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Midsommar
Culture shock
Release Out now
Director Ari Aster
Cast Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William
Jackson Harper, Will Poulter
Distributor Entertainment Film
Certificate 18
One of the things about Hereditary
that made it such a sensation was how
unpredictable it was.
Ari Aster’s debut feature was
compared to several horror classics, chief
among them The Exorcist, but he was also
clearly following his own rules, his glacial
mastery making the overall experience much
more terrifying than any of the film’s individual
moments alone.
In Midsommar, Aster plays a completely
different game. The film opens on Dani (the
excellent Florence Pugh) as she experiences a
traumatic family tragedy. She finds refuge in
the arms of her boyfriend Christian (Jack
Reynor) who, in those circumstances, cannot
quite bring himself to break up with her.
Christian then reluctantly invites Dani to
join him and his small group of college friends
on their trip to a commune in Sweden, where
they intend to study the traditional celebrations
of Midsommar.
Annabelle
Comes Home
Did you miss her?
Release Out now
Director Gary Dauberman
Cast Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman,
Katie Sarife, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson
Distributor Warner Bros Pictures
Certificate 15In The Conjuring, demonic doll
Annabelle (whose introduction deftly
established Wilson and Farmiga’s Ed
and Lorraine Warren as paranormal
investigators) is described by the latter as a conduit
for evil. And just like that, she was appointed the
ghoulish glue that would go on to cameo in – and
tenuously connect – six of the seven instalments in
this ever-expanding franchise.
Annabelle Comes Home doubles down on her
being a puppet master for sinister entities as it seesEd and Lorraine leave their daughter Judy (Grace)
in the care of babysitter Mary Ellen (Iseman) while
they go out of town for a case. When Mary Ellen’s
friend Daniela (Sarife) rocks up uninvited, breaks
into the Warrens’ room of cursed artefacts and
inadvertently frees Annabelle from her chapel glass
cabinet, the trio find themselves tormented by a
plethora of menacing spirits, from a soothsaying
television to a haunted wedding dress. All of which
are being controlled by the bloody-cheeked toy.
It’s fun for a while – like a Conjuring-style
bingo – and allows director Gary Dauberman to
explore the stranger side of the universe (werewolf,
anybody?). But the jump-scares that come with them
grow tiresome and it can’t help but feel like the film
is just cramming antagonists in, in the hope that one
will prove popular and spawn yet another bankable
spin-off. It’s laughably coincidental that the standout
is The Ferryman, a wraith who leaves a trail of
coins to lure in his victims.
Buoyed by strong performances, Annabelle
Comes Home fleshes out its characters well; Judy
inheriting her mother’s clairvoyant gifts and Daniela
struggling to shake the crippling guilt that a past
event has left her with. It’s just extremely frustratingthat with so many ‘monsters’ eating up the runtime,
there’s little time left to properly explore such
interesting aspects.
There’s still potential within this universe (Wilson
and Farmiga continue to delight and visually, it’s
consistently polished) but this outing just proves that
these films are strongest when the human characters
determine the narrative rather than supernatural
beings. As for Annabelle specifically, maybe it’s
time for the evil to be contained.
Amy West
A group of rather gullible but overconfident
young Americans in a place that is just too
beautiful to be true and without any phone
signal at all? Anyone can see where this is
going (folk horror classic The Wicker Man is an
obvious reference).
However, Midsommar appears to be
predictable on purpose, leaving countless clues
patiently waiting to be picked up — suggesting
that, as opposed to Hereditary (where the
ending was a rather unexpected surprise),
in Midsommar, it is the journey itself that is
the destination.
This also implies that just because you
know what is going to happen, that doesn’t
necessarily mean you can escape it. The film’s
power resides in its execution(s), inexorably
marching towards its unavoidable end,punctuated with unflinching, matter-of-fact
moments of graphic gore.
Yet the descent into hell feels drawn-out in a
way that Hereditary simply didn’t. The sharp,
tense visual constructions of the earlier film are
replaced with a more conventional style and CGI
effects that unfortunately come across as rather
cheap tricks.
The thread tying up the events to Dani’s
trauma and to the pain that the cowardly
Christian causes her is thin; the idea that this
indecision might be deliberate is tiresome.
Implacable but slight, Midsommar leaves us
grasping at straws.
Elena Lazic
During filming, Mckenna
Grace was gifted a
rainbow-coloured rosary. One
day, while she was wearing it on
set, its crucifix randomly fell off.