... as well as the awful remake of it by Neil LaBute with Nicolas Cage in 2006 and the mediocre sequel by Hardy in 2011 with "The Wicker Tree" and the also middle of the road Welsh Wicker Man-inspired "Darklands" (1996) as well as "Kill List" (2011), what is this Swedish one like, to you?
shareI've only seen the original Wicker Man, and while it is interesting in premise, it's a poorly made film. Midsommar takes the same basic concept of an outsider encountering a dangerously isolated cult and presents it in a masterful way. The tagline could easily be "It's like The Wicker Man, Except Good!"
shareIn my opinion, the original The Wicker Man IS the best film of the bunch and in fact, I consider it among the greatest films ever made with it being my most favorite film of 1973 and among my 50 all-time favorite movies. Perfect 10/10 masterpiece, in my opinion, and in opinions of others too.
shareYeah, and "Harvest Home", the 1978 mini-series with Bette Davis and based on Tom Tryon's novel.
shareCouldn't take the original Wicker Man serious. It almost came across like a Monty Python film at some times. The lead actor had no charisma and his religiosity felt out of place. Christopher Lee added to the monty Python feel with his silly wig.
The most important element of a horror movie is atmosphere, mood.
Midsommar was brilliant at this. Not so wicker man.
But then look at how awful and ridiculous the 2006 remake of it with Nicolas Cage was?
shareBut at least the 2006 version is more entertaining than the 1973 version; I would argue more compelling as well.
Plus I agree with AckbarsRevenge that Sgt. Howie (Woodward) was a weak protagonist. His constant outrage at the 'values' of the pagan culture on the island wasn't believable in light of the fact that the UK was a post-Christian society at the time filled with people involved in the counter-culture movement with more than a few Communes here and there, not to mention a secularized society with only a vestige of Christianity remaining.
Cage was better even though his actions & words were sometimes laugh-out-loud amusing, like knocking out women via slugging or kicking, running around in a bear costume, and such lines as "STEP AWAY FROM THE BIKE," "How'd it get burned? How'd it get burned?! How'd it get burned?! HOW'D IT GET BURNED?!!" and "OH, NO, NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES! AAAAAHHHHH! OH, THEY'RE IN MY EYES! MY EYES! AAAAHHHHH! AAAAAGGHHH!" This is keeping with the fact that LeBute & Cage made the picture as an absurdist black comedy and obviously so. The original, by contrast, was dead-pan serious and never entertained in this manner.
The ending is horrifying (more so than the original), even though I knew it was coming. If you're in the right mood it can also be funny, as noted in the above line. The alternate ending is even better with the inclusion of overt torture scenes (although I know why they cut one of the torture scenes, the bees would've killed Cage since he was allergic to them) (the reason they cut these scenes was to keep it P-13). In addition, the Wicker Man prop is intimidating, being over twice the size of the original.
As opposed to two grad students debating over which one has the right to write a thesis on the weirdo shroom-drinking, human-sacrificing cult in modern Europe? As opposed to Will Poulter being a total douche because he was written to be a total douche, even though the main character lost her entire family in a murder-suicide? Because douches have no humanity, as we all know
I don't enjoy shitting on this movie, it has major flaws but it's also clearly attempting satire and it isn't bad
I really like Ari Aster, but Midsommar is clearly standing on the shoulders of the OG Wicker Man. If you think Wicker Man is a Monty Python skit, then Midsommar is a Mad TV skit
How is Midsommar brilliant at mood? Explain that to me. To me, Midsommar is a movie that captures "mood" in spurts and then loses it with excessively long reiterations of what we all know it is trying to pull off. We know that the main character is sad and uncomfortable and that her bf just sees her as a drag but can't gather the balls to dump her. This scenario does not need 2.5 hours to play itself out
We know that the bright, shiny, friendly, blonde welcoming people are going to be batshit crazy, otherwise we wouldn't be watching the movie. We don't need 2.5 hours for this creepy "mood" to play out
The human sacrifice is the best scene in the movie. Everything should have descended into chaos after that. Instead, we go back to conversations about grad studies and the protagonist being anxious and ignored
We have a random couple as slasher fodder. Will Poulter is the token slasher douche and will obviously die. The ending and "twist" are seen coming a mile away (ends w/ a victim burning alive, so diss Wicker Man, but Aster is clearly paying tribute)
There is no "brilliant" mood in this film. It's a good movie. But it is derivative in everything that makes it scary. Everything original about it is fumbled or downright botched