Midsommar

## More information

**Midsommar** is a 2019 folk horror film directed and written by Ari Aster. It stars Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Archie Madekwe, Ellora Torchia, and Will Poulter.

## Synopsis

A couple travel to Sweden to visit their friend's rural hometown for its fabled midsummer festival, but what begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

### Plot

American psychology student Dani Ardor is left deeply traumatized after her sister commits a murder-suicide by filling the house with carbon monoxide, killing herself and their parents. The incident further strains Dani's relationship with her increasingly distant boyfriend of four years, cultural anthropology student, Christian. As summer approaches, she learns that Christian and fellow students Mark and Josh have been invited by their Swedish friend Pelle to attend a midsummer festival at his ancestral commune, the Hårga, in rural Hälsingland, Sweden. The festival occurs only once every 90 years, and Josh, who is writing his thesis on European midsummer festivities, regards it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Christian had not discussed the trip with Dani, as he intended to break up with her before the tragedy with her family. After an argument, he reluctantly invites her along.

Upon arrival at the commune, they meet Simon and Connie, a couple from London who were invited by Pelle's communal brother Ingemar. He offers the group psychedelic mushrooms, and Dani has a bad trip, hallucinating about her dead family. The day after their arrival, the group witnesses an *ättestupa* ceremony, where two elders commit suicide by jumping from a cliff onto the rocks below. When one of the elders survives the fall, the commune members mimic his wails of pain, and promptly mercy-kill him by bludgeoning his skull with a mallet. Commune elder, Siv, attempts to calm Connie and Simon by explaining that every member of their community does this at the age of 72 and believes it to be a great honor.

Christian also decides to write his thesis on the Hårga commune, irritating Josh for plagiarizing his idea. Bothered by the ceremonies, Dani attempts to leave, but is convinced to stay by Pelle. He explains that he too was orphaned after his parents perished in a fire, and the commune became his new family. Connie and Simon demand to leave and are supposedly driven to a nearby train station one at a time. During his thesis research, Christian is told that to avoid incest, outsiders are sometimes brought into the commune for "mating" purposes. He is propositioned and encouraged to participate, but refuses. After unwittingly urinating on a sacred tree, Mark is lured away from the group by one of the female commune members. That night, Josh sneaks out of bed to secretly photograph one of the commune's sacred texts, despite being forbidden by an elder from doing so. Josh has his head bludgeoned and is dragged away when he is caught and distracted by a man wearing the skinned face of Mark's corpse.

The following day, both Dani and Christian are separately coerced into taking a hallucinogenic drink. Dani wins a maypole dancing competition and is crowned May Queen. Afterward, Christian is drugged and participates in a copulation ritual designed to impregnate Maja, a young member of the Hårga, while older nude female members watch and mimic Maja's moans. Dani witnesses the ritual and has a panic attack while the commune's women surround her, mimicking her cries of sorrow. After the ritual, a nude Christian tries to flee. He discovers Josh's severed leg planted in a flowerbed and Simon's corpse on display in a barn after being subjected to a blood eagle. Christian is then paralyzed by an elder.

For the final ceremony, the commune leaders explain that the commune must offer nine human sacrifices to purge it of its evil. The first four victims (Mark, Josh, Simon, and Connie) are outsiders lured to them by Pelle and Ingemar, while the next four victims must be from the commune. As the May Queen, Dani must choose either Christian or a commune member to be the final sacrifice. She chooses Christian, who is stuffed into a disemboweled brown bear's body and placed in a triangular wooden temple alongside other sacrifices. The commune members to be sacrificed are given drugs and told it will prevent them from feeling fear or suffering, but Christian is not and remains unable to move. The structure is set alight, and the commune members mimic the screams and wails of agony of those being burned alive. Dani initially sobs in horror and grief, but then she gradually begins to smile.

## Cast

* Florence Pugh as Dani
* Jack Reynor as Christian
* Will Poulter as Mark
* William Jackson Harper as Josh
* Vilhelm Blomgren as Pelle
* Archie Madekwe as Simon
* Ellora Torchia as Connie
* Gunnel Fred as Siv
* Isabelle Grill as Maja
* Lars Väringer as Sten
* Henrik Norlén as Ulf
* Anders Beckman as Arne
* Julia Ragnarsson as Inga
* Anki Larsson as Irma
* Anna Åström as Karin
* Liv Mjönes as Ulla
* Mats Blomgren as Odd
* Louise Peterhoff as Hanna
* Agnes Rase as Dagny
* Katarina Weidhagen as Ylva
* Björn Andrésen as Dan
* Lennart R. Svensson as Mats
* Tove Skeidsvoll as Majvor
* Anders Back as Valentin
* Dag Andersson as Sven