A24 has released an official poster for Ari Aster’s new horror film, Midsommar. Aster made quite the name for himself last year with his feature directorial debut, Hereditary. The movie generated lots of buzz following its premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and went on to make an equally big splash in theaters, where it grossed $79 million at the global box office against a $9 million budget. More than that, Hereditary was celebrated for being one of the freakiest horror films of the year, bar none, and a layered piece of storytelling driven by a tour-de-force performance from Toni Collette.
With those sort of accolades, it’s not wonder horror fans are eagerly awaiting Aster’s sophomore effort, Midsommar. The film, which Aster both wrote and directed, stars Jack Reynor (Transformers: Age of Extinction) and Florence Pugh (Fighting with My Family) as a couple who take a trip to Sweden to visit their friend’s hometown and enjoy the annual mid-summer festival, but end up becoming ensnared in a horrifying competition involving a pagan cult. A24 started dropping teaser artwork for the film on Twitter this past week, as part of the build-up to today’s poster unveiling.
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The official Midsommar poster is now available online, with a trailer likely to follow in the foreseeable future. You can check it out in the space below.
While the Midsommar poster is big on bright colors and the gentle imagery of Reynor and Pugh in a field of flowers, it’s safe to assume the actual film will be full of far more disturbing visuals, like Hereditary before it. Based on the story details released so far, Midsommar will follow its characters on a journey that starts off harmlessly enough – like the one-sheet indicates – before it descends into a full-blown nightmare, much like what transpired in Hereditary‘s second half. Naturally, the movie invites comparisons to films like The Wicker Man and last year’s Apostle, seeing as they too revolved around characters uncovering a cult that’s hiding some dangerously bizarre secrets. On the other hand, the focus on the couple played by Reynor and Pugh suggests Midsommar could fall closer to a parable about marriage and/or relationships than either of those movies, thematically speaking.
At the moment, Midsommar is scheduled to hit theaters in August, where it will open against films like Disney’s Artemis Fowl adaptation, Warner Bros.’ comic book-based mob drama The Kitchen, and Guillermo del Toro’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. That weekend is currently pretty packed, so it’s possible that either one or more of those films will end up changing dates between now and then. It shouldn’t be a problem for Midsommar either way, seeing as Aster’s horror film is expected to earn a hard R rating (much like Hereditary) and skew older than Scary Stories, as far as competition for the horror crowd goes. As always, we’ll keep you updated as the story develops.
MORE: The Best Horror Movies of 2018
Key Release Dates
Midsommar
Release Date:2019-07-03
