BEWARE: SPOILERS AHEAD
A couple travels to Sweden to visit a rural hometown’s fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
If I had to describe this film in just a few words, it would be weird, dramatic and a mind trip! It begins with a heavy story that never fully unfolds. Dani (Florence Pugh) receives a strange email from her bipolar sister suggesting that she wants to end her life. Because she has been making these threats repeatedly in the past, Dani’s boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) with whom she has a rocky relationship with, advises her not to take it seriously. Soon thereafter, Dani finds out that her family has died and becomes somewhat of a walking anxiety attack. Meanwhile, Christian and his friends Josh (William Jackson Harper), Mark (Will Poulter), and Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) plan a trip to Pelle’s village in Sweden for a few weeks. Dani invites herself along and as soon as they arrive, the mind games begin, literally.
Taking shrooms as soon as they step out of the car, the group of friends all enter a trippy state of not knowing what’s going on around them. The free-spirited, peace-loving commune has a secret history with bizarre rituals of violence and sacrificing themselves as a gift to nature. Josh gets caught wandering around a sacred area to take photos of a private book that contains important details about their history; information he wants to use for his thesis. One of the villagers walk in on him and kills him, preventing the information from leaking out. They pretend he went missing along with the book and it is never discussed again.
As the film tries to develop, we see more hallucinatory teas and other drinks offered as a method to keep them under control. When an old couple jumps to their death as a form of sacrificing their lives into the rebirth cycle, the friends freak out as they are forced to watch the horrific scenes of them crashing down and their heads shattering on the rocks. When the old man doesn’t die right away, the villagers beat him to death and then burn their bodies. One guy starts to argue against the ritual and is killed immediately, claiming that he went home early. The old couple jumping to their death is probably the most horrific scene in the film, as it is extremely graphic. Then there is a multitude of wacky scenes like one between Christian impregnating another woman, Dani winning some flower queen dance contest which seems like a ploy just to divert her attention away from their plan for Christian being with the other woman. What’s really bizarre is that Christian ends up getting sacrificed at the end of the film and Dani seems sad at first but it turns out she is happy as she watches him go up in flames with a few others.
I actually enjoyed the trippy parts as each character didn’t quite understand what was happening half the time. The graphic deaths were actually cool but I wish this film had tightened up the storyline and left out anything that didn’t connect. The beginning scene was too dramatic and had no connection with the rest of the film. The music was loud and captivating but it made you feel like a killer was on the loose every minute. It did have a lot of humor and you will laugh but it’s just weird, that’s all I can say. Entertaining nonetheless but weird!
In theaters Wednesday, July 3rd
