Writer-director Ari Aster’s debut film Hereditary frightened, disturbed and confused audiences when it opened last year, providing some truly WTF moments. Now Ari Aster is back with his follow-up Midsommar. And while this looks to be a very different kind of horror film, it seems that audiences are in for an equally traumatizing experience. Even the film’s lead actress, Florence Pugh, was shocked by the movie, as her social media reaction shows. Take a look:
Florence Pugh seems to have been in a state of shock following her first viewing of Midsommar. It’s like she didn’t even really know what to say in response to the movie, and instead just describes the state it left her in, just sitting there. The actress seems to be truly taken aback by the experience and had to spend some time processing what she just saw in real time in her Twitter reaction.
I can’t blame her for staring wide-eyed at her food, which is presumably uneaten, either. Most horror films aren’t really the type of movies to whet your appetite and just judging by the trailers for Midsommar, it’s probably not the kind of movie you’ll want to chow down after, or before for that matter, given what Jordan Peele called “some of the most atrociously disturbing imagery I’ve ever seen on film.”
What’s fun about Florence Pugh’s shocked reaction is that she filmed the movie and is the lead actress, so it’s not like she didn’t know what was coming at least to some extent. Sure, oftentimes actors don’t see a movie before its premiere and they may not really know what things will look like, but this isn’t some CGI-filled blockbuster where Florence Pugh was in front of a greenscreen all shoot.
She read the script and filmed the movie so for her to still be this shocked by it indicates that the way the movie came together resulted in an end product that was more than she bargained for (in a good way). Florence Pugh’s reaction is not entirely unique either, lest you think that she is just trying to sell her new movie.
The early reactions to Midsommar are laden with expletives and convey that this is a truly messed up and shocking film that will basically fuck you up. That’s a good goal to strive for in a horror film and one that should at least interest audiences to see just how wild this movie gets.
Beyond the trailer, one need only look at the film’s rating and the reasons for that rating to see the source of some of that trauma. Midsommar is rated R for “disturbing ritualistic violence and grisly images, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.” That definitely makes it clear that Midsommar is a very hard R film and by the sound of it, it may have neared NC-17 territory. So shocking stuff.
You too can find yourself shocked and traumatized in a room full of strangers when Midsommar opens in theaters on July 3. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of all this summer’s biggest movies and for all the latest in horror that makes you lose your appetite, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
