Summer is coming to an end, but it’s still Midsommar season.
Ari Aster’s follow-up to Hereditary is a “wild and wooly masterpiece” (it’s also shockingly funny), and now it’s returning to theaters in a special director’s cut. There’s new footage and extended scenes, extending the A24 film’s run time from 147 minutes to 171 minutes. That’s a lot of bonus ritualistic thrusting! (I will not explain what that means to anyone who hasn’t seen Midsommar, because you should really see Midsommar; also, I’m trying to keep this post PG).
Here’s the official plot summary, if you missed it the first time.
Dani and Christian are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing. From the visionary mind of Ari Aster comes a dread-soaked cinematic fairytale where a world of darkness unfolds in broad daylight.
For more on Midsommar, check out our interview with Aster.
