Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish tourism boards must sue Ari Aster because of this arthouse monstrosity, which connects "120 days of Sodom" by Pasolini and "Wicker Man" by the way of the "Heart of Darkness". Even if there was little reason to visit Scandinavia before--snooty people (except for Finns who are not really Scandinavians), bad weather and culture mostly represented by the neo-Nazi biker gangs--there will be even less now. At least, Pasolini's masterpiece, or so I heard--I could not watch both movies--is exculpated by his crafty wordplay between "Salo" in the De Sade's title and the fascist Republic of Salo in the final months of Nazi occupation of Italy, when all evil glossed over by the Mussolini's reign exploded in earnest. The Wicker Man reportedly adds dark English humor to the mixture of cruel and absurd, but this movie is absolutely serious.
Saying that, the movie is not bad but Aster's humorless playing on a single chord of uncanny and disturbing--made me uncomfortable more than widely advertised but modestly presented gore and cruelty.
