'Midsommar' is a beautiful nightmare that reinvents what horror can be

It's hard to think of Midsommar as a horror movie. 

No, not because we use genre-stigmatizing terms that anxiously reclassify great horror films as "thrillers" or "elevated horror" or "post-horror." And it's also not because of the film's unexpected comedic or even rom-com vibes.

What makes it difficult to talk about Midsommar as a horror movie is that, unlike writer/director Ari Aster's previous hit Hereditary, I did not feel horrified throughout. Instead the primary emotion Midsommar inspires is closer to a pure, compulsory awe, with nearly every scene exuding unbelievable beauty and elation.  Read more...