. You really have to be-You have to know your shit. And if you don’t a lot of people can get, you know, twisted up by that. And I think, for me, I don’t want to go in and not know and then affect an actor badly…It’s something that you really should go in knowing that you can do it. So I think I’m just going to do a bit more learning.”

[scarabjewels]

Films I Watched Recently

Lately, I have watched a number of movies, which is a hobby. I was able to come back to after a long time. I was writing so many detailed opinion essays, so how about a brief short ones in a list.

(SPOILERS)

1) Immaculate

I watched this twice, with different sets of friends as well.

On my first watch, me and my best friend and we watched it without subtitles. Literally in Sydney Sweeney's character's perspective.

The story follows an American nun, Sister Cecilia, moving into a convent in Italy. In a miracle, she concieved a child as a virgin. The convent practically treasured her as they believed she bore the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

As we watched the movie, and my best friend questioning everything that is happening, Cecilia's experience in the convent gradually becomes creepier and extreme.

Just before the immaculate conception, Cecilia was shown the nail that the convent believed to be one of the nails that pinned Christ to the cross and "fainted". Cecelia then always felt like she was being watched, and in during her pregnancy, she was worshipped by the convent, all except her friend and another nun.

She was almost killed by a nun and we did not know why because we were lacking subtitles, so on the second watch with our other close friends, I learned that the nun was jealous and enraged, saying that it should've been her.

Cecilia's friend and a fellow nun, Sister Gwen, grew concerned as the convent refused to let Cecilia go to a hospital, and I think she was suspecting the cultist ways of the convent. When she spoke up, she was taken away, and we found out she was silenced to death.

Cecilia tried to escape on her own, which was almost successful. But she was caught and was locked up and watched closely in the last days of her trimester.

In the end, she was able to escape just in time to birth the child and well I don't think anyone who experienced a cult negatively will ever keep a reminder of it.

The film had A24 vibes, as it reminded me of Robert Egert's " The Witch" and Midsommar. The pacing was good, the build up, characters, horror elements, practically very decent.

Yet, somehow it's a 5.8 in IMDb but scored decent in Rotten tomatoes, 71% in Tomato meters and 60% in audience score.

It's not a horror but much more a good thriller, it can be triggering for pro-life and r**** victims, as the ending is subtlety but strongly graphic.

Personally, I liked it, it is a decent cult thriller. I think it is best to watch with friends, as admittedly the movie came of as mid, so watching it alone may not be as exciting.

2. Helter Skelter

Now this, this was A BLAST.

Please be warned of how much pornesque sex scenes it has (not quick regular movie sex scenes, trust me).

I already wrote about it and gave my thoughts so here's a summary.

Helter Skelter is a campy psychological thriller centering Lilico, a rising star in Japan and a plastic surgery addict. She is a protagonist but her story shows how much of an asshole she is, as she suffers from the extreme side effects of her extensive surgeries, her obsession with beauty, manic episodes, and how may people around her suffers from her actions.

I took the liberty to read the original manga of the same name, and the movie had many creative liberties with visuals and honestly the its visuals in the movie is beyond the manga, while the manga is campy and slightly mod, the movie was CAMP. The content was very much the same, that it was very impressive.

There are some things in the manga I wished occured in the movie: Hada being around the same age as Lilico, instead Hada was a pushover in her late 20s in the movie, and the detective's bubbly but calculative personality which became just weird and creepy in the movie.

It was a great watch with friends, I kind of preferred it.

3. Midsommar

This movie is the last one on this list that I watched with friends, and I hated it, and I was not alone.

The plot involves a depressed (yes it is actually relevant that she is depressed during this time) Dani tagging along with her boyfriend and his friends' trip to Sweden in their research of a cult, in the midsummer where nightfall was pretty non existent during this time in that country.

It pissed me off, but it was very entertaining. I hated the roofie consummation so much. JUST WHY.

I can handle the gore, the bear being gutted, skinned people, but that one just...no.

Anyway, it's a good thing I watched it with people because I don't think I could handle that alone.

4. The Help

Youtube shorts made me watch it, and it was WORTH IT.

The Help is the adaptation of the book of the same name, according to IMDb "An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis."

Skeeter, the aspiring author, is borne in an above average working class white family herself but was raised by her maid all her life. Her friends, members of the city's socialite group, were borderline participating in racist activities.

The first two maids Skeeter interviewed were the maids of her friends in the group. Aibileen, the narrator of the movie and a major contributer to the book (honestly, CO WRITER) , worked for Elizabeth, who started working as a maid at age 14. The second was Minny who worked for the incredibly mean socialite leader, Hilly.

While the project was risky enough for the time, as in the movie shows the dangers of speaking up in the 1960s, the hate crime was just as violent, and the culture was discriminated unjustly. However, it was pushed through.

The film was somehow a feel good movie, or maybe it just was. I just loved everything about it, Hilly getting her just desserts...ooohhh boy she did, Minny and Celia's friendship, and the scenes after the book was published, it was perfection.

I do feel like movies like this are almost nowhere to be found nowadays, everything is just so dramatic, complex, edgy or just trying hard. The simplicity of the film with just good acting (the star studded cast worked so well here) and a great story. I am so glad that Jessica Chastain and Bruce Dallas Howard actually stared in a movie together, it is so hilarious and just soo right, just watching them interact in a movie made it so worth while already.

5. ReLIFE : Live Action

More of a rewatch, Relife is the tale of a 27 year old man ,who is dissatisfied with his life, offered by an experimental company for a chance to relive his life. He finds himself turning younger and living a full year as a 3rd year high schooler with a group of friends and finding love in the process.

Another feel good movie. I never watched the anime and honestly I think I'm content not watching it. I liked the journey of Arata, he did not relive like a teenager, but as an adult trying to find purpose in a different environment. When he was rejected, he took it like an adult, which he is (I just like that maturity actually was portrayed in the story realistically). The twist was so simple yet sad at the same time, Hishiro, Arata's crush and first friend during his relife, is also partaking in the same experiment (she doesn'tknow he is in Relife tho). The sad part is that she also likes him and rejected him because she knew it is impossible for them to get together, as the experiment would erase any memories of other people of them after it ends. They are both in the experiment, meaning they will not be able to remember each other after. Yoake, the overseer of their experiments, sympathizes with their situation and at least in the live action, made subtle moves for them beyond his job as an observer.

Overall, it's a sweet story about living with intention with some love stories here and there.

6. Legally Blonde

After rewatching 'The Devil Wears Prada' so much, I decided to watch a couple of old chic flicks.

Legally Blonde is THAT GIRL.

(Google did not exactly provide me the source of this synopsis, just know it came up top)

"Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) has it all. She wants nothing more than to be Mrs. Warner Huntington III. But there is one thing stopping him (Matthew Davis) from proposing: She is too blond. Elle rallies all of her resources and gets into Harvard, determined to win him back."

This is everything. Just a good time. Warner is shit. Elle conquered and made a friend: Warner's (ex)fiance, Jennifer Coolidge and her future hubby, Emmett. Callahan should eat a brick. Tye bend and snap was nonsense but well, It's there.

10/10

Feel good. Great message: As Barbie once said, you can be anything (imo). Also just really sweet.

7. Guillermo del Toro's Pinnochio

This was heartbreaking and themes are very touchy.

Fascism, loss, grief and immortality.

This pinnochio story is much more grimm that the last 3 movies I watched. I did not expect so much of the Nazi influence in the setting of the movie, or the amount of melancholic realities it was going to give. Geppeto's grief at the loss of his sons was devastating to watch, but when Pinnochio became an actual boy soldier, I couldn't help but just remember Jojo Rabbit, I never watched it in full but I saw glimpses of it so much in YouTube, that it does relate to this story in some way. Jojo Rabbit was history in the eyes of a child, so was this version of Pinnochio, that you would be so engrossed with its wonder but then it snaps you back to the reality of it, in Pinnochio, he witnesses and experiences physical abuse and exploitation, experiences death too many times, becomes a boy soldier in training and gets to see his loved ones die as he outlives them all.

A scene stuck to me in this movie, more like a question. Pinnochio becomes friends with a boy from his town, Candlewick, when they were reunited in a training camp for boy soldiers. Candlewick stood up to his father just before a bomb lands in the camp , literally in between his father and Pinnochio. Pinnochio's body blows out of the camp and he dies, only to come back a little bit after. Candlewick survived the bomb, but couldn't find Pinnochio. Candle wick did not appear again after that. I really wondered if he even lived or went home or something. Literally nothing. The cliffhanger was not disappointing but man, I really wanted to see Pinnochio and Candlewick reuniting.

As for the movie, it's a good watch. I had watched a lot of Guillermo's projects, and I think this is the second time his movie featured war themes mingled with child wonder. Just a thought.

8. Five Nights at Freddie's

Apparently, I have one more movie I watched with a friend and it's this one.

It started off good then just gets cheesy in the end. It's quality reminds me a lot of mid to late 2010s comedy films like "Happy Death Day" or " Ready or Not", but the overall premise is more similar to the Scooby Doo live action films, ironically they starred Matthew Lillard here too.

It's too cheesy, it's not bad or good either. I wish it had more horror to it like the game. I did not play it but I did have the pleasure to enjoy the commentary of it by the King of Five Nights at Freddie's himself: Markiplier and I was dissappointed that he did not appear in the film.

Needless to say, I was not entirely sure if it was trying too hard or not trying at all. But it did came off unfulfilled to the namesake.

That's about it and here's some more rewatches I felt like I do not have to make a semi detailed review on it:

• Julie & Julia ♡♡

• Emma (2019) ♡♡♡

• Chef ♡♡♡

• Swallow (2019) ♡

• Memoirs of a Geisha ♡♡

[jason-please-see-a-psychiatrist]

some of my favorite reviews ive left on letterboxd bc im a comedic genius

[notherbadboydown]

"guess the horror movie by the letterboxd review"

silly little game i made for the magazine my friends and i do for fun

enjoy!

(answers in the tags

[the-horror-snob-archives]

Rewatching "Midsommar" for the fifth time. I really like this movie, Ari Aster is a fantastic director. I love his work. "Hereditary" was great too and he's got a really fucked up short film on YouTube called "The Strange Thing About The Johnsons"

[granitefilmreviews]

[pricelessreviews]

[hannibalismos-jaaneman]

the fact that barbie's rotten tomatoes score is 90% and oppenheimer's is 94% says a lot about us as a society.

[lov3lyl0vr]

sooooo deeply in love with movies that make me so out of it like Black Swan, Dont Worry Darling, Midsommar...

god they just make me fucking insane

[gravecinema]

Grave Reacts: Midsommar (2019) - 06/20/2023

In this video, my roommate will be reacting to her first time watch of Midsommar from 2019. She was great with the predictions on this one, and she really enjoyed it!

[imalloutofgin]

Even more films I've watched recently that I haven't had time to post about... Yes, I know, I'm bad at this...

Sicario: Day Of The Soldado (2018): I would sum this up as "they had me going in the first half, not gonna lie". A scathing indictment of the American war machine. 4/5 stars.

The Raid 2 (2014): Obviously the fight choreography is amazing, but this sequel had more plot and character development than the last. Very fun and suspenseful. Loved it even more than the original. 5/5 stars.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022): It is exactly what you expect a Top Gun movie to be. Does exactly what it says on the tin. 3/5 stars.

13 Assassins (2010): I liked this a lot! I especially enjoyed the horror elements. I found myself very engrossed all the way through. 4/5 stars.

The Lego Movie (2014): This was surprisingly good. I really enjoyed it's anti-capitalist messaging and over all I just had a really fun time watching it. 3.5/5 stars.

Midsommar (2019): The imagery from this film has stuck with me for quite some time. It was quite a harrowing film, deeply unsettling, and had me gripped from start to finish. 5/5 stars.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019): I think this may be the most enjoyment I have ever felt from a John Wick film. I did like the others but this had an even greater sense of fun and playfulness. The film knows what it is and leans in. 4/5 stars.

[oceanic-invert]

Just finished midsommar and have thoughts.

The cinematography, sound design and costume/prop/set design is amazing but from a horror perspective for me it's lacking.

It's lacking those moments that just unsettle you, it's lacking those crucial moments that build tension and a connection to the characters, even the admittedly brutal displays of the bodies at the end lacks something that I can't quite place my finger on.

While I do believe there is a place for foreshadowing in horror, there is far too much in this film to the point where it just blatantly tells you what's going to happen especially with the art on the walls.

Alot of the acting felt bland as well, and the writing felt a bit empty. Everything was too slow, until the last ten mins or so when suddenly everything was thrown at you.

Overall, I'm just really disappointed in it as a horror film but maybe I've just been desensitised to gore by hannibal and don't find it as disturbing as most people.

[whorrorgrl]

My Beef with Parker Finn's 2022 Film, Smile.

My gripe with Smile (2022) is not because I'm a hater. I mean...I am on most things as I'm sure we all are. I briefly reviewed this movie in my monthly watches and didn't have anything good to say but said it anyway. I had an idea as to why this movie annoyed me but couldn't put it into words then. Weeks later, in a longer format, I can finally properly explain why this movie irks me.

It simply was a missed opportunity.

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain, nor prove. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying present.

Let's start on a good note.

I love the visuals for Smile. The eery smirk combined with the tilt of the head that casts shadows on piercing eyes. It was enough to be the movie's entire marketing. What was the plot? No clue. We just knew there were creepy people posted up around cities, baseball games, and abandoned roads staring ominously into cameras. It even drew my attention, who usually miss movie advertisements in this day and age of streaming. That's the only thing I like about the movie. The actual smile.

Smile tried too hard to be something it was not. It took itself too seriously. The visuals are unforgettable, fresh, and reminiscent of the Joker, whose image is iconic on its own. But this same visual is playful. It reminds me of movies like Fantasy Island (2020), Truth or Dare (2018), Countdown (2019), Happy Death Day (2017), etc. They all have visuals and plot that aren't taken too seriously, or if serious, is still a fun, self-aware watch. Blumhouse, not A24. Cronenberg, not Carpenter. I tie it back to the obsession movies have today with being "elevated."

Take Get Out, for instance.

I consider Get Out elevated horror. However I'm not using Get Out to prove a point about the term. I'm using it in the sense of Jordan Peele starting a new trend in storytelling.

The 2017 film stars Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams as an interracial couple going to see the 'rents. Chris, black, is nervous about how Rose's white parents will receive him -- he allegedly is the first black partner she's been with. She reassures him it'll be fine, so off they go to unpredictable horrors. This movie, like many before, intertwined racism with modern horror plot lines. Similar to movies like You're Next (2011) and The Strangers (2008). Only racial. We see this in 1992's Candyman, so racism interwoven into horror didn't start with Peele, sure, but more so revived.

I say revive because we begin to see series like Lovecraft Country (2020), Them (2021); movies like Karen (2021), The Invitation (2022) get greenlit that feature racism backdropped. Many wanted to profit off of Peele's paved path and a movie such as his having huge box office success made a lot of similar works be trusted to be released. A lot of these works copied Peele's signature directing, down to the sound effects and how their actors were managed. Others were decent enough and I was here for the storyline...even if it was becoming a boxed in trope. Diet slave movies.

With elevated horror, Hereditary, Midsommar, the Witch, It Follows, etc. were hits after hits. It started to grow the pretentious sectors of horror fans that didn't want to go near a slasher or poltergeist ridden movie unless it linked back to some multilayered psycho analysis of some textbook chapter of sociology/psychology. We've kind of already seen that with The Shining (1980) and how its talked about then and decades after. Everything had to be deep, doubled up on meaning with slow, lingering shots to match. I adore many of these, don't get me wrong. It's just a new era of horror like any wave.

But Smile trying to ride that wave annoyed me.

How many more movies about grief-horny demons can we have? Actually, I don't even think that's my issue. I can watch ten in a row and love them all. But at least know what you're making. It's why Riverdale is a corny, funny mess...and Thirteen Reasons Why, who took itself too seriously, is an unwatchable corny, annoying mess. With visuals like that, do you really think making a movie about a woman facing her grief of a lost loved one is what I want to see? I want to see playfulness. A group of friends thinking the other's just killing themselves off when really the victims are witnessing the entity. A survive the night. Something Evil Dead (2013) meets Drag Me to Hell (2009).

Smile taking itself too seriously, as if they're tackling the topic of grief in a new fresh way, feels like if House of Wax (2005) tried to be Hereditary (2018); just a silly family dispute. What if Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) tried to be Raw (2016); family members going on a unique diet? Even if Smile didn't want to handle grief differently like Antichrist (2009), Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019), The Witch (2015), The Babadook (2014), The Descent (2005), Pet Sematary (1989 & 2019), The Final Girls (2015), The Uninvited (2009), or its better twin The Night House (2020), then why exist? A cash grab then? If so, now we fall under morals. Did you try to depict grief in a different scope terribly or cash in on the growing focus on mental illness? Which is it? 'Cause I got you in a rock and a hard place.

A win we deserved for such a year as 2022 was Smile just being schlocky with some fun jumpscares and a good enough director to drudge it out of the murky forgettable waters of fad-filled, cheap movies like the ones of Countdown, Truth or Dare, or even Fantasy Island. No offense. The Boogeyman (2023) is a perfect example. The title is explanation enough but with a solid director such as Rob Savage, this movie, also about grief, didn't feel repetitive and is actually able to be on someone's favorites list. It was a solid watch and pretty good. I assumed the childish villain’s retelling would set a silly tone for the movie but it held its own and executed a plot we can take seriously. Seeing people deeply analyze Smile like a art critic would a painting (what it means, what it signifies, the undertones, bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh) kills me. It's 3D painting of a pool on a sidewalk.

The Night House is truly what I believe Smile was aiming for and has earned the respect that Smile thought it would get. I'm really so saddened by a disappointing plot surrounded by one of the best horror visuals I have ever seen. Let's all bow our heads and mourn.