"It's Long Day's Journey into Night meets Poltergeist," I surmised after completing my first viewing of Hereditary, the deeply unsettling debut feature from filmmaker Ari Aster that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. After a second viewing, that evaluation only strengthened, the film possessing traits equally indebted to the unspoken pains found in the work of family-infatuated dramatists like Eugene O'Neill and the dread-induced fixations of Tobe Hooper. 

Now Aster returns with his follow-up, Midsommar, a creepy, cult-like (Wicker Man-inspired?) creation that looks unsettling and, at least via the way the trailer has been cut, rhythmic in its horrific beats. 

Midsommar was shot right as Hereditary was making waves in theaters (Wikipedia states that filming began on July 30th, 2018 and concluded the following October), so it will be interesting to see how the quick turnaround affects Aster, if at all. Hereditary cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski returns to lense this one, choosing the sunlit brightness of the outdoors over the interior darkened corridors of the previous film. 

Midsommarwill be released on August 9th, 2019 and the trailer can be viewed below.

Will you be checking out Midsommar? Let us know in the comments below. 

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