'Midsommar' is a challenging new entry in era of prestige horror

Writer and director Ari Aster isn't here to make friends. His first film Hereditary wowed critics but divided audiences by delivering more of a thinking man's horror movie, largely devoid of traditional genre scares but still deeply unsettling. It made enough of an impact, that his new film Midsommar feels like a real event.

Rather than make a move towards the mainstream with his second feature, he's managed to double down on the elements that made Hereditary great, while making an arguably more ambitious and certainly funnier film.

Midsommar is not a movie that can be processed totally in one viewing. For instance, I am not sure that every element of it entirely works -- but like Us earlier this year, the questions it provokes are fascinating ones not frustrating ones, and like Jordan Peele, Aster doesn't know the meaning of a sophomore slump.

The set-up of Midsommar is spectacular and echoes Hereditary. It also features a woman (played to realistic perfection by newcomer Florence Pugh) who has also experienced an unspeakable trauma, one that will haunt her and the audience for much of its running time.

Unlike in Hereditary, it's not quite as clear how that tragedy fully meshes with the main thrust of the narrative, but basically she is saddled with a fairly despicable boyfriend (Jack Reynor) who wants to end the relationship but is now stuck in it. He and some buddies were planning a getaway to observe some strange pagan rituals in Sweden and she tags along as something of a fifth wheel.

So far so good. Like Hereditary, the film is slow moving but it's never boring. The screenplay is funny in a very grounded way -- Will Poulter in particular shines as an uncouth member of the gang -- and the cinematography is so sumptuous and engrossing I never minded its the glacial pace.

Not since The Wicker Man (the original) have I seen a film that so effectively conveys horror in broad daylight. It's not jump scare horror or gore (although there are some truly nauseating visuals), just an ominous, mounting dread. Part of the fun/terror of this movie is the anticipation of the inevitable moment when everything goes wrong.

And Aster has a Hitchcock/Polanski-like ability to make casual expository scenes drip with menace and remain visually engaging, even if the mayhem doesn't kick in until much later.

And this is not a movie that is interested in pushing your regular horror movie buttons -- so if you hear people griping that it's not particularly scary it misses the point. It's more haunting than scary. It's more disturbing than it is spooky.

Again, it's a challenging movie -- one where the logic of what takes place doesn't always immediately compute. It also has one of those great ambiguous endings that will likely be debated for years. Unfortunately, it appears to be getting greeted with the same blah reaction from the public Hereditary received. It's on pace for a respectable opening but the average audience score is a C+, suggesting yet again that highbrow horror just isn't for everyone.

Still, I for one hope that Ari Aster keeps letting his freak flag fly and continues to make wild and crazy movies like this one.