Hereditary director Ari Aster has recently described his Midsommar as both a “post apocalyptic breakup movie” and a “Scandinavian folk horror film,” and in a new chat with EW this week, he also likens his follow-up feature to both Wicker Man and Alice in Wonderland.

At the same time, he notes, don’t expect to see something you’ve already seen before.

“The film is definitely mining the same vein as Wicker Man was working, but as a piece of folk-horror, it’s pretty irreverent in that it doesn’t really stay comfortably on that route,” Aster says.

“That’s why I’m making sure to describe it as a fairytale,” he continues. “It’s not a million miles away from something like Alice in Wonderland. It’s a psychedelic film. It definitely moves very solidly into psychedelia and so it’s not a million miles away from something like A Field in England in that respect. But there are no solid [comparisons] that I can hand you.”

“I’m hoping that the film feels pretty singular and is a trip.”

Aster’s new film stars Jack Reynor, Will Poulter and Florence Pugh with Vilhem Blomgren, William Jackson Harper, Ellora Torchia and Archie Madekwe.

“Pugh and Reynor will play a couple that travels to Sweden to visit their friend’s rural hometown for its fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.”

A24 will release Midsommar on July 3.

MIDSOMMAR
(center) Florence Pugh; Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter