Midsommar is the new horror film by director Ari Aster. It has already amassed universal praise from critics!
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about this new movie!
- Midsommar is a 2019 folk horror film
- It is written and directed by Ari Aster
- And starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, and Will Poulter
- It follows a group of friends who travel to Sweden for a festival that only occurs every 90 years
- Only to find themselves directly in the hands of a pagan cult
- The film is a co-production between the United States and Sweden
- The film was initially pitched as a straightforward slasher film set amongst Swedish cultists
- Aster devised a screenplay using elements of this concept but made a deteriorating relationship the central conflict after he had experienced a difficult breakup
- The film was shot on location in Budapest, Hungary in the summer and fall of 2018
- Midsommar was released in the United States on July 3, 2019
- It received positive reviews from critics
- With praise for Aster’s direction and Pugh’s performance
- In May 2018, it was announced Ari Aster would write and direct the film
- With Lars Knudsen serving as producer
- B-Reel Films, a Swedish company, was announced as the producer of the film
- With A24 distributing
- According to Aster, he had been approached by A24 executives to helm a slasher film set in Sweden
- An idea which he initially rejected as he felt he “had no way into the story”
- Aster ultimately devised a story in which the two central characters are experiencing relationship tensions verging on a breakup
- And wrote the surrounding screenplay around this theme
- He described the result as “a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film”
- In July 2018, Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter, Vilhem Blomgren, William Jackson Harper, Ellora Torchia, and Archie Madekwe joined the cast
- Principal photography began on July 30, 2018, in Budapest, Hungary
- It wrapped in October 2018
- Midsommar had a pre-screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in New York City, on June 18, 2019
- The film was released in the United States on July 3, 2019
- In the United States and Canada, Midsommar is projected to gross $8- 10 million from 2,707 theaters over its first five days
- It made $3 million on its first day
- Including $1.1 million from Tuesday night previews
- Which Deadline Hollywood called a “smashing start”
- On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81%
- Based on 191 reviews
- With an average rating of 7.33/10
- The website’s critical consensus reads, “Ambitious, impressively crafted, and above all unsettling, Midsommar further proves writer-director Ari Aster is a horror auteur to be reckoned with”
- On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100
- Based on 46 critics
- Indicating “generally favorable reviews”
- Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of “C+” on an A+ to F scale
- While those at PostTrak gave it an average 3 out of 5 stars
- And a 50% “definite recommend”
