Midsommar, the blood-soaked acid trip from Hereditary director Ari Aster, is not the film people might think to reach for when looking to heal a broken heart, but it’s the best break-up movie ever.
Lauded by horror fans as one of the most brutal films of 2019, the psychological twists and turns of Midsommar stand out against sun-soaked landscapes and explore the inner dealings of a Pagan sex cult. Even so, the film’s own director has described it as “more of a fairy tale than a horror film” during an interview with The Washington Post. He’s also admitted that it’s a break-up movie. While it certainly looks at love and relationships in a much darker, violent light, sometimes those harsher aspects of reality are the most cathartic.
Stylistically, Midsommar already has a starkly different feel than most horror movies. The setting is light and bright, the cinematography is open and free, but the fresh-faced cast put themselves through the wringer to drive Aster’s tale home like a punch to the gut, as it was always intended.
Midsommar Picks At An Already Broken Relationship
In the film, Dani (Florence Pugh) plans to travel along on a research trip to Sweden with her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor), and his friends. The initial reason behind the trip is an opportunity to experience firsthand life at the isolated commune where his friend, Pelle, was raised during one of their most sacred summer celebrations. Christian, an anthropology student, is planning to write his dissertation on the events. He isn’t thrilled about bringing Dani since their relationship is already struggling and he’s been trying to figure out how to break up with her. However, he feels guilty about leaving her behind since she recently lost her parents and sister to a horrific murder/suicide incident.
Dani sees the trip as an escape, an opportunity to collect herself and get outside of her head since she’s been dealing with post-traumatic stress following her personal tragedy. It also seems like a prospective outlet to reconnect with her boyfriend, since their relationship has gone stale and the two are struggling to communicate. This sets the stage for difficulties from the start, since the two already aren’t getting along and are thrust into a strange community with unconventional traditions that feed off of their already palpable tension and raw nerves. The whole story puts Dani and Christian in situations where they are forced to trust one another - and trust is already scarce between them - especially when one of the young women in the commune, Maja, takes a liking to him and begins scoping him as a potential mate.
The Ending of Midsommar Is Cathartic
All the brutal events in Midsommar lead to a devastating climax when Dani enters a competition to become the commune’s next May Queen, unsure of what the role entails until it’s too late. After finding out that Christian cheated on her, she sentences him to death, as per the rules regarding ritual sacrifice that the Hårga must abide in order to maintain prosperous. Christian is paralyzed, then put inside the hide of a slain bear before he is escorted into a sacred tent with the bodies of all his friends and the Hårga’s other sacrifices and burned alive. As Dani watches the flames, the audience is left to question if this might be the singular event that has allowed her to fully process her trauma and rise from the ashes anew.
Dani shows a tremendous amount of inner strength in the face of adversity throughout the film. In one particular scene, which has since become iconic, she kneels on the floor inside the barracks and animatedly releases all her pain while surrounded by other female villagers, who share in the experience with her by screaming, crying, and breathing laboriously. When thinking of Midsommar as an allegory for a break-up, the aspect of closure that Dani receives is typically the final stage for processing grief. Acceptance is vital for moving on and, through choosing to sacrifice Christian and be rid of him for good, Dani is able to move on with her life and close the book on all the hardships she’s endured to get to where she is, finding purpose for herself and a new family - albeit a very strange one - with the Hårga.
Next: Midsommar Is Great Horror (But Hereditary Is The Better Movie)
