Some students decide to go accept a friend's invitation to Sweden. The Swedish guy is part of some folk commune. One of the kids sees this as an opportunity as he's writing a thesis on some of these practices. Chris and Dani who are supposed to be a couple come along as well. Dani's family just died in the intro from carbon monoxide poisoning.
First thing they do as they arrive in Sweden is of course take hallucinogens, what else. Eventually they arrive at the new age folk communist commune in an open field with three buildings where everyone is dressed up in embroidered white clothes. There are two British friends of the Swede as well.
They are received with open arms for the summer solstice celebration. During the first meal everyone awaits the arrival of the two elders who emerge from one yellow pyramid. Once they give the silent order, everyone proceeds to eat. The thesis student is interested in what is going and asks questions and takes notes. Everyone sleeps in a building that is a single room with beds, so no privacy. A baby cries constantly every single night. We are told the next day will be an important one as an event will happen that only happens every 90 years. Everyone then gathers at the bottom of a cliff. The elder woman appears on top of the cliff and jumps. The visitors are in shock but stick around anyway. Then the elder guy appears and follows suit, but he doesn't die so a huge mallet is brought out to end his suffering.
There are more meals, some drama among the kids. The Swedish friend tells Dani that he too lost his family but regained a new one in the commune. Eventually things start going downhill for our friends as they start violating commune rules. One urinates on a sacred tree where the ashes of the dead elders have been placed. Another one takes picture of their sacred book, something he was told is prohibited. The two Brits allegedly left--without telling anyone. One girl starts getting interested in Chris and starts doing voodoo stuff to get in his pants. There's the traditional midsummer dance around the pole/contest that Dani ends up winning and as such ends up being the "may" queen and takes on a leadership role during the rest of the rituals. While she is taken somewhere, a drugged Chris does end up having sex with the girl who was interested in him. Dani catches him in the act and for no good reason has a break down--even though there wasn't much of a relationship with Chris to begin with. Here's something interesting about the community aspect of the commune. While Dani suffers and while the girl enjoys the sex, they are surrounded by other girls who join in their feelings--screaming in suffering or moaning in pleasure.
When Chris comes back to his senses of sorts he runs into a barn and finds a corpse. That's when things unravel. The last ritual is one of sacrifice and Dani and Chris will play an integral part in it.
Ari and his editor are back. This time giving us a 2 and a half hour long movie just for this basic story. No wonder someone decided to edit this down. So we get the same style as in Hereditary, again with a decent story but drawn out excessively long. The characters are weak here as well. No reason to care for any of them. No one stands out in the commune either. Florence Pugh is adorably cute though. The bits of violence, gore, and sex are good though. But in between there's just a whole lot of nothing. Ari claims to be interested in presenting relationships (and clearly has mommy and daddy issues) but can't portray a single meaningful relationship. Far from being creepy or horrific or even interesting, the commune is goofy and ridiculous and laughable. Only the music in this film manages to create some tension. A shame really, as something far better could have been done with this material.
First thing they do as they arrive in Sweden is of course take hallucinogens, what else. Eventually they arrive at the new age folk communist commune in an open field with three buildings where everyone is dressed up in embroidered white clothes. There are two British friends of the Swede as well.
They are received with open arms for the summer solstice celebration. During the first meal everyone awaits the arrival of the two elders who emerge from one yellow pyramid. Once they give the silent order, everyone proceeds to eat. The thesis student is interested in what is going and asks questions and takes notes. Everyone sleeps in a building that is a single room with beds, so no privacy. A baby cries constantly every single night. We are told the next day will be an important one as an event will happen that only happens every 90 years. Everyone then gathers at the bottom of a cliff. The elder woman appears on top of the cliff and jumps. The visitors are in shock but stick around anyway. Then the elder guy appears and follows suit, but he doesn't die so a huge mallet is brought out to end his suffering.
There are more meals, some drama among the kids. The Swedish friend tells Dani that he too lost his family but regained a new one in the commune. Eventually things start going downhill for our friends as they start violating commune rules. One urinates on a sacred tree where the ashes of the dead elders have been placed. Another one takes picture of their sacred book, something he was told is prohibited. The two Brits allegedly left--without telling anyone. One girl starts getting interested in Chris and starts doing voodoo stuff to get in his pants. There's the traditional midsummer dance around the pole/contest that Dani ends up winning and as such ends up being the "may" queen and takes on a leadership role during the rest of the rituals. While she is taken somewhere, a drugged Chris does end up having sex with the girl who was interested in him. Dani catches him in the act and for no good reason has a break down--even though there wasn't much of a relationship with Chris to begin with. Here's something interesting about the community aspect of the commune. While Dani suffers and while the girl enjoys the sex, they are surrounded by other girls who join in their feelings--screaming in suffering or moaning in pleasure.
When Chris comes back to his senses of sorts he runs into a barn and finds a corpse. That's when things unravel. The last ritual is one of sacrifice and Dani and Chris will play an integral part in it.
Ari and his editor are back. This time giving us a 2 and a half hour long movie just for this basic story. No wonder someone decided to edit this down. So we get the same style as in Hereditary, again with a decent story but drawn out excessively long. The characters are weak here as well. No reason to care for any of them. No one stands out in the commune either. Florence Pugh is adorably cute though. The bits of violence, gore, and sex are good though. But in between there's just a whole lot of nothing. Ari claims to be interested in presenting relationships (and clearly has mommy and daddy issues) but can't portray a single meaningful relationship. Far from being creepy or horrific or even interesting, the commune is goofy and ridiculous and laughable. Only the music in this film manages to create some tension. A shame really, as something far better could have been done with this material.