Midsommar

Midsommar

Credits
Title:	Midsommar
Directed by:	Ari Aster
Written by:	Ari Aster
Produced by:	Thomas Benski; Fredrick Heinig; Ben Rimmer; Philip Westgren; Lars Knudsen
Music by:	Bobby Krlic
Cinematography:	Pawel Pogorzelski
Edited by:	Lucian Johnston
Production
Distributors:	A24 Square Peg
Released:	June 24th, 2019
Rating:	R
Running time:	148 min.
Country:	USA
Language:	English
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Midsommar is an American feature film of the cult drama genre. It was written and directed by Ari Aster and produced by A24 and Square Peg. It premiered in the United States in Los Angeles, California on June 24th, 2019.

Plot[]

Midsommar people — "Sure, let's go to Sweden. What could go wrong?"

Dani is a young woman who is in a rocky relationship with a college student named Christian Hughes. Dani's mental state takes a decidedly downard turn after discovering that her mentally unbalanced sister, Terri, has murdered their parents, then took their own life.

Christian meanwhile, has the opportunity to go on holiday in Sweden with some friends in the hopes of perhaps finding inspiration for his college thesis. The friends include Mark, Josh, and Swede friend Pelle. Dani, invites herself along, and the group go to Sweden to visit Pelle's family commune, which is known as Hårga. Along the way they meet two fellow travelers from England named Simon and Connie. Once they reach the country, they meet Pelle's brother, Ingemar, who feeds them psychedelic mushrooms.

The commune from Pelle's village prepare for a special Midsummer festival - one that occurs only once every ninety years. The visitors find themselves both intrigued and uncomfortable as they are welcomed by members of the village. After viewing the ritualistic suicide of two of the group's elders, it becomes clear that what they have discovered is some form of Runic cult. The highest authoritative figure of the group, Siv, explains that every elder of the group who reaches the age of 72, elects to end their life in observance of the traditions of Hårga. Simon and Connie are extremely upset after viewing this, and decide they no longer wish to stay. Dani is traumatized after seeing the gruesome deaths of the elders, for she has yet to process her own pain from recent family occurrences.

The group is brought to a communal two-story cabin filled with single beds where they sleep. The following day, Christian decides that he wants to base his thesis on Hårga, which angers Josh, since it was well known that he was already in the middle of conducting folklore studies of the region. Connie receives news that Simon has left for the train station without her. A cult member explains that there was not enough room in the truck, but the vehicle will come back to collect her. Connie doesn't believe this, and storms off in a huff. She is never seen again.

Mark seems to care little for everything that is going on, but incurs the wrath of the one of the commune members after urinating on a sacred tree. He disappears soon after.

Josh and old man — Josh and a Hårga elder.

Josh and Mark argue about their thesis work, but are happy when commune members allow them to study their practices. Dani is trying her best to keep it together, and she gets roped into participating in various sundry chores by the female members of the village.

Harga 001 — Just a grande ole time in downtown Sweden.

One of the cult elders shows Josh a book or Runic texts and images, which fascinates him. Josh asks if he can take photographs of it, but the elder forbids it. That evening, Josh sneaks out of the cabin and goes to the sacred temple to snap pictures of the book on his phone. A man, adorned in the skinned face of Mark, enters the temple and accosts Josh. Another unseen figure comes up from behind and clubs him over the head and drags him away.

One of the village girls, Maja, takes an interest in Christian. Choosing him as her mate (regardless of his relationship with Dani), place a love rune under his bed at night. Later, Christian eats a meat tart that has one of Maja's pubic hairs inside of it.

The female members of the cult decide that Dani should participate in a dancing endurance contest, in which the winner is crowned as the May Queen. Dani is crowned the winner, and both Christian and she are fed more psychedelic drugs.

With his judgment impaired and his defenses down because of the drugs, Christian is lured to a hut where Maja is sitting in the middle of a room naked, surrounded by a circle of women, who are also naked. Christian is coaxed into laying with Maja for ritualistic sex. Dani walks up to the hut and sees what is transpiring through a keyhole. Returning to her own quarters, she breaks down sobbing, and the other female cult members gather around and begin imitating her wails of anguish.

Christian comes to his senses a little and leaves the hut. He stumbles about naked until he wanders into a barn. Inside the barn, he finds the body of Simon suspended from the ceiling with his back peeled open like eagle wings. He turns to leave, but an elder surprises him and blows dust into his face, which paralyzes him.

Harga — "Naw, we ain't no cult. You can trust us! Seriously."

When Christian awakens, he is at the foot of a stage, which is being used as an assembly led by Siv. The cult gathers around the paralyzed Christian Siv speaks aloud, explaining that to purge the commune of its evil, nine human sacrifices must be offered. The first four victims are outsiders — Josh, Mark, Connie, and Simon — lured to them by Pelle and Ingemar. The next four victims are cult members — two sacrificed elders and two volunteers: Ingemar and Ulf. As May Queen, Dani must choose the ninth and final victim through lottery; either Christian or a villager named Thorbjörn. She chooses to sacrifice Christian.

Still paralyzed and unable speak, Christian is stuffed inside the gutted skin of a disemboweled bear and placed inside the sacred temple alongside the other sacrifices. The temple is set on fire, and all of the occupants die. Outside, Dani, who is completely adorned in flowers witnesses the spectacle. At first she is horrified, but then slowly begins to smile as the burning temple collapses.

Cast[]

Actor

Role

Florence Pugh

Dani

Jack Reynor

Christian Hughes

Vilhelm Blomgren

Pelle

William Jackson Harper

Josh

Will Poulter

Mark

Ellora Torchia

Connie

Archie Madekwe

Simon

Henrik Norlen

Ulf

Gunnel Fred

Siv

Isabelle Grill

Maja

Agnes Rase

Dagny

Julia Ragnarsson

Inga

Mats Blomgren

Father Odd

Lars Varinger

Sten

Anna Astrom

Karin

Hampus Hallberg

Ingemar

Liv Mjones

Ulla

Louise Peterhoff

Hanna

Bjorn Andresen

Dan

Tomas Engstrom

Jarl

Dag Andersson

Sven

Lennart R. Svensson

Mats

Anders Beckman

Arne

Rebecka Johnston

Ulrika

Tove Skeidsvoll

Majvor

Anders Back

Valentin

Anki Larsson

Irma

Levente Puczko-Smith

Ruben

Frans Cavallin Rosengarten

Bror

Vilmos Kolba

Elder

Mihaly Kaszas

Torbjorn

Gabriella Fon

Dani's mother

Zsolt Bojari

Dani's father

Klaudia Csanyi

Terri

Anna Berentz

Pizza waitress

Austin Grant

Hipster guy

Linnea Larsdotter

Singer

Notes & Trivia[]

Midsommar 001 — *Midsommar* theatrical release poster.

"Midsommar", or Midsummer is part of the summer solstice, whose origins are rooted in pagan traditions but have also been associated with the undivided Christian church. It is a culturally significant festival in the country of Sweden. One of the traditions associated with Midsommar is dancing around the Maypole.

There are a total of thirty-eight credited cast members in this film.

Production on Midsommar began on August 5th, 2018. Principal filming concluded on October 6th, 2018.

Midsommar was filmed in Budapest, Hungary.

The director's cut of the film had a running time of 172 min.

Midsommar was released on Blu-ray in the United States by Lions Gate Entertainment on October 8th, 2019. It was released in the United Kingdom on October 28th.

Scenes of Dani's apartment were shot in Brooklyn, New York City, New York.

The central setting of this film is Sweden in late June in the present day.

Actress Agnes Westerlund Rase is credited as Agnes Rase in this film.

Actor Frans Rosengarten is credited as Frans Cavallin Rosengarten in this film.

Actor Austin R. Grant is credited as Austin Grant in this film.

Actress Gabi Fon is credited as Gabriella Fon in this film.

The name of the village cult commune, which serves as the central antagonist of this movie is called Hårga.

The ritual suicide of community elders is an actual ancient tradition in some cultures. In Sweden it is referred to as Ättestupa. It is also known as the Death Cleaning.

The method of execution that Simon endures is called the "Blood Eagle". The process involves suspending a victim horizontally, cutting open the back vertically, to expose the anterior ribs, which are then broken and pulled upward. The lungs are pulled back from the opening and displayed like a pair of wings.

The outfits worn by the villagers of the Hårga are called vyshyvankas.

On the movie review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, Midsommar has an 83% certified "Fresh" rating based on a total of 374 posted reviews. It has an audience score of 63% based on 5,229 verified ratings.

On Metacritic, Midsommar received a weighted average of 72 out of 100, based on a total of fifty-four posted critics, garnering generally favorable reviews.

Midsommar has rating of 3.8 on Letterboxd based on 3,600 fans.

A24 is also known for producing the 2018 film Hereditary, which was also written and directed by Ari Aster.

Things we learned from Midsommar[]

Old men suck at committing suicide.

Just because you find a dead tree it does not mean that it is okay to piss on it.

Severed feet from black men make for good potting soil.

A bear has no business being in Sweden. No good can come from this.

Never accept roadside shrooms from a Swede that you've known for exactly twelve seconds.

If you are going to have sex with someone, it is okay to do so in front of a cheerleading squad comprised of ugly middle-aged naked women.

If one fails at the Ättestupa, you can always just finish them off with a giant hammer.

If you have an emotional breakdown in Sweden, don't be surprised if a bunch of chicks gather round and begin imitating you.

A bathroom stall in a 7-11 in south Florida is not the ONLY place where you will find a bunch of dicks drawn on the wall.

Actor Jack Reynor looks eerily similar to actor Chris Pratt.

Explicit Content[]

Female frontal nudity - A congregation of ritualistic cheerleaders (for lack of a better word), are shown completely naked in the sex hut.
Female topless nudity - Same congregation, as well as Maja, whose breasts are seen during a sex scene.
Female rear nudity - Several women in attendance as Christian has sex with Maja.
Male frontal nudity - Christian is shown running out of a hut completely nude. A person wearing Mark's face as a mask can also be seen nude, though obscured by shadows. There are also depictions of erect penises shown on drawings in Siv's quarters.
Male rear nudity - Christian is shown from behind during a sex scene, and later as he runs around disoriented after leaving the sex hut.
Profanity - Moderate usage of strong language used throughout the film. Mostly spoken by Christian, Josh, and Mark, and usually consists of variations of the word "fuck".

Recommendations[]

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