Midsommar

[Heisenberg]

Naked old people in horror films: Rosemary’s Baby and the Sentinel spring to mind. You can see Aster’s influences as clear as day, but I kinda like that, especially when some of my very favourite films are referenced.

It made me think of the bath scene from The Shining for obvious reasons - but Rosemary's Baby makes far more sense in terms of referencing. Especially when you consider the main theme throughout both of Aster's films.

On this topic, I think one or two nude OAPs made an appearance in It Follows, come to think of it.

[The Lone Gunman]

It made me think of the bath scene from The Shining for obvious reasons - but Rosemary's Baby makes far more sense in terms of referencing. Especially when you consider the main theme throughout both of Aster's films.

On this topic, I think one or two nude OAPs made an appearance in It Follows, come to think of it.

I believe you’re right.

To me, the scene towards the end of Midsommar was very reminiscent of the Devil dream/rape sequence in Rosemary’s Baby. That and the Wicker Man are both in my all-time top ten, so I was always likely to enjoy Midsommer.

[Heisenberg]

I believe you’re right.

To me, the scene towards the end of Midsommar was very reminiscent of the Devil dream/rape sequence in Rosemary’s Baby. That and the Wicker Man are both in my all-time top ten, so I was always likely to enjoy Midsommer.

I preferred Midsommar to Hereditary. I thought there were too many plotholes in Hereditary and I found the ending very dissatisfying,

I'm a massive fan of the horror genre and realise that I'm in a tiny minority of people who didn't like it, but apart from Toni Collette and, to an extent, Gabriel Byrne's performances it left a lot to be desired. It had some genuinely scary moments in it though, which is quite rare these days.

Midsommar had a lot more going for it, but I felt it was possibly 30mins too long and some of the character decisions were just too ridiculous. The tension in certain scenes were great though and I think the intro was outstanding (Florence Pugh's gutteral crying almost had me in tears).

Yes it has a cult, some 'dancing around the Maypole'-style scenes, it's set predominantly in daylight, and sacrifices involving fire - but it absolutely pales in comparison to The Wicker Man in my opinion (unless we're talking about the Nic Cage version ).

[The Lone Gunman]

I preferred Midsommar to Hereditary. I thought there were too many plotholes in Hereditary and I found the ending very dissatisfying,

I'm a massive fan of the horror genre and realise that I'm in a tiny minority of people who didn't like it, but apart from Toni Collette and, to an extent, Gabriel Byrne's performances it left a lot to be desired. It had some genuinely scary moments in it though, which is quite rare these days.

Midsommar had a lot more going for it, but I felt it was possibly 30mins too long and some of the character decisions were just too ridiculous. The tension in certain scenes were great though and I think the intro was outstanding (Florence Pugh's gutteral crying almost had me in tears).

Yes it has a cult, some 'dancing around the Maypole'-style scenes, it's set predominantly in daylight, and sacrifices involving fire - but it absolutely pales in comparison to The Wicker Man in my opinion (unless we're talking about the Nic Cage version ).

Hereditary - I know I enjoyed it, but I've only watched it once and to be honest I don't remember too much about it.

Midsommar character decisions - was it the theatrical version or the director's cut you watched? I ask because the latter contains a decent scene (set at night) in which Florence Pugh's character reveals that she thinks the whole set-up and some of the decisions being made by her boyfriend and his friends are very suspect. It was quite a telling addition, but Aster had to edit it out as it followed a lengthy ritual scene set at night which he also edited out at the request of the producers (like you, they thought the whole thing was too long - the director's cut is apparently the version he initially presented to them for release).

As for the Wicker Man, I first saw that when I was very young and it made quite an impression on me. I've got all sorts of Wicker Man memorabilia, including both the UK and USA first editions of the book, which are pretty valuable, and a mint copy of another book called The Quest for the Wicker Man which now sells for £100+ on Amazon. I've been considering selling that because it's not very good.

Many years ago, I loaned a copy of the Wicker Man to my closest friend in work as she hadn't seen it. We like a lot of the same sort of films, so I thought she'd be well impressed with what I regard as an absolute classic. Her verdict: "Load of rubbish. It's like a naked Scottish musical."