Midsommar Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

By Jack Pooley / July 4, 2019

1. It Lacks The Visceral Impact Of Hereditary

A24

If you're expecting Midsommar to deliver a massive punch to the gut like Hereditary did, you should probably forget about that right now.

To be fair, Midsommar's opening sequence is an absolutely harrowing primer for the rest of the story, but the film never once gets close to the abject, heart-wrenching horror of that decapitation scene from Hereditary.

Though this film lingers on its gory violence far more insistently than Aster's first film, it lacks the genuinely stomach-churning impact of Hereditary's more spare grisliness, and overall the human drama elements, though strong, can't match Hereditary's genuinely upsetting grief narrative.

These issues aside, Midsommar is absolutely a horror film worth watching, and here's why...