Midsommar: Daylight Horror!

If you suffer from "Nightmare Deficiency Syndrome" (or 'NDS' to us professionals), then 'run – don't walk' to see "Midsommar!"  This is one of the most terrifying films I've ever seen, although not in the traditional horror movie sense.  The movie is 2 hours and 20 minutes (at least 20 minutes too long), but it so unique and it creates a sense of dread so well, that I will "cut" the Writer/Director, Ari Aster (who also was the Writer/Director for "Heredity") some "slack" on the pace.  Every horror movie I've ever seen creates the horror and suspense in the dark and the shadows, while this film freaked me out entirely in the sunlight.  My compliments to Cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski who creates the best visual sense of hallucinatory experience on psychedelics that I've ever seen in a movie.  The folk costumes (by Andrea Flesch) are also wonderful. Dani (Florence Pugh) is in a long-term relationship with Christian (Jack Reynor), but it appears to be on the ropes.  Christian wants to end it, and he is being encouraged to do so by his friends, but he can't seem to make the break.  Christian and three of his anthropology graduate student friends are planning to spend two weeks in a remote Swedish village where one of them, Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), was raised.  Dani is sensing Christian's waning interest, and has become increasingly insecure.  She then suffers a horrible family tragedy.  Considering what she is dealing with, Christian doesn't think he can leave her for two weeks, so he invites her along on the trip. Dani and the others travel to a remote, isolated village in northern Sweden where the "Hårga" live.  This is similar to an Amish village where the village is in a 'time warp' and the group has all kinds of strange customs, rituals, and beliefs.  Dani, Christian, and the others then get to participate in the Hårga summer solstice festival, which starts with psychedelic tea and gets crazier and more violent and terrifying from there.  I can't ever recall seeing such horrifying, disturbing imagery.  Shortly after I'd seen the film, I learned from an interview with Ari Aster that he had just gone through an very emotionally-painful break-up with his girlfriend, and the film was partly a metaphor for his experience. Bottom Line: "Midsommar" is a unique and terrifying movie, although slow-paced.  Florence Pugh's acting is excellent and all the rituals and objects in the film are supposedly fairly accurate, and based on historical research.  It's original, suspenseful, and thought-provoking, but you won't sleep well for a few nights after you've seen it.