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Midsommar Review

By Bryce Hanson on July 10, 2019 8

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Midsommar is the antidote for “spooky house syndrome“. If there is a more idyllic horror movie, I don’t know of it. This slow burn pagan horror film will stick with you and give you plenty to talk about afterwards. It certainly gave us a lot to talk about. This episode of Horror Movie Talk comes in at just over two hours.

Midsommar teaser poster

Midsommar can be found in theaters now.

Midsommar Synopsis

Writer/Director Ari Aster has followed up his dark drama-filled cult-based horror movie with this bright drama-filler cult-based horror movie. Midsommar stars Florence Pugh  who plays Dani, an anxious young woman who experiences a horrible family tragedy, and then accompanies her boyfriend and anthropology doctoral student Christian (Jack Reynor) on a trip to Sweden to experience a traditional summer festival of a certain rural commune.

Watch Midsommar

Full Movie Midsommar

Click here to Watch

Christian and his friends Josh and Mark were invited on the trip by their friend and classmate, Pelle who grew up in the small Swedish commune. Unbeknownst to Dani, Christian has been planning to break up with her for a while, and unbeknownst to everyone but Pelle, the once in a lifetime midsommar festival is actually a vicious pagan cult ritual.

My Review of Midsommar

Midsommar was everything I wanted it to be, and I had high expectations. It’s a breath of fresh air in the horror genre, and like Hereditary, takes a lot of concepts from older horror movies and melds them to create a new and compelling story for today. Ari Aster’s strength is his focus on character and relationship drama, and the characters and relationships in this movie are very familiar and believable. They serve to ground the horror elements so that they also seem very real.

The bright and idyllic setting of the movie does a lot to mask and inoculate the viewer to the horrific rituals that occur in the festival. Also, the framing of the events as a rare and sacred cultural event, along with the generous drug usage creates a logical reason for why the American characters are slow to react to the more extreme elements of the festival.

Check Out Our Review of The Ritual

The Ritual Review
If you like pagan or ancient rituals in your horror, check out our episode on The Ritual.

It’s a slow burn, and while there are horrific and surprising scenes, they are intentionally dampened with the over saturated visuals and muted sound design. The tension and anxiety that I felt ramped up very slowly throughout the movie, to where I didn’t realize how much I was being affected. Towards the end I was on the edge of my seat with a lot of nervous energy watching the inevitable and dreadful fate of the American party. 

Score for Midsommar

Score 9/10

Midsommar Spoilers

Expand for Spoilers and Deeper Discussion…

The opening act of Midsommar

The film’s opening act is really about setting up the relationship between Dani and Christian. Dani is very needy and has a lot of family drama so she leans on Christian very heavily. Christian isn’t as self sacrificing and long-suffering as he portrays to Dani, and is actually working up the courage to finally break up. Ari Aster has described this movie as a “break up movie”. So it’s very important to frame this relationship early on.

Check Out Our Review of It Chapter Two

It Chapter Two Review

The latest scare for Dani is that her sister isn’t returning her emails, and after she calls and and expresses her worry to Christian, he (after the call) commiserates with his buddies, and they encourage him to finally break it off.

Well, Dani’s fears become very real when it is revealed that her sister poisoned herself and her parents with carbon monoxide in an apparent murder suicide. Cut to shot of Dani screaming in utter dispair, ala Hereditary. Obviously not the best time to break up.

Dani is Invited

Christian finds himself in a tough spot when Dani finds out about a long trip to Sweden that he is taking with his college friends in the coming week. Dani and Christian get into a super believable argument, and Dani ends up being invited on the trip.

Christian’s friends all seem to be studying anthropology and specifically rural pagan festivals. One of the friends, Pelle, came from a rural village in Sweden and he invited them all to a once in a lifetime midsommar festival. He describes it as a “nine day festival with lots of pageantry“.

Traveling to the Midsommar Festival

The trip to the midsommar festival features a lot of great shots by Aster. These include a great transition between an apartment bathroom and an airplane bathroom, and an homage to The Shining‘s opening sequence driving through the woods.

Once they arrive at a field outside the entrance to the festival, they are given psychedelic mushrooms, and there are some trippy visual effects. As foreshadowing, Dani doesn’t want to take the drugs yet, but gives in to peer pressure. Both Dani and Mark have really bad trips.

When they enter the village (festival grounds?), they are greeted with the warmest, friendliest Swedes in existence.

Cheers in Swedish
Skål!

They are introduced to the villagers that describe the festival as happening every 90 years. We are given small hints that there is more to the festival than just singing, dancing, and drinking. There are many tapestries and drawings throughout the buildings that show depictions of ancient blood rituals.

This wood panel illustration shows what the Midsommar festival is really about
This means something… this is important.

There is one particular yellow house that is described as a sacred temple that no one is allowed to enter.

The yellow temple in Midsommar festival movie
Here is said temple.

The First Big Ritual: Ättestupa

The first time we really see confirmation that this festival involves human sacrifice, is at the Ättestupa.

Everyone waits at a rune shaped table for an older couple to arrive so that they can eat. The older couple is then transported on carried chairs to a large cliff. Down below the villagers and tourists look up.

The cliffs in Midsommar
I believe I can fly…

After the old people’s hands are cut, their blood are smeared on some runes on a rock.

Runes smeared with blood in Midsommar review.
Runes smeared with blood.

Then the couple both freely throw themselves off the cliff to kill themselves with varying levels of success. Luckily, there is an alternate plan for the old man that doesn’t die on impact.

Giant mallet used to brain people in Midsommar.
The alternate plan

The over-exposed filmwork and the muted sound design are an attempt to numb the impact of these deaths for the audience, but it’s impossible not to be affected by the imagery nonetheless.

The reactions to the ritual are mixed. The anthropology students are intrigued, Dani is horrified and wants to leave, and the English couple is angry and wants to leave as well.

Using Cultural Differences as a Source of Dread

The real source of dread for this movie is from the feeling of being a foreigner in a foreign land. It puts you in a weird relativistic mindset where you aren’t sure what to think about what you are witnessing. Both the characters in the film and the audience watching it are experiencing the same thing.

Check Out Our Review of Ready or Not

Ready or Not Review

The real danger is getting lulled into the idea that the things you are seeing aren’t actually horrific, they are just related to an alternate worldview and moral framework that is just as valid as yours.

The Symbolism in Midsommar

Throughout the film, Josh and others are learning a lot about the symbolism and meaning behind the rites of the festival.

Josh learns from an Elder that in their sacred books, they write a type of “emotional sheet music” from nine symbols that represent the nine different emotional states. These symbols are decided by the oracle that dictates them.

In this case, the oracle is named Ruben. Ruben is severely retarded from intentional inbreeding. You read that right. They intentionally inbreed an oracle, because then, they will be “untainted by normal cognition”.

Ruben, the oracle in Midsommar
Meet Ruben

The Ending of Midsommar

Person by person, all the foreigners in the group mysteriously disappear and Dani and Christian are the last outsiders left.

Christian is tempted into having sex with a sexy sexy redheaded swede.

sexy sexy redheaded swede
You know what to do…

Dani is pulled into the dance competition and eventually is crowned the May Queen. After which, she discovers Christian’s infidelity by peering through Sweden’s largest keyhole.

Peering through the keyhole in midsommar.
What’s the point of a keyhole so large you can reach through it?

The film ends with all of the horrific murders being revealed and the explanation that the village needs 9 people to sacrifice in the culmination of the festival. All but three are accounted for.

Two Swedes volunteer for the honor, and the last soul is decided by what can be described as a sacrificial powerball, and then finally by the May Queen herself, Dani.

Dani is given the choice between sacrificing Christian or sacrificing another villager.

She chooses Christian.

Christian is then sewed up into a bear suit, and propped up inside the temple along with (in varying levels of decomposition) Mark, Josh, the English couple, the two elderly villagers, and the two volunteers.

Bear dissection in Midsommar
Just making some room.

The temple is then burned, and the last shot is Dani cracking a smile.

Who Would Like Midsommar?

There are definitely people that won’t like this movie. It won’t satisfy horror purists with it’s toned down gore.

However, if you like realistic interpersonal drama set in a compelling and fascinatingly dreadful situation, you should enjoy this film quite a bit.

Check Out Our Review of Paranormal Activity 2

Paranormal Activity 2 Review

It is a singularly unique film despite it’s quotations from and homages to other horror films in the pagan horror subgenre. Much like Hereditary in 2018, you’ll be hard pressed to find a horror film of similar quality and vision this year.

Ari Aster is the film auteur to keep an eye on.

It Came From Social Media

We were lucky enough to watch Midsommar with the cult! Ok, it may have been more of a group of friends who bake and prepare delicious food who happen to enjoy top tier horror, but who the heck can tell? Check out some of the pics that we got from them! Follow them on the Instagram @awkwardasshole and @kret2! Thanks cultists!

The cult at the movie theater
They forced us to thumbs up with threats
The cult looking idilic
Idilic look on fleek
Cult food
They worship cookin’
The cult spread
The full spread

Videos mentioned on the podcast

How to Cook For Forty Humans
Are y’all with the cult?
Not the bees!!!

About Bryce Hanson

I'm a big fan of horror movies because it's rare that they aren't interesting. Whether it is a straight to VOD or the latest theatrical release, there is always something to talk about. I also like to sing, wax philosophical about mythology and religion, contemplate the void, and spend time with my family. I am usually up in my head about something, so apologies if I'm looking off into the middle distance. Along with David, I am a co-founder of Horror Movie Talk.

If you want to know more about my taste in horror films, checkout my about page or listen to episode 14: "The Horrific Beginnings of Horror Movie Talk"

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carter Allen says

    July 10, 2019 at 2:28 pm

    After listening to this review I just have to watch Midsommar again. I loved the first 45 minutes and hated the ending. The color palette was fucking fantastic. The framing was amazing and the lead actress did a fantastic job specifically in the shroom scene making me truly feel like I wanted her to get out of there. I loved parts of this movie. I hated parts of this movie and I think thats what Ari Aster wanted. I just can’t stop thinking about it which means its done its job

    Reply
    • David Day says

      July 11, 2019 at 4:10 am

      What did you dislike about it? That’s a fair response, I think. You don’t have to like it just because we did.

      Reply

Trackbacks

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