VIDEO TIP

Midsommar

Witches today don't bother with that "eye of newt" stuff. If they want to mess someone up, they'll make sure a film like "Midsommar" gets made. The recipe might read something like, "Take a pinch of 'The Wicker Man,' shaved bits of bark of 'Harvest Home,' some hallucinogen mushrooms, and society's built-in wariness of odd religious cults. Now, stir in a lovely, pastoral community in northern Sweden, celebrating a once-every-90-years solstice festival with some freakin' NUTS rituals — and then add some young post-grad students from America to witness the festival at the invitation of one of their schoolmates, a native of the village. This film is beautiful, weird, increasingly disturbing and ultimately horrifying. Oh, what the hell, throw in some eye of newt. Can't get much worse.