Hey everyone! It’s Friday, work is in the bag for the week, and I came home to a shiny new addition to the vault in the form of this gorgeous new A24 limited edition release (their very first!) of Midsommar. The sophomore effort from one of horror’s newest, loudest, and instantly influential horror voices, Ari Aster, this follow up to his acclaimed debut Hereditary had some enormous expectations to meet from the start. I think the film largely succeeds, but I’ve also made my general indifference to it pretty clear. I most certainly did enjoy a lot of what was there, but I also found much of it to be derivative, simply a sleeker, more intelligent, more stylistically deliberate take on the Wicker Man story. Although I definitely can see the appeal, particularly for those that didn’t grow up with the 70’s cult film, it just rang a little “been there, done that” for me. One thing to note is that this is the 4K version of the directors cut, which I have yet to watch, so maybe the added material will nudge the film a little higher up the ladder? Anyone want to comment? Make no mistake, this is definitely a solid film, it just hit me softer than I was expecting. Another thing to take into account is that I wasn’t particularly impressed with Hereditary the first time around after being drowned in the insane hype, but really fell in love with it the second watch with a little distance between viewings. All of that said, no one can deny Aster’s uniquely explosive talent, and more importantly, sky high potential, nor what he’s already accomplished in such a short career. It will be fascinating to see what he decides to do next! Another thing that can’t be denied is my obsession with A24, and they really did it right with this release, even if it’s going to be a pain in the rear to display 😂 bluraycollection