"I was most excited for you to come."

I can't believe I've mustered the strength to sit through this grueling and macabre nightmare 3 times now. That feat seemed much easier with Hereditary but with Midsommar it seems I'll never be able to peacefully watch this movie. Every time I walk out of the theater I get a headache, I feel close to puking, and I just feel emotionally distraught. On the other hand the crowd of friends I watched this with said things like "it was boring" "too long" "pretentious" "it wasn't even horror" and I can understand many of these criticisms (especially the runtime. Should've been shorter or cut all the "fluff" out) but for me this movie is a triumph of truly disheartening and stomach churning horror. I notice more things I didn't even notice on first watch like "skin the fool" and the murals that seem to speak and tell stories although they are inanimate. Midsommar isn't a blumhouse horror movie or even similar to any of the film's it's being compared to. With clear influences from movies like 'The Wicker Man' still Midsommar is its own unique movie. The only films I could think of that are similar to Midsommar are Annihilation, Suspiria, and mother! - all of which have elements of surrealism, avant garde horror, arthouse, and metaphysical horror. I think the biggest thing for me in this film is the way that this movie has this genuine unending feeling of dread, frame after frame every single shot is so unnerving and made me uncomfortable. It was as though I was there in that village and I was experiencing this nightmare front and center. But in a way all of it was so beautiful even the gruesome mutilated bodies. There's something so enchanting and hypnotic about the terror of Midsommar. I never wanted to take my eyes away from the screen but I wanted so badly to never have to experience this ever again. Watching Midsommar feels like confronting all of humanities demons and to say it's a sickening and twisted nightmare is an understatement. As brain matter seeps out of crushed skulls, flowers come to life, blood pours from mangled flesh, lungs exhale wickedness, and a queen dances until the others around her fall, Ari Aster masterfully crafts a maestro vision of splendor and destruction.