Written and directed by Ari Aster and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, with Austin Butler and Emma Stone, here’s a first look at the trailer for EDDINGTON.
In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
“A lot of these characters are dueling political ideas converging into different, isolated people,” Aster says. “I wanted to make a sort of American genre epic with updated archetypes. But it felt important that the movie be sympathetic to all of these characters and to their fears. These are normal people who are flawed, but who believe they’re standing up for what’s right, and what they’re feeling is not wrong, it’s just that it all comes out in really weird, distorted and frightening ways. There are deep structural inequalities that have always been here and they’re obviously still here. There is a terrible problem out there, and a lot of these right-wing conspiracies borrow from left-wing conspiracies of the 1960s and 70s, and the people who are gripped by them are not wrong and they’re not crazy. They’ve just been driven crazy by this system and the way that they’re haunted by it.”
The Hi-Pointe Theater, at 1005 McCausland Ave in St. Louis, is the best place to see movies. Something about its city locale, its nostalgia factor, its retro interior, and the fact that they sell wine by the bottle make me think that any pagan cult in town will be glad to know that MIDSOMMAR is currently playing there. MIDSOMMAR is an absolutely terrifying new film about a couple who travel to Sweden to visit a rural hometown’s 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. MIDSOMMAR is the best horror film I’ve seen since THE WITCH and the best film of 2019 so far. I’ve seen it at The Hi-Pointe twice and that’s where I plan on seeing it a third time . Showtimes July 8th through July 11th are 5pm and 8pm. Wednesday night is $5 Night!
I’m not the only one. The critics are digging MIDSOMMAR:
Adam Graham at The Detroit News raves:
“Midsommar” gets it right. This twisted daylit nightmare is a masterpiece of mood, all the more disturbing since it’s set entirely underneath the bright, beating sun. Anyone can be scared of the dark. Ari Aster makes you scared of the light. “
James Perkins at Starlog claims:
“Midsommar is another perfect entry into the growing filmography of Ari Aster who is quickly becoming a true tour-de-force in the world of abnormal horror and can already be considered a modern auteur of the genre. “
and Victoria Alexander at Film Festivals Today wrote:
“A stunning, unexpected nightmare for a group of grad students without a clue. Doesn’t leave much room for sympathy for the victims. It’s a clever film worth seeing twice. “
After depicting a suffocatingly tense descent into one family’s worst nightmare with HEREDITARY, Ari Aster has given himself much more room to flex his directing muscles. With just his second feature, MIDSOMMAR proves he’s a master in the foreboding style with just a touch of substance to back it up. While his previous film dealt better with the complications of grief and relationships while giving us characters we cared about, MIDSOMMAR feels like a greater achievement in terms of what he’s able to do as a director with a seemingly smaller bag of horror tricks. Despite the openness of the Swedish countryside and the bright, blue sky overhead (they actually shot in Budapest, Hungary), the same feelings of claustrophobia and uneasiness he was previously so successful at achieving are still very much present. He avoids the sophomore slump as a director but isn’t quite as successful in doing so as a writer.
Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor) are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. To move on past a horrific family tragedy that haunts her thoughts, Dani joins Christian and his college friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday filled with psychedelic drugs and overly-friendly villagers, slowly transforms into an unnerving and shocking series of events that tear apart the group.
It’s clear what the end destination is for these travelers. As evident in classic films like THE WICKER MAN or even THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE where our heroes go on a sunny escape that’s destined for doom, in this genre, the journey to get there becomes more important than the destination. What it lacks in surprises or scares, it more than makes up for with uneasy atmosphere. There’s a lot of quiet tension, especially for fans of weird, religious cult films. That being said, your patience for this type of filmmaking will be tested. True believers of slow religious horror need only apply (drink the kool-aid with caution).
In a way, director Ari Aster fetishizes the ceremonial aspects, soaking in every sun-filled shot and laboring over every pause in the ritual. He’s in no hurry when creating the initial facade of peaceful ambiance. After a while, the slow methodical manner washes over you, in a fever-dream sorta way. And by the end, the backgrounds pulsate and the experience becomes downright hallucinatory as you question if these rites of passage are truly transcendent and giving birth to new life or downright barbaric. The fact that Aster has somehow put a trance on the audience to make you question your own beliefs truly speaks to his cinematic power as a director.
The cliche of Americans acting dumb overseas is becoming a bit tired. When the male friends aren’t focused on drugs and sex, jabs at each other and the village feel like a forced attempt at adding levity to the dour tone of the film. Between the college thesis discussions, the clunky frat jokes, and the awkward relationship bickering, Aster’s dialogue doesn’t quite find its footing. Thankfully, he’s much more confident in just letting long sequences go on without dialogue pushing the narrative. He has a tendency to intentionally shock you with violent imagery, from the disturbing opening to the flashes of gruesome deaths (he clearly has a thing for head trauma). In the end, you’re going to remember the film for how it made you feel more so than what it has to say.
While the film may be watered down when it comes to handling the weight and repercussions of grief compared to HEREDITARY, it excels at showing the different approaches to gender in developed society versus a more rural or ancient society. Dani is belittled by her boyfriend and his friends while the Swedish community elevates the power of the woman. Florence Pugh excels at playing the grief-striken martyr. Throughout the film, she’s constantly apologizing for how she is “misinterpreting” situations or for her conversations with her boyfriend or his friends. You feel the burden and shame she puts upon herself, as well as how traditional societies make women feel for exhibiting feelings. As much as MIDSOMMAR is a horror film in the traditional sense, it’s just as much a story about Dani becoming a version of herself that she didn’t know she had the potential to be. And when she’s finally able to expel all the negative energy she has kept pent up for so long – in a chilling and emotional group therapy scene with other women – then she is finally able to ascend to a place of power in her own life.
Interestingly, MIDSOMMAR opens with a shot of ancient drawings depicting aspects of the ceremonies to come. The drawings then open up like a stage curtain, revealing the cold and snowy opening of the film. It’s as if the film is presenting the audience as voyeurs, openly acknowledging us and signaling that we’re about to witness a performance. This idea translates well with the Americans going abroad story and being a stranger in this foreign land watching these rituals. Additionally, it feels like an idea that’s a companion to the dollhouse visuals he goes back to again and again in HEREDITARY. Whether this idea is read as a positive or negative in terms of how he views his audience is certainly open to debate, but it seems clear that Ari Aster enjoys setting the stage for big sweeping motions in small family tragedies.
The camera pulls back from a modern treehouse that’s framed perfectly by a window frame. This is followed by a slow pan around the room that reveals a carefully rendered dollhouse. Just as the camera zooms in to reveal a detailed figurine in one of the bedrooms, the shot transforms into a real-life scenario where we aren’t just watching fabricated figures but actual people. Right from this opening shot, director Ari Aster has set the stage that HEREDITARY is not here to necessarily scare you, but make you question your surroundings and the way you go about your everyday life. Of course, there’s the allusion to having a creator and being placed here by a higher being, but the film is not interested in theological questions. What it does question is how much do we owe to our household – the familia household, more specifically. And while the house as a structure might be more of a symbol of what’s passed down from generation to generation, what’s worth questioning is what’s going on inside of our parents (and our parents’ parents) and the miniature rooms they build to hide dark secrets that end up getting passed on to the next generation.
Toni Collette plays Annie Graham, a grieving artist and mother who is struggling with the death of her mother. As each member of the family deals with the grief and the strange events that transpire following her death, new information and feelings buried deep within the family begin to surface.
That’s about as brief of a synopsis I can give without alluding to some of the turns the story takes. What stands out the most in HEREDITARY are the performances. The film is anchored by a grueling and emotional turn from Toni Collette. It’s easy to see why Toni Collette is earning such critical acclaim for her performance. Even her physical demeanor shows the internal turmoil that continues to build throughout the film. Collette’s character shows that there isn’t just one way to grieve, and her journey becomes the reason why HEREDITARY works so well as a family drama first and foremost.
Despite the claims that have been made, it’s a horror film for the characters but not quite as much for the audience. In that respect, you sympathize with the horrific situation they’re dealing with more than being terrified by it. This, of course, is up until when the horror decides to rear its sudden face. While the finale may elicit some gasps from its nightmarish imagery, it’s an approach that feels more tacked on than a fluid transition. The imagery is meant to provoke, but unfortunately it also slightly undermines the haunting ambiguity of the questions the film raises.
There are some really unsettling and interesting ideas at work. What’s most intriguing is the theme that’s hinted at by the title: What if some elements of our life are predisposed because of genetic traits? The feeling of not being in control of your actions and mental state is a crippling and horrifying thought. HEREDITARY raises the stakes by presenting a type of horror that feels too real. And yet, there’s a metaphysical level to the ideas raised that incites more questions and conversations that even multiple rounds of coffee-discussions couldn’t entirely answer.
HEREDITARY, much like many of the recent acclaimed horror films, approaches the horror genre in a roundabout way. Jump scares have been replaced by situational horror. Many will be quick to compare it THE BABADOOK and THE WITCH, and the similarities are certainly there. THE BABADOOK is another film that deals with grief as an inescapable monster, while THE WITCH depicts a family slowly unraveling as fear turns one member against another. While the ending raises more eyebrows from a logical standpoint and explains away some of the mysterious, metaphysical ideas (that are much more creepy), HEREDITARY is still a standout 2018 film and further proves that the unexplained is the most unsettling element of horror’s genetic makeup.
