Warning: spoilers!

The Synopsis:

The movie begins with Dani Ardor (Florence Pugh) replying to a cryptic email from her sister Terri, but she is not getting a reply. She soon finds out that her parents and her sister are dead because of Terri flooding the house with carbon monoxide. Her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor), who was spending time with his friends Josh (William Jackson Harper), Mark (Will Poulter), and Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) comes over to console her.

Following this tragic event, she finds out that Christian was planning a trip to Sweden to attend a Midsommar festival in the Harga, Pelle’s village. Christian invites Dani assuming she isn’t going to come, but she does. This ruins his intentions of breaking up with her and meeting other women.

They arrive at the celebration where Dani, Christian, and the others meet Pelle’s brother and another couple from London, Connie (Ellora Torchia) and Simon (Archie Madekwe). They take drugs and enjoy the feeling until Dani begins to panic about her late family and faints. Once she regains her consciousness, they continue to travel to Harga.

Once they arrive there they are immersed into the festivities, the first being a double suicide of an elderly couple jumping off a cliff. The English couple and Dani are mortified by what they just saw, while Josh and Christian are intrigued because of their intention to write about the culture and festival. Connie and Simon are ready to leave, but when Connie grabs their belongings, she is told that Simon has left without her. She is furious and is seen walking away.

We learn that the ritual practices are based on the drawings of a deformed young boy named Ruben who was born through incest within the colony. This boy is viewed as a “seer”. Josh asks if he can take photographs of these paintings, but he is forbidden. At their lunch, Mark is whisked away by a female villager and is never seen again.

Late into the night, Josh attempts to take a peek at the book of paintings, but is confronted by who he thinks is Mark. As he walks closer to the individual, he is hit over the head and killed. It is revealed that the man standing over his body is wearing Mark’s face.

Dani and Christian are told that the book of paintings and Josh and Mark are missing, therefore they are to blame for stealing and leaving, so Christian and Dani go about the rest of the day. Dani enters a competition where all women must dance till there is one woman standing. She is given a drink with “special properties” and wins the competition, earning the title “May Queen”.

Simultaneously. Christian is told that he has been approved to mate with a female named Maja, a woman he has had his eye on since he arrived in Harga. He is also given a drink with “special properties” and is led to a room where he is surrounded by naked women and Maja. He then takes Maja’s virginity and impregnates her. Dani sees this happening and has a breakdown.

When Christian is done, he runs out in horror to find Dani, but finds Josh’s leg buried, facing upward, and Simon hanging in the chicken shed. As he turns around, he is ambushed by an older man who blows a powder in his face causing him to lose consciousness.

They proceed to ask the May Queen to choose between Christian and another villager as a sacrifice for the end of the celebration. Dani chooses Christian and he is placed inside the carcass of a bear. Christian, the corpses of Josh, Mark, Connie and Simon and the other live human sacrifices, are put into a yellow building, and they are all burned. As this is happening, Dani is upset and begins to wail. The entire community wails to represent the screaming and pain coming from the yellow building. As time goes on, we see Dani smile, and the movie ends.

My Review:

This movie is one I have been wanting to see for months and months. It’s available on Amazon Prime and I finally watched it! This movie was directed and written by the same director and writer of Hereditary, arguably the best horror film of 2018 (and one of my favourites).

Midsommar met all expectations that I had. I expected to be nervous throughout the entire movie waiting for something inexplicable to happen, and I was. I was on the edge of my seat and unknowingly maintained the tension within my body without even realizing it (I only realized I felt like this at the end of the movie when I could FINALLY relax). This feeling is one of the key takeaways when watching this film, and you either hate it or love it.

The sceneries in this movie are beautiful. What I liked about the sunny environment is that it is a stark contrast to what is actually happening to the characters. It seems as though what the characters are experiencing is good and fun, when in reality, everything is disturbing, eerie and unnatural.

The disappearances of the characters were so unnoticeable. They slipped away so simply and were never heard from again. You know they’re gone, and MAYBE something happened, but the focus is what’s happening on the screen. You slowly forget about the characters that disappear. When Christian was engaging in sexual intercourse with one of the clan women (and Dani witnessed it), it was overwhelming. What was extremely weird was that when she saw this happening and began to cry, the women surrounding her were imitating her.

It was a unique concept that was added into the film. It exaggerates the feeling of empathy that the community has for the characters, but in a creepy and disturbing fashion. It seemed as though they were intentionally fuelling Dani with resentment and anger to persuade her to make the decision she was about to make at the final ceremony.

I’m going to be honest here, I expected that Dani chose to have her unfaithful boyfriend be wrapped in a bear carcass and be sacrificed in the final fire. I had some faith that she would have used her power as May Queen to save him and escape, but it was extremely creepy and vengeful that she didn’t. What I was left with after the movie was done, was fear.

It’s a movie that’s definitely a must-see for fans of horror movies, although the director insists that this is a suspense fairy tale! Read this article for details that explain Dani’s emotional journey and the ending!

If you enjoyed this movie review, check out my post on other movies like this one!

Photo source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8772262/mediaviewer/rm3815933441