‘Midsommar’ Set to Terrorize Florence Pugh and Moviegoers For Two Hours and 20 Minutes
Zack Sharf
Horror movie fans better get ready for Ari Aster‘s “Midsommar” to terrorize them for a long time at the movies. A24 confirms with IndieWire the official runtime for the director’s “Hereditary” follow-up is 140 minutes, which means the writer-director’s pagan cult horror movie will deliver 13 more minutes of scares than “Hereditary,” if that’s even possible. The two-hour-and-20-minute runtime makes “Midsommar” one of the longer horror releases in recent memory, not quite hitting the 153 minutes of “Suspiria” but longer than the 116-minute “Us” from earlier this year.
“Midsommar” stars Florence Pugh and Jake Raynor as an American couple whose mental states and relationship unravel when they decide to vacation with their friends in Sweden. The group heads to a small village that is hosting a festival held once every 90 years, one that includes hallucinogenic drugs and disturbing pagan rituals. The supporting cast includes Will Poulter, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, and Archie Madekwe.
Aster told Fandango earlier this year that “Midsommar” is his version of a relationship drama, just as “Hereditary” was a family drama at its core. While “Midsommar” does not include any overt plot connections to “Hereditary” (sorry, Paimon worshippers), Aster said he did realize during the making of his new movie that both of his films share a thematic connection. The director would not speak further on the matter.
“The hope is take what would otherwise be your standard issue relationship-in-trouble drama where the couple go on a trip, which is always the weird thing to do if your relationship is on shaky legs,” Aster said of “Midsommar.” “It’s in the same ballpark as having a child to save your relationship. It sort of takes that germ and then kind of blows it up and allows it to grow into some operatic, extremely heightened surreal places.”
Aster is even hesitant to call “Midsommar” a horror movie, saying, “I would say ‘Hereditary’ absolutely was a horror film, unabashedly, and this film is, I am very careful to call it an adult fairy tale. That’s what this is. This is an adult contemporary fairy tale.”
Whatever “Midsommar” is, the movie will aim to terrorize moviegoers for two hours and 20 minutes when A24 opens the film in theaters July 3.
