Last year’s Hereditary, from writer-director Ari Aster, rode a hype machine rarely seen in horror. Everyone was talking about the movie. The hype train, sadly, inflated expectations leaving some unsatisfied. But there’s little doubt Aster’s Hereditary hit a nerve with its unsettling subject matter and tone. Aster is back with Midsommar, and it looks to continue Aster’s gorgeous style of terror and dread. 

On the surface, Midsommar appears like a fairly straightforward fish-out-of-water film. A young couple visit a foreign country and things go awry. In Midsommar, a young couple visit a Swedish friend during a mid-summer festival that only happens once every 90 years. While the experience begins benign enough it appears things go quickly south when Pagan cultists turn the trip upside down. 

The trailer looks gorgeous—it is A24’s modus operandi. And Aster’s directing style is clearly on display. The bright color palette hits as it contrasts with the dark imagery that’s sprinkled later in the film. Hereditary may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but the mastery in storytelling and directing should put Midsommar on your must-watch list.

Midsommar stars Florence Pugh (The Falling, Lady Macbeth), Jack Reynor (Glassland, Macbeth), William Jackson Harper (Paterson, All Good Things), and Will Poulter (Detroit, The Maze Runner). It hits theaters this summer—August 9.

Plot Synopsis

A young woman reluctantly joins her boyfriend on a summer trip where things quickly go awry.