The Summer solstice is here. It’s the longest day of the year, which means more time to watch movies (we’re pretty sure that’s how it works). And there’s no shortage of directions your midsummer viewing could go in. Of course, there’s sun-drenched horror films like The Wicker Man to help you plug into the solstice’s pagan vibes. Or you could take things in more of a backwoods direction, with a summery coming-of-age flick to bring the good vibes and hard-won life lessons. Alternatively, impress your Letterboxd followers with a spot of sensual, sunkissed arthouse goodness. Here’s seven to help with the inspiration.
1. Midsommar (2019)
Ari Aster’s vivid, sun-drenched daylight horror is a supremely unsettling place to kickstart your viewing. ‘The Wizard of Oz for perverts’ is how Aster himself describes it, and it’s a film that comes with the lulling, opiate buzz of Dorothy’s poppy field. That hypnotic energy gives way to something dark and disturbing as Florence Pugh’s grieving twentysomething and her bad boyfriend (Jack Reynor) find that holidaying with a Swedish death cult isn’t the strong TripAdvisor rec they might have thought.
2. Stand by Me (1986)
Long hot summers are perfect backdrops for coming-of-age flicks: characters enter as wide-eyed tweenagers and emerge three months later with chest hairs and at least one scarring experience to their name. That’s the deal with Rob Reiner’s iconic outdoors adventure, which has turned Stephen King’s novella ‘The Body’ into a cinematic rite of passage for generations of American movie-lovers. It’s set in the forests of Oregon, a boy’s own adventure that doesn’t even involve leaving the couch.
3. Summer with Monika (1953)
Scandi thirst trap Monika (Harriet Andersson) is the mercurial beauty around which Ingmar Bergman’s scandalous swoon of a drama orbits. The film’s candid depictions of lusty female sexuality affronted prudish tastemakers at the time – it was renamed ‘Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl’ in America to make it clear that female nudity was Not Okay – but nowadays it just seems ahead of its time in its frank vision of sexual liberation. Don’t be deterred by the black and white, this is one of the summeriest films ever made.
4. The Go-Between (1971)
If you’re in any way a fan of British cinema, peak Julie Christie or brawny thesps (in this case Alan Bates) getting their kit off – and honestly, who isn’t? – there’s no excuse for not having seen this summery masterpiece. Based on LP Hartley’s novel, it’s about a 12-year-old called Leo, who spends a haunting summer at a posh country estate, running messages between two adulterous lovers (Christie and Bates) like a kind of human WhatsApp. Framed through the older Leo’s recollections, it’s a brilliant film about summer as a hazy, hazardous state of mind – and how English people lose all reason when the sun comes out.
5. The Wicker Man (1973)
Aka ‘Hot Pagan Summer’, this folk horror landmark is a flawless exercise in slow burn terror that does for maypole dancers what Jaws did for sharks. Presided over with regal menace by Christopher Lee as the patrician Lord Summerisle, it’s a sinister articulation of Britain’s deep-rooted folk tradition, in which a fertility cult will seemingly stop at nothing to ensure another year of prize-winning veggies. As Edward Woodward’s policeman quickly discovers when he lands on their verdant island off the coast of Scotland. The tropical Scottish locations, warmed by the Gulf Stream, enrich its woozy sense of the uncanny.
The 11 best places on earth to celebrate summer solstice.
The best horror movies of 2024 (so far).