This film is visually beautiful - almost stunning, and yet all that beauty almost lulls you to sleep. At the 58-minute mark I literally nodded off. Thankfully, it was just compelling enough that I chose to stay awake. I am so glad I did. Or am I? As one reviewer already put it, it is "traumatic" and even though it is slow-going, it is well worth the almost inexplicable payoff. It will haunt you, in that long after it is over you will think back on it. What a mind F. I'll say no more.

When I first saw the trailer, I immediately thought of The Wicker Man. I pushed that aside because I wanted to see the movie without unfair comparisons in mind. I thought the precredit scenes set up an interesting scenario and dealt with the relationship issues in a complex way. Once we get into the heart of the movie, everything goes down hill...very, very, very slowly. Without giving anything away, everything you expect to happen in this movie does. There are no real surprises and....yeah, The Wickerman. I love slow movies, and I dont mind long running lengths. But, there was just no reason for this movie to be 2 hours and 30 minutes. I get that the director loves to watch women sob, but we don't really need all of that. I was also disappointed in how the main characters were handled. I hoped they would be given some depth, but they ended up becoming cliche carictures. There will be people who find the film full of wonderful, shocking surprises. Those people have probably not delved into horror (or folk horror) in any substantial way. Its all been done before, so why not save your time and money?

I'll start this off with a warning. If you're a mainstream horror fan, you will not like this. It is not The Conjuring, it does not have jump scares, it is a slow movie. It's not scary in the way that most horror films are scary. It doesn't frighten you. It felt traumatic. This is an artsy movie for sure. If you don't like that, don't see it. Florence Pugh is absolutely phenomenal. She provides the heart for the film and is what keeps the audience emotionally invensted in such a disturbing film. It's one of the greatest horror performances that I have ever seen. The cinematography is stunningly gorgeous. I've never seen a film look so gory and grotesque and yet absolutely beatiful at the same time. It's some of the best cinematography that I've seen in years. The art direction is also phenomenal in providing us with a floral, candy colored, nightmare world. And Ari Aster's screenplay and direction is what makes this so special and separates it from other horror pieces. It's slow, methodical, eerie. But the characters are psychological and deep. The dialogue is real and colorful. The plot is surreal and disturbing. He let's the scares crawl at you as opposed to jump at you. He allows you to see what will happen, process it, feel the shock of what's about to happen, and then still shock you even more when it happens. This film will be divisive. I have no doubt that many people here will hate this. However, while this is a challenging film, it's also a great film. Halfway through a character says something along the lines of "That was so messed up, but I'm trying to keep an open mind." I suggest that audiences take this advice. PSA, this movie is extremely violent, bloody, and gory. It's pretty horrifying and it could have stuff that is triggering.