Over the weekend I watched Midsommar. Due to the hype, I was expecting it to be a pretty good movie. I mean if everyone liked it, then there had to be some appeal, right? Wrong — to me, this film focused far too much on aesthetics than an actual connected storyline and a well thought out plot. It was too disjointed, too little was explained, and it seemed as if there was a lot of the story cut out to move along what little plot there was.
I was disappointed because I really wanted to like it. I see how widely popular it is, but I cannot understand the appeal.
Other than aesthetics this movie doesn’t have much going for it.
Especially when the few characters of color they do have are all murdered, there’s an unnecessary and weird sex scene thrown in there because I guess sex sells?, and most of the characters have so little personality you could throw a cardboard cut out in their place and it wouldn’t make much of a difference.
Plus, the scene where the two older people throw themselves off the cliff to kill themselves was extremely jarring to me.
As someone who has lost her uncle to suicide, it was especially hard for me to watch. I don’t know why I had to see the crushed in faces, the gore, and the blood. It just seemed like gore for gore’s sake. I don’t mind a bit of gore when people are fighting in battles or they’re being attacked by werewolves or vampires or something, but I don’t need to watch an entire scene of people bleeding out and killing themselves.
I know there is some implied supernatural elements, but my mother chalked it down to everyone being on drugs. Which is seriously what this film felt like to me—one bad trip.
The same film creator made Hereditary, and that movie I like a whole lot better. There is a coherent plot, it is weird and sometimes disjointed but connected enough to tell a coherent story, and the characters all have their own quirks and qualities so it makes it interesting enough to watch even without the supernatural elements.
I know I might be in the minority, but I think Midsommar may be one of the worst horror films I’ve ever watched and I’ve seen some bad ones including one where the hobgoblins killed everyone.

Linda M. Crate’s works have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She is the author of six poetry chapbooks, the latest of which is: More Than Bone Music (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, March 2019). She has also authored two micro-collections, and two full length poetry collections.