I am a bit mixed To get it out of the way, this is not a horror movie, it's more of a psychological thriller and it's plot is about a breakup, even though it doesn't seem like it. I originally picked this because I had heard a lot of praise and how disturbing it was, and I went in blind.
First off I have to say that the camera work is amazing, and this movie is great in subtly and not too subtly foreshadowing what is to come and leave small details in the background to notice during a rewatch. Florence Pugh's performance was absolutely phenomenal and I'd love to see her in more films. The soundtrack does it's job well and I guess the lighting is good too I guess. I did get a lot of Hereditary vibes from this movie, but the two movies have the same director so..yeah.
I assume that this film's intention was to be a 'slowburn' film and they used swedish to make the viewer feel like an outsider. But for me, the film was way too slow and I had to fight the urge to turn the movie off. As someone who has grown up in a swedish speaking area, I understood everything they said and was like 'okay, sure'. And can I say how unbearable the side characters were? There is a reason why I was not sad when they died.
The film's intention was to disturb the viewer as much as possible, and while this can be tame to others, it worked for me. I can also understand why some might laugh at those scenes because they were ridiculous, sure, but there was something disturbing about them. When the gore started, I expected it to be something way over the top,¨or like the description of the film promised 'festives getting more violent each day' but even what I got was disturbing enough. I almost cried at the end because I felt so bad to the people suffering in Hågra but blindly believing.
Overall I would recommend this to those who love long movies and psychological thrillers. Definitely not for everyone.