Midsommar (2019)

Ari Aster's second feature inverted every visual convention of horror by staging its most disturbing events in broad Scandinavian daylight, stripping away the darkness audiences rely on as a psychological buffer. Made for $9 million and grossing over $28 million worldwide, it drew on genuine Swedish folk traditions to create a folkloric dread that feels anthropologically credible rather than invented. The film's impact on cult aesthetics, folk horror as a genre category, and the conversation around toxic relationships made it the defining horror film of the late 2010s.