If you don't care to understand, you won't.

Rating: 10/10 (27 August 2019)

Nine sacrifices; Nine-day festival; 90-year cycle.
It is Dani's 27th Birthday and her path of becoming May Queen awaits... ðŸ’€ðŸŒ» For those interested in Paganism and Psychedelics, this is a movie worth exploring...yet, be warned: There are disturbing scenes, so don't watch this as a family movie. To make this story simple: it's about a breakup between the two main characters.
Dani and Christian are the two I speak of, with Christian wanting to let her go because they have been dating for four years and he hasn't had sex with her. However, Dani is suffering from major PTSD with her family being dead. He and his friends envision him going on a trip to Sweden to meet women of the area, however, once Dani surprisingly finds out of his last minute decision to go, she feels uncomfortable. As a result, Christian ends up inviting her along with him, feeling guilt for his decision. Upon arriving, that is when his truth of how he feels unravels and the path of releasing herself from this callous individual (along with those that supported his perspective of selfishness) begins.
Those that desire a survival-horror movie based upon these themes, this is not your kind of movie. This is an abstract movie with hidden symbolism and emotional meanings; e.g. at the ending, there is a burning of a building, which represents the burning of attachment such as us burning boxes of materials to let go of the pain involved in breakups (don't worry, there are many other spoilers I have not shared that are worth looking out for). I feel this is necessary to clarify as those that don't like this movie simply didn't understand the overarching abstraction, thus label it as meaningless.
The meaning behind this film is to articulate complex emotions through that of paganism, which at its root is about feeling and embracing the interconnection of human emotion tied to nature. Those that claim this movie gives paganism a bad name, it's not meant to represent a specific pagan group - it's meant to represent an abstraction of our typical pain in society; e.g. as every person involved in this commune feels pain together, it directly represents our need to express and relate pain with each other in our society. In the end, these are typical reactions to abstract filmmaking, so if you're into deciphering messages, don't let short-sighted perspectives fool you - this may very well be your type of film.
Director's Cut will be released in Theaters on August 30th, which adds 30 minutes of scenes to the story.