Tonight, just two days before the winter solstace, we enjoyed what has been noted for being a horror movie that takes place fully in daylight. Midsommar, Ari Aster’s follow up to the deeply disturbing Hereditary is a creepy (seems to be an oft-recurring theme around here this season), and gruesomely captivating story of pagan ritual. Aster was inspired by Robin Hardy’s 1973 The Wicker Man – this year’s NewScreen season opener.

The world wide internet for computers, as my fiend Michael likes to call it, is jam-packed with “explanations” of the ending, and theories about the deeper meaning of Midsommar, but c’mon! It’s just a break-up movie with some twitchy, witchy action. OK, joking.

How can the seemingly hapless, and long-suffering Dani (played perfectly by English actor, Florence Pugh) endure the mediocrity of her selfish boyfriend and his idiot friends. Not giving anything away here, but it’s kind of a happy ending…

Our into short tonight was Dimitri Basil’s Obsession – Joywave a fun mash-up of fictional movie title screens.