Lots of spoilers here, in order to make it interesting for me to get in and interpret the movie:
Ari Aster's latest exercise in endurance. This one's more straightforward in plotting than his previous, Hereditary. Here we have a simple tale of a young woman, grieving the horrible suicides of her mother, father, and sister, paired with her almost-quitting-her boyfriend, who is planning on going to Sweden with a friend native to the country to attend a solstice celebration. She's in no condition to go along, but there'd be no movie if she didn't, so after some consideration (she's committed to keeping the relationship going, if he's not) they're off, with a few other friends/victims-to-be (oh come on, like you couldn't figure that out).
These opening scenes, for me, believe it or not, are the most affecting of the entire film. Grief figures prominently in both of his movies so far, and to see Dani wrestle with it is quite touching, and the situation of one partner trying (a little) to deal with another's crazy family and the fallout from them (there must be some wild-ass backstory to THEIR family issues) felt sadly real.
It's when they arrive in Sweden that the film shifts into an analysis of cults and ritual, and, unsurprisingly, from this point on, the characters (well-acted and cannily written as they are) become sole property of the machinations of the plot. Anyone who's seen any version of "The Wicker Man" (and there's a prominent subtext from "Rosemary's Baby" at work here, too) know pretty well what's going to happen, and the film follows through on the no-mercy stylings of those films, to the nth degree. It doesn't take long to establish that they're all in deep trouble, though as usual, the viewers are multiple steps ahead of the players.
What do the guys expect out of it? One is a college-level researcher, fascinated with this subculture. One (the biggest fool of the lot -- I was waiting for him to get his, for sure) seems to be going along for the possibility of tripping on drugs and making it with Swedish women. So we get an early scene with introduction of psychedelics, and Dani's first oblique scene of peril, when she's unconscious for an undetermined, suspicious amount of time and something may have happened to her "while she was out."
If we haven't considered it even before the movie started, we soon come to realize that the Swedish friend has corralled his friends and their lovely, troubled female companion to the countryside not just to take part in, but to be vital parts of this insane ritualistic celebration. One of the interesting things about the movie (which may have been bolstered by some skillful edits in the screenplay and/or the film itself) is how it's cagey about how amongst the team may have been confederates. There's little suggestions throughout regarding the "who can you trust" issue, left cleverly opaque and unresolved. Some might say this is a weakness, that we don't have bolder red lines defining who is a villain and who isn't. I take the opposite opinion.
We get another recruited couple (from London) who sound the WTF alarm and, understandably, freak out once the first sacrifices occur. You have to roll your eyes and laugh (if that's possible) at the sheer audacity of the situation and how Aster has the elders run and try to explain ("you mean Pelle didn't tell you about how we do things here" and the like). Yeah, I'm sure that's what got them to Sweden -- telling them they'd be witnessing death and carnage.
The guys make dumb mistakes, of course, defiling the heritage of the village, and they die (for the most part, modestly, sometimes offscreen) for their errors. In any case, after the stakes get higher and the rituals get batshit crazy and homicidal, there's only Dani and Christian (the boyfriend) left. Will they escape? Ahem -- no. This isn't that kind of movie.
I alluded earlier to the possibility of future work by Aster that might be a challenge, or maybe something that's not necessarily a priority for him, the idea that his characters might exert some free will, instead of being pawns in a sequence of escalating, horrific scenes. I suppose the titiillation for those who aren't exactly interested in Aster's anthropological take on customs and mores regarding sex, death, regeneration and twisted tradition will be in the seats waiting to observe just in what creatively horrible ways many of the main characters will die. Much of the violence is unapologetically personal and visceral. It's kind of disappointing considering the quality of the opening scenes that there isn't more time to dig deeper into who these people are. But we must get from point A to point B, so the horror machine must keep rolling.
The cinematography is beautiful, the imagery something to behold. The hype from A24 about the horror being much more shocking "because it takes place in broad daylight" is a silly way to tout a movie's bona fides, but I suppose it gives the studio something to hang its hat on. I didn't find it to be so, but I knew pretty much what to expect. (How do we actually horrify a country nowadays? Our day to day life is pretty sobering. Fiction can't compare in some ways).
It's a credit to the intelligence at work here that you look for signs and signals across the frame as the movie plays. You think you might find something. It makes the incongruities like Dani's piece of "belated" birthday Bundt (really? uh huh!) cake or why that lighter just doesn't want to ignite ripe for interpretation or at least knowing chuckles.
The ending is a bit forced. Yeah, of course we expect her to smile, in the "I was cured, all right" style, but after we've seen her nearly catatonic on her throne at the end, and contorting with emotion as her boyfriend goes up in flames, I suppose by this time we are waiting to come full circle, and this is the most natural way to exit. I appreciated the echo of the group mourning moans reflecting Dani's howls on the couch in the beginning. Nice symmetry.
Lots of good stuff here. There's rarely a misstep, and the director clearly knows how to assemble an effective, savage film. It didn't shock me, but undoubtedly, it's a movie that you feel deeply. I came away drained. There's no getting around it. Being this committed to such a nihilistic, no-hope worldview takes it out of you. Recommended for viewers who like (or at least who don't mind) a large amount of art house in their horror choices. Others may find it slow-moving, didactic, and unconvincing.
