The new wave of Indie horror that has come forth this decade is nothing short of exhilarating and represents a clear-cut highlight for me in terms of American cinema these last ten years. But sophomore efforts can be a tricky thing; just look at David Robert Mitchell’s dilemma in following his great “It Follows.”
However, I know a talent when I see one, and Robert Eggers is just that. You can tell that he’s the real deal by the way he framed “The Witch” and built up that dreaded atmosphere. Another filmmaker in that same league would be “Hereditary” master Ari Aster.
Eggers has wrapped-up his second feature, “The Lighthouse,” which is still in secretive stage, but Aster’s “Midsommar” has been slowly teasing its affair.
A teaser trailer for his second feature has just been released and it looks delectably insane. Aster has assembled a strong cast, especially the amazing Florence Pugh (“ Lady Macbeth”). A24, is producing and, despite all that, we still don’t have that many concrete details about the film, except for, in Aster’s own words, the description of it being an apocalyptic breakup movie.
Here is the synopsis:
A couple’s vacation to a Swedish village takes a sinister turn when the insular townspeople invite them into a series of rituals that render their pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving, in this dread-soaked and viscerally disquieting psychological thriller.
“It’s Scandinavian folk horror,” Aster said, “[It’s] the only other horror movie I have.” But, despite all the praise he’s received from fans, the director may not be returning to the genre that launched his career again anytime soon. “I love the genre, I consider myself a genre filmmaker in that I want to play in every genre. I would love to make a musical. I have ten other scripts that I’ve written that I want to make and there are other things I have. I’m writing a sci-fi film and there are at least four or five movies that I have ready to go that I am excited about making that I’d like to do in succession.”
A24 will release “Midsommar” on August 9, 2019.
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.