“Midsommar” begins with a traumatic event and ends on a perverse sex scene, capped off by devious, vengeful circumstances at once cathartic and macabre.
To that end, it’s a natural extension of the grim cinematic universe that spawned “Hereditary,” writer-director Ari Aster’s disturbing 2018 debut, but this sprawling follow-up has more audacious intentions.
This is the kind of mad science filmmaking worth rooting for: Aster refashions “The Wicker Man” as a perverse breakup movie, douses Swedish mythology in Bergmanesque despair, and sets the epic collage ablaze.
He may not land every big swing, but the underlying vision is hard to shake even when it falters.As with “Hereditary,” Aster has crafted a complex allegory for grief and anger against the backdrop of more symbolic threats.
But this time, they’re hiding in plain sight: Perhaps the first bonafide horror movie to take place exclusively in daylight, “Midsommar” unfolds against
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