“Midsommar” director Ari Aster goes “folk horror.”
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Any director making his sophomore feature film would make a Faustian bargain for the level of anticipation surrounding Ari Aster’s “Midsommar.” Aster’s debut film, 2018’s “Hereditary,” racked up some of the best reviews for a horror film in recent memory.
In “Midsommar,” Aster puts his young American characters in the midst of a Swedish pagan ceremony. A couple — played by Florence Pugh (“Fighting With My Family”) and Jack Reynor (“On the Basis of Sex”) — are on the verge of breaking up but end up traveling with friends to the Scandinavian far north take part in a May Day-style celebration.
“I went through a breakup that inspired the idea, but the film evolved separate from that,” Aster says in a phone interview. .
“I sat down with Florence and Jack and acted as a couples counselor. I had them go through the session in character,” recalls Aster, who wrote the script five years ago. “I then took the entire cast in character to a restaurant where you cook the meal yourself. I had them collaborate on making the meal together. For the most part, directing is talking to your actors and making sure everybody is on the same page.
“I make my own shot list and work out the blocking,” he continues. “I’m dictatorial in that sense, but as far as how the actors approach each scene emotionally, I just let them do their thing.”
Folk horror
Aster acknowledges that “Midsommar” fits squarely into the genre known as folk horror, the best example being the 1973 cult film “The Wicker Man,” starring Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee, about a detective investigating the case of a missing girl in a strange Scottish village.
“I dove into researching Swedish folklore and different spiritual movements,” he says. “Ultimately, this is an invented world, a stew of research and influences.”
Some of the horrific incidents portrayed are based on historic myth such as the Viking torture technique called the blood eagle or creating a language with the assistance of academic advisers based on the runic alphabet.
“Then we outright invented things like stuffing a dead body with fruits and vegetables,” Aster says. “There are a lot of things being alluded to throughout the film. As far as desexualizing the erotic scenes, that’s a pastime of mine. I tend to ruin sex for people.”
‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’
Though the film takes place in the Swedish city of Hälsingland, the film was shot in Hungary.
“Hälsingland is quite a beautiful place,” Aster says. “While doing research, I went there with my production designer and visited different farms. A lot of house are centuries old and have been painted from floor to ceiling. The types of murals we found in those rooms were definitely an inspiration.
“For our town — Hårga, which we built from scratch — we found an empty field, and everything you see was built in pre-production.”
Aster hired The Haxan Cloak, which is a pseudonym for English composer Bobby Krlic, to write the score. “I actually wrote the script while listening to his music. There are other scripts I’ve written while listening to specific artists,” Aster says.
“Krlic commissioned Jessika Kenney to write the choral songs that the villagers sing in the movie. She specializes in devotional music.”
Aster likes to use “jarring tonal shifts.” So when the screen fades to black and the credits roll, we hear the Walker Brothers’ 1966 hit “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” as performed by Frankie Valli.
Aster did something similar at the end of “Hereditary,” when he used Judy Collins’ “Both Sides Now” over the credits.
Says Aster, “Both songs are thematically in line with the films.”