How Midsommar inspired Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese has been discussing the films that influenced his new movie Killers of the Flower Moon, explaining how Ari Aster’s Midsommar and Beau is Afraid inspired him.

Killers of the Flower Moon sees director Martin Scorsese reunite with longtime collaborators Robert De Niro and Leonardo Di Caprio for a period piece about real-life murders in the Osage Nation in the 1920s.

The movie has received rave reviews at film festival’s worldwide, and you can read our five-star thoughts on the movie here, where we wrote: “There’s no two ways about it – Killers of the Flower Moon is both a colossal and astonishing feat.”

But the shape – and pace – of the movie changed over time, as Scorsese explained in a recent interview.

How Midsommar inspired Killers of the Flower Moon

Killers of the Flower Moon clocks in at a butt-numbing 3 hours and 26 minutes, and cruises along at a stately pace. Something that Scorsese felt emboldened to do after watching the work of another filmmaker.

“I very much like the style and pacing of good horror films like Ari Aster’s Midsommar or Beau Is Afraid,” Scorsese told The Irish Times. “The pacing of those films goes back to the b-films of Val Lewton, Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People or I Walked With a Zombie. Just going a little slower. A little quieter.”

“I was very concerned about allowing scenes that were not narrative into the story, scenes to do with the Osage culture — leaving in those scenes of custom, like the baby namings, the funerals, and the weddings — so we could begin to understand a little more about the people,” he added.

“I felt confident that a lot of people would allow themselves to be immersed in the world of the film. One has to take these chances. At this age, what else can I do?”

Changing the narrative

Killers of the Flower Moon is based on the 2017 book of the same name by David Grann. Which charts events from the point-of-view of government agents investigating the crimes in question. But that changed when Di Caprio came onboard. As Scorsese explains…

“Myself and [my co-screenwriter] Eric Roth talked about telling the story from the point of view of the bureau agents coming in to investigate. After two years of working on the script, Leo came to me and asked, ‘Where is the heart of this story?’

“I had had meetings and dinners with the Osage, and I thought, ‘Well, there’s the story.’ The real story, we felt, was not necessarily coming from the outside, with the bureau, but rather from the inside, from Oklahoma.”

Killers of the Flower Moon hits cinemas on October 20 before streaming on Apple TV. For more on the movie, head here.