10 Horror Movies One Step From Perfection

Yes, okay, so Hereditary helmer Ari Aster’s darkly comic folk horror Midsommar is undeniably a modern classic.

Audaciously filmed entirely in broad daylight, this trippy nightmare sees Florence Pugh put in a career-best turn as a grieving student who is initially disturbed by - and eventually seduced into - the odd traditions and unsettling antics of a Swedish commune that her comically awful boyfriend and his friends are studying.

The film is filled with stunning, horrifying imagery and Pugh's performance is a moving powerhouse, not to mention the film's extraordinary opening sequence.

And whilst there are a lot of criticisms of the film's weak supporting characters, it's worth noting that the college kids played by Jack Reynor, Will Poulter, and William Harper Jackson are intended to be boorish uncaring caricatures of bravado and ignorance, as the viewer sees the film through the perspective of Pugh's unstable anti-heroine.

But… Did the severely disabled minor "villain" Reuben actually add anything to the story, or was his appearance just a cheap shock tactic?

Much like the graphic rape of Reynor's character late in the film, the presence of a physically deformed character seems more interested in eliciting gasps of horror or amusement than anything more substantial or thoughtful, and it's difficult to defend the two scenes given how effective the film has already been without indulging in tasteless exploitation.