In the endless summer light of a remote Swedish commune, grief twists into ritualistic terror, proving that daylight can cast the longest shadows.

Released in 2019, Midsommar stands as a chilling folk horror masterpiece that transplants dread from nocturnal gloom to the relentless glare of midsummer sun, blending breakup anguish with pagan rites in a way that lingers long after the credits roll.

  • Explore how Ari Aster crafts a daylight nightmare, subverting traditional horror tropes through vibrant visuals and communal rituals.
  • Unpack the film’s profound themes of grief, toxic relationships, and cultural clash, with Florence Pugh’s raw performance at its heart.
  • Trace Midsommar‘s influences from classic folk horror and its enduring impact on modern cinema and cult fandoms.

Summer of Screams: Unravelling Midsommar’s Pagan Heart

Blossoming Grief in the Light

The story unfolds with Dani Ardor, a young American woman shattered by familial tragedy. Her sister commits suicide by filling their home with carbon monoxide, inadvertently killing their parents too. This opening sequence, drenched in muted winter tones, sets a stark contrast to the film’s later radiance. Dani reaches out to her boyfriend Christian, seeking solace, but he offers only perfunctory comfort, foreshadowing their fraying bond. As spring emerges, Christian reluctantly invites Dani on a trip to Sweden with his friends Josh, Mark, and Pelle, who hails from the remote Harga commune. What begins as an ethnographic adventure spirals into a sun-soaked descent.

Upon arrival in Hälsingland, the group steps into a world of perpetual daylight during the midsummer festival. The Harga villagers greet them with flower crowns and communal meals, their white-clad forms evoking idyllic pastoral bliss. Yet subtle unease creeps in: an elderly woman’s ritual suicide by leaping from a cliff, her body cradled by acolytes below. The outsiders dismiss it as cultural eccentricity, but Dani’s lingering trauma makes her attuned to the undercurrents. Christian’s detachment deepens; he sleeps with a villager, Maja, in a ritualistic mating ceremony, further eroding their relationship.

The Harga’s Floral Labyrinth

The commune’s architecture and rituals mesmerise with intricate symbolism. Buildings bear runic carvings and floral motifs, while massive wreaths frame doorways like living altars. Food rituals emphasise harvest bounty—pies baked with unseen fillings, mead flowing freely—binding participants in cycles of consumption and renewal. Pelle, the affable guide, reveals his upbringing here, positioning Harga as a matriarchal society governed by a council of elders and oracular women who divine through pubic hair puzzles, blending fertility cults with psychedelic herbs.

Key events punctuate the nine-day festival: the May Queen dance, where Dani outlasts competitors in a hypnotic wheel spin, earning adoration; the blood eagle sacrifice of two elders to honour the sun’s cycle; and the final human barbecue, where Christian, drugged and posed as the fertility god, faces a gut-wrenching demise. Each ceremony layers horror atop beauty, with choreographed dances and polyphonic chants heightening the trance-like atmosphere. The film’s sound design amplifies this—distant drums, harmonious wails—merging folk authenticity with dread.

Daylight’s Unforgiving Gaze

Aster’s bold choice to illuminate every atrocity in broad daylight revolutionises horror aesthetics. No shadows conceal the gore; instead, wildflowers frame severed limbs, and azure skies backdrop ritual slayings. Cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski employs wide-angle lenses to capture the commune’s expanse, making isolation feel paradoxically communal. Symmetry in framing underscores fatalistic order, with characters often centred amid organic chaos. This visual poetry elevates Midsommar beyond gore, inviting contemplation of beauty in barbarity.

Thematically, the film dissects grief’s alchemy. Dani’s arc transforms loss into empowerment; crowned May Queen, she chooses Christian’s sacrificial death, smiling as flames consume him. This catharsis critiques toxic masculinity—Christian’s gaslighting, infidelity—against Harga’s collective nurture. Pagan revivalism clashes with American individualism, questioning modernity’s emotional voids. Influences from The Wicker Man abound, yet Aster infuses contemporary therapy-speak and relationship dynamics, making it resonate with millennial anxieties.

Cultural Clashes and Communal Bonds

Harga embodies an amplified Sweden—folk costumes meticulously recreated from Hälsingland traditions, Midsummer pole dances authentic yet exaggerated. Consultants ensured ritual accuracy, from Årgård meals to rune-based divination. Yet Aster critiques exoticism; outsiders’ arrogance—Josh stealing a sacred text, Mark mocking customs—invites retribution. The film probes consent and agency: drugged participants in sex rites blur lines, mirroring real-world cult dynamics.

Production faced challenges recreating Hungary’s sets as rural Sweden, building full-scale commune over months. Aster’s script evolved from Hereditary‘s familial horror, expanding to relational fractures. Reshoots intensified Florence Pugh’s breakdown scenes, her screams raw from personal immersion. Marketing leaned into viral stills—the grinning cliff jumpers—sparking debates on trauma porn versus artistry.

Legacy in the Flowerbed

Midsommar birthed a folk horror renaissance, inspiring films like Men and series echoing its sunlit dread. Collector culture thrives: Swedish floral crowns replicas, rune amulets, and director’s cuts fetch premiums. Festivals screen it alongside classics, cementing its pantheon status. Critiques of cultural appropriation persist, yet its empathetic lens on Dani elevates it. Streaming revivals draw Gen Z, who meme its cathartic screams, proving horror evolves.

In retro horror annals, Midsommar bridges 70s pagan chillers to now, its tapestry of flowers and flesh enduring as a modern myth. For enthusiasts, it captures nostalgia’s double edge—yearning for communal roots amid fractured lives.

Director in the Spotlight: Ari Aster

Ari Aster, born in 1986 in New York City to Jewish parents with roots in Poland and Austria, immersed in horror from childhood. Films like The Shining and Rosemary’s Baby shaped his sensibilities, alongside maternal storytelling influences. He studied film at Santa Fe University, then Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, graduating in 2011 with short films The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011), a disturbing incest tale that premiered at Slamdance and went viral, and Beau (2013), a familial nightmare.

Aster’s feature debut Hereditary (2018) stunned with Toni Collette’s maternal grief, grossing over $80 million on a $10 million budget, earning A24’s highest acclaim. Midsommar (2019) followed, expanding his grief diptych. Moumie (2022), a short mourning his father, preceded Beau Is Afraid (2023), a three-hour odyssey starring Joaquin Phoenix, blending surrealism and maternal tyranny, budgeted at $35 million with mixed box office but critical praise.

Upcoming projects include Legacy, an untitled A24 horror, and 1000:1 Night with Emma Stone. Aster directs music videos for Bon Iver and The Cure, and founded Square Peg production. Influences span Polanski, Kubrick, and Bergman; his style favours long takes, familial disintegration, and mythic Americana. Awards include Gotham nominations; he resides in Los Angeles, married with children, balancing auteur ambition with personal introspection.

Comprehensive filmography: The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011, short); Beau (2013, short); Hereditary (2018); Midsommar (2019); Beau Is Afraid (2023). His oeuvre dissects inheritance—literal and emotional—cementing him as horror’s new visionary.

Actor in the Spotlight: Florence Pugh as Dani Ardor

Florence Pugh, born January 3, 1996, in Oxford, England, to a restaurateur father and dancer mother, grew up with three siblings including actor Toby Sebastian. Dyslexic, she trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, debuting in The Falling (2014), earning BAFTA Rising Star. Midsommar (2019) catapulted her as Dani, her guttural wails and cathartic dance iconic, drawing Oscar buzz.

Post-Midsommar, Pugh starred in Fighting with My Family (2019) as wrestler Paige, Little Women (2019) as Amy March, earning Oscar and BAFTA nominations. Mickey’s Christmas Carol voice work preceded Black Widow (2021) as Yelena Belova, spawning a Disney+ series. Dune: Part Two (2024) as Princess Irulan followed Oppenheimer (2023). Rom-coms Outlaw King (2018), Midsommar co-starred Zach Gottsagen in The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019).

Upcoming: Thunderbolts (2025), We Live in Time (2024) with Andrew Garfield. Pugh sings in Fighting with My Family, runs influencer restaurant Much Loved, and advocates body positivity. Awards: BAFTA Rising Star (2020), MTV Movie Award. Comprehensive filmography: The Falling (2014); Marcella (2016, TV); Lady Macbeth (2016); The Commuter (2018); Outlaw King (2018); Fighting with My Family (2019); Midsommar (2019); Little Women (2019); The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019); Malevolent (2019); Black Widow (2021); Hawkeye (2021, TV); Don’t Worry Darling (2022); The Wonder (2022); Oppenheimer (2023); Dune: Part Two (2024); We Live in Time (2024). Dani remains her horror pinnacle, embodying resilient fury.

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Bibliography

Aster, A. (2019) Midsommar. A24. Available at: https://a24films.com/films/midsommar (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

Bradshaw, P. (2019) ‘Midsommar review – folk horror goes floral’, The Guardian, 4 July. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jul/04/midsommar-review-folk-horror-florence-pugh-ari-aster (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

Collum, J. (2021) This is not a work of fiction: Ari Aster and the new horror auteurs. McFarland.

Jones, A. (2020) ‘The Folk Horror Revival: From Wicker Man to Midsommar’, Sight & Sound, May. Available at: https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/folk-horror-revival (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

Pugh, F. (2023) Interviewed by Variety for Oppenheimer promotion. Available at: https://variety.com/2023/film/news/florence-pugh-oppenheimer-interview-1235678901/ (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

Rosenberg, A. (2019) ‘Making of Midsommar: Inside Ari Aster’s Swedish Nightmare’, Collider, 8 July. Available at: https://collider.com/midsommar-behind-the-scenes/ (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

Shone, T. (2023) The horror show: Ari Aster’s twisted family portraits. Faber & Faber.

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