A wannabe suspenser about a bunch of horny young people in a deserted house in the woods, “Midsummer” falls flat on its back. First-time director Carsten Myllerup steers clear of such clichés as ax-wielding madmen and buckets of gore to tell a more traditional ghost story with supernatural twists. But pic is too talky and preoccupied with leading the audience in the wrong direction to build up much tension.
Story starts with teens Christian (Kristian Leth) and younger sister Sofie (Lykke Sand) celebrating the end of school at a party where Sofie ends up committing suicide. Later, Christian and his pals go on their annual outing to Sweden, where the family of Trine (Laura Christensen) has a summerhouse. Christian finally gets it on with Trine but then strange things start to happen: a car’s lights suddenly come on in the middle of the night and a child’s laughter is heard in the forest. One sequence of a séance in the house is truly creepy, and Myllerup clearly has the potential to helm a good horror film in the future. The young, mostly unknown cast is appealing.
