7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A young woman reluctantly joins her boyfriend on a summer trip to a Swedish commune where things quickly go awry.
Starring: Florence Pugh, Will Poulter, William Jackson Harper, Jack Reynor, Julia RagnarssonHorror | 100% |
Psychological thriller | 38% |
Drama | 36% |
Surreal | 26% |
Nature | 9% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.00:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.00:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Note: A24 distributor Lionsgate films released
Midsommar on Blu-ray in 2019. This review repeats relevant sections of my review of that original release. Before the repeated
content, however, I'll cut to the chase and discuss the added footage unique to this new Director's Cut. I already have invited brickbats from this
film's many fans by not thinking that Midsommar is the outright classic that so many of them do, and I'll probably only invite more by
stating that for me personally
the added elements, many of which feature Christian, are interesting in an okay way, but hardly what I'd call revelatory in either upping the angst
quotient or even adding that much to any perceived metaphysical aspects. With that out of the way, the following repeats my original thoughts on
the film.
Midsommar will now be at least the third time in one of my reviews where I will have referenced Harvest Home, one time actor
Thomas Tryon's follow up to his
massive bestseller The Other, in terms of how similar at least
some of its plot elements are to whatever film is currently being discussed. The "Google machine" managed
to dig up both my Children of the Corn Blu-ray
review and my
Deep in the Darkness Blu-ray review where I
previously mentioned Harvest Home, and there may even be a couple of other reviews out there in the nooks and crannies of the internet
where I
brought it up, because Tryon's basic setup of "outsiders" suddenly interloping into a society that is decidedly on the pagan side of the things has
been
utilized countless times, frankly both before and after Tryon's novel (and its later made for television adaptation) ever saw the light of day. That
said, in some ways the connections between Harvest Home and Midsommar are even more pronounced and noticeable than
with
regard to the two other films linked to above, this despite the fact that Harvest Home takes place in the American Northeast, and most of
Midsommar takes place in Sweden, perhaps suggesting that atavistic tendencies don't really observe "traditional" boundaries (no pun
intended).
Midsommar is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1. Digitally captured with Panavision Millennium DXL2 cameras, at native resolutions of up to 8K, and then finished at a 4K DI (all of this data courtesy of the IMDb), Midsommar is a very striking looking presentation in high definition, and I noticed no quality fluctuations of any major import between the "new, improved" material and the original presentation. The sun drenched environment of much of the film plays nicely against the darker subtext of what's actually going on, and Aster and cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski offer some beautifully framed vistas that often offer substantial depth of field. It looked to me like brightness and/or contrast had been intentionally tweaked, giving a lot of the presentation a slightly dewy, effulgent quality which tends to support some of the more "drugged out" elements. Those elements often feature noticeably tweaked imagery where detail levels can slightly falter (see screenshot 1). The palette often tends to emphasize neutral tones, and even when more "substantial" hues are offered, they can tend to be in the pastel range, as in several of the blue tones that are prevalent. That said, when there are pops of color, as in some of the later imagery surrounding the announcement of the "May Queen", things look incredibly vivid. Some of the interior footage is not as detailed, including a sequence early on involving Dani's family before the focal group gets to Sweden.
This edition of Midsommar features the same nicely expressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that accompanied the original version. The track develops a nice sense of foreboding even when presenting supposedly "mundane" elements like some ambient environmental effects in many of the outdoor scenes at the "commune" where the focal group ends up. Large groups of people also support some nice surround activity at times, and the film's interesting score by Bobby Krlic also wafts through the side and rear channels. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout in this problem free track. Optional English subtitles are available.
The original Blu-ray release of Midsommar didn't offer a whale of a lot of supplements, but this Director's Cut has absolutely no on disc bonus material, and in fact there's not even a standard Main Menu (see screenshot 10 for what greets the viewer once the disc has booted). That said, despite the absolute lack of on disc supplements, I'm scoring this at 2.0 for supplements because of the rather luxe packaging, which I'm sure will appeal to many of the film's ardent fans. Both the slipbox and hardback DigiBook are clothbound, with a beautifully crosshatched texture. The book has reproductions of some of the "folk art" seen in the film. The only downside for some potential collectors is the size of the packaging, with the slipbox being approximately 9 1/4" tall by 6 1/8" wide by 1/2" deep.
Anyone who likes Midsommar and who hasn't yet read it is encouraged to seek out Tryon's Harvest Home, and most who do so will likely see some of the connective threads that I did, including (but not limited to) pagan rituals surrounding both mortality and fertility, as well as perhaps more specifically one "helpless" character at the end whose interaction with those aforementioned pagans doesn't exactly lead to happily ever after. Midsommar is at least passingly effective as a mood piece if not as an outright horror masterpiece, but that said some of the imagery is both hypnotic and disturbing. This Director's Cut adds considerable new content (almost a half hour), but I personally found much of the material to be kind of tangential to the main story. Technical merits are solid, and the packaging of this Director's Cut is very beautiful, though the release is also rather spendy. With caveats noted, and for diehard fans in particular, this edition of Midsommar comes Recommended.
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