Midsommar
(2019) 147 min | 171 min (Director’s Cut)
Rated: R (gore, nudity, sex)
Country: USA | Sweden
Director: Ari Aster
Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, and Will Poulter.
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★★★
Several young Americans take a trip to a secluded village in Sweden to witness their traditional 90-year summer festival.
Synopsis:
Dani Ardor (Pugh) is a college student who one night finds out that her sister has committed suicide and also murdered her parents by poisoning them with carbon monoxide. Devastated she calls her boyfriend Christian Hughes (Raynor), however he has been distant and had planned to break up with her prior to this news.
Christian has planned to take a trip to Sweden with his other Anthropolgy major friends, Mark (Poulter) and Josh (Harper). Their Swedish friend, Pelle (Blomgren), has invited them to attend a midsummer celebration in the remote northern commune, the Hårga, in Hälsingland.
At a party, Dani happens to overhear them talking about the trip. At first she is surprised that Christian never told her he was going on the trip, but she also feels that it will be a nice escape from her life. Pelle welcomes her along and the group goes ahead with the plan to take Dani along.
The group arrives in Sweden and take a four hour drive to the secluded commune. They stop for a moment to relax and get high. At this time Pelle meets up with his communal brother Ingemar. Ingemar has brought two friends along from London: Connie and Simon. The group rests and Dani has hallucinations of her sister. Dani wakes up from a long sleep and Christian tells her that it is the next day. The midnight sun shines all day and the group hikes the rest of the way to the commune.
They are greeted happily by the Hårgas people. The commune is dressed all in white and Pelle tells the group that these people are his “family”. It is explained that this is a sacred summer festival that happens every 90 years by the commune. Josh, who is writing thesis on the festival, takes notes and photos.
The group sleeps together in a large building with others of similar age. Pelle explains that the commune believe life is divided into four seasons with the elder mentors in their winter stage. After one is 72 you die. Dani sees a wall of photos and Pelle explains that they are the May Queens that are chosen after a dance competition during the mid-summer festival. Pelle also tells the group that the next day an ättestupa will take place. Josh is the only one of the group aware of the ritual.
The next day the group eats a solemn meal and then go to a cliff side with the rest of the commune. Two of the elders in the community, a man and a woman, are taken to the top of the cliff and the woman jumps off, smashing her head into a large boulder on the ground. Next, the man leaps from the cliff and breaks his legs on the landing. He cries out in anguish and the commune mimics his cries. Finally, a member carrying a large wooden mallet walks over to the man and crushes his head, ending his suffering. Dani and her friends are horrified. Connie and Simon want nothing more than to leave. The commune elder, Siv, tries to tell them that it is an honor and joy to sacrifice oneself this way. She says life for them is a cycle.
Josh is writing on his laptop when Christian informs him that he, too, will write his thesis on Hårga. This choice divides the two friends as Josh feels his thesis on Mid-summer will be too close to Christian’s. Meanwhile, Pelle talks to a distressed Dani and explains that he wanted to share the festival with people who were important to him. Pelle also tells her that his parents died in a fire and he understands what Dani is going through. He says that the commune became his family and he asks her if Christian feels like home to her.
Later Pelle tells Josh and Christian that they are both allowed to do their thesis work on the commune as long as they do not name the place or people. Pelle finds that one of the commune sisters, Maja, has placed a love charm under Christian’s bed. Pelle tells Christian that she has reached the age of consent. Meanwhile, Mark accidentally takes a piss on the ancestral tree and angers some of the group.
Connie tries to leave and an elder, Father Odd, tells her that Simon has already left on a truck without her bu that it will return soon. Connie stalks off in disbelief. Later Odd talks to Josh about the sacred texts they have that are a continual work done (as finger-paintings) by a highly inbred member of the community named Rubin.
At dinner, Mark is lead away by a girl he likes and Christian finds a pubic hair in his pie and his drink is suspiciously discolored. Josh is preoccupied with the thoughts of the sacred text and at night he sneaks off to take photos of the book. While he does so, a member of the community kills Josh while another distracts him wearing Mark’s skin.
Christian is taken to see Siv and Dani is taken with the other women to dance around a Maypole. Siv asks Christian about his feelings towards Maja and informs him that he has been approved to mate with her. Meanwhile, Dani happens to be the last girl dancing around the Maypole and she becomes the May Queen.
The group has a feast where the May Queen sits at the head of the table. During the meal, Christian is seated across from Maja. The effects of a drugged drink and the festivities have left him confused and anxious. Maja nods for him to follow her and she leaves the table.
While Dani leaves to “bless the crops” as per tradition, the commune welcome Christian to building where the sacred texts are held. He inhales some smoke and is guided inside where Maja lies naked on a bed of flowers as other commune women surround her, also nude. Christian is disrobed and begins to have sex with Maja. She reaches out for a commune woman who takes her hand and starts to sing to her and and Christian. As they continue to have sex, Maja starts to moan and the women moan in return until the act of copulation is complete.
As Christian is having sex with Maja, Dani returns from her ritual blessings. She goes over to the building against the commune’s wishes and peers through the keyhole to see Christian cheating on her. She vomits and sobs. The other girls from the dancing gather around her and try to calm her. She starts to sob loudly and they sob loudly too.
Christian starts to panic and leaves Maja, who happily believes she is now pregnant. Christian runs around outside nude. He runs toward the herb garden and sees Josh’s foot sticking out of the ground. He tries to hide inside a large chicken coop but finds the body of Simon hanging from ropes with flowers where his eyes should be. His back and ribs are sliced open with the skin pulled out and his lungs exposed, still moving with his breath. (A Blood Eagle ritual.) A man enters, startles Christian and blows a powder into his face which renders Christian immobile.
Christian is taken to a meeting with the entire commune, including the May Queen. Siv tells the group that the next ritual will be one in which they will offer Hårga blood in equal number to the new blood. Meaning, four visitors sacrificed, four Hårga will be sacrificed. A ninth sacrifice will be chosen by the May Queen out of two options, one being a chosen Hårga and the other being Christian. Christian cannot move or speak, he can only see and hear. Dani, still pained by his unfaithfulness chooses Christian.
All of the sacrifices are taken to a triangular building. Christian is placed inside of a bear’s skin with only his head visible. The bodies of Simon, Connie, Josh and Mark are all propped up against the walls. The two live Hårga sacrifices are given a substance made of yew to help them feel no pain or fear. The commune then sets the building on fire. The fire spreads and Christian is burned alive while in the bear skin. The two Hårga men who are sacrificed, start to wail and writhe in pain. Outside the building, the other Hårga wail in response. Dani stops crying and smiles.
Review:
Ari Aster’s second film is both a horrific folktale and relationship drama. We are introduced to Dani, a woman plagued with problems and a boyfriend who doesn’t want to endure her drama anylonger, but doesn’t find the right moment to break it off with her. Instead he endures being with her through her family tragedy and takes her on a trip.
The film is shot beautifully and acted well. There is an overall sense of dread and mystery about the commune. Each day of the festival becomes more and more dreadful and yet Christian and Dani seem to be focused on themselves and their own problems. It can be compaared to other folk horror films such as The Wickerman, but it is entirely different in other ways. The audience can be compelled to find the Hårga as both a cruel people but also sympathetic. Pelle’s argument that they are a large family for him is exactly what appeals to Dani. This appeal echoes cults and other communes who prey on lonely people. It is interesting to see Dani become comfortable with the death of her friends and boyfriend since she now has a new family to rely on emotionally.
Overall, the film is paced slowly and methodically. It’s more drama than horror, but the horror is subtle at times and stark and shocking at other times. It’s definitely worth watching for any horror fan who likes a slow burn with a foreboding feel littered throughout. It’s definitely not for the crowds who prefer jumpscares.
