First Reviews Hail ‘Midsommar’ As A Horror Masterpiece

Little over a year after first traumatizing unsuspecting audiences with his debut film, “Hereditary,” Ari Aster is back with “Midsommar,” another art-house-styled horror film, which, this time, explores Swedish pagan rituals.

Early reviews from the first screenings have begun to drop, and it seems that for the most part, Aster has another horrific masterpiece on his hands. While there is some split on whether or not it surpasses or matches the vicious effectiveness of “Hereditary,” most agree that it’s a stellar outing, with particular praise reserved for Florence Pugh’s lead performance and Aster’s continue gift for meshing character drama with scares.

Here’s a sample of what some critics have to say about “Midsommar”:

A.V. Club – A.A Dowd: “This is, in other words, a less perfectly crafted nightmare than Aster's last one. But there's a deranged integrity to its sprawl, and to the filmmaker's willingness to embrace the darkest, most unsparing aspects of human desire.”

Time Out – Joshua Rothkopf: “A savage yet evolved slice of Swedish folk-horror, Ari Aster's hallucinatory follow-up to 'Hereditary' proves him a horror director with no peer.”

IndieWire – Eric Kohn: “...Aster has crafted a complex allegory for grief and anger against the backdrop of more symbolic threats... Perhaps the first bonafide horror movie to take place exclusively in daylight, 'Midsommar' unfolds against a blinding whiteness of the midnight sun and striking bucolic vistas at odds with the psychological disturbances in play."

Collider – Haleigh Foutch: “'Midsommar' presents a ruthless take on the rituals of processing grief and letting go, excavating the caverns of broken relationships and the nauseous truths of why we stay in them.”

Vox – Alissa Wilkinson: “But the most stunning performance comes from Pugh... In 'Midsommar,' she unloads her guts in paroxysms of grief so primal and violent, they nearly upstage the film’s scariest images.”

A24 Films will release “Midsommar” in theaters nationwide on July 3.