'Midsommar' Director's Cut Opening In Select Theaters This Weekend

Midsommar is one of the year's best films – and now there's even more of it to go around. Ari Aster's brightly lit, surprisingly funny folk horror film was already long in its theatrical form, clocking-in at 147 minutes. But Aster's preferred cut of the film was even longer – 171 minutes, to be precise. This director's cut screened recently in NYC, and it was presumed it would be included on the upcoming home video release. But it isn't – the director's cut doesn't appear on either the digital release or the Blu-ray, for reasons unknown (my guess: a double-dip is in our future).

But fret not – you'll (probably) still be able to see the director's cut for yourself. Because A24 is rolling it out in select theaters this weekend. You can get tickets here.

When our own Ben Pearson asked Aster about his director's cut, the filmmaker responded:

"I would say my preferred cut would have been maybe 25 minutes longer, but I actually feel like this cut is the most accessible cut. There probably will exist a director's cut, and I would not actually call the director's cut necessarily better. I would say, 'This is the cut with scenes that were very painful for me to cut that I might have not cut if I weren't encouraged to keep pushing.' But [the theatrical version] is definitely an approved cut. I had final cut on the film, and I'm very proud of what we arrived at. But yes, I would say, the three-hour and forty-five minute cut, I would never want anybody to watch. I would say there's a two-hour and forty-five minute cut, without credits, that I would be interested in what people thought."

In Midsommar, "Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor) are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing. From the visionary mind of Ari Aster comes a dread-soaked cinematic fairytale where a world of darkness unfolds in broad daylight."