Out goes Shaft and with it the possibility of another franchise (but maybe another remake in twenty years) and in comes the latest horror/exercise in dread from Ari Aster, the director of Hereditary. I thought Hereditary was too long; not scary enough; and that its ending was derivative (see The Skeleton Key, Tale of the Mummy). But I did like its atmosphere and its chutzpah: killing Collette’s youngest so early and so unapologetically was a nice touch. Midsommar raises the same complaints for me that the previous did: it’s too long; it wasn’t scary; and the ending was derivative. But damned if it didn’t drip atmosphere and tension for a good chunk of the running time, and have the chutzpah to dispose of its roster of deserving idiot victims in such a contemptuous way.

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