MIDSOMMAR
Finding family through grief
Spoilers for Midsommar (2019). Trigger warnings for discussion of suicide, mental illness, emotional abuse and sexual assault.
It’s perhaps the most famous scene in recent horror memory. Florence Pugh, lumbered by a huge dress made of flowers, smiling as she watches a hut filled with people burn to the ground. It comes right at the end of Ari Aster’s 2019 film Midsommar, which spends its two-and-a-half-hour runtime eschewing jump scares for a far more insidious, emotionally driven horror.
Pugh plays Dani, a college student traumatised by the murder-suicide of her parents and sister. Her partner Christian (Jack Reynor) is emotionally distant and planned to break up with her – to the approval of his friends Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter) – until this tragedy struck. Already stuck in a loveless relationship, one that sees Christian’s behaviour often verge on gaslighting, things only get worse when the group travels to the Hälsingland region of Sweden to celebrate midsummer with a commune.
In true folk horror fashion, the commune is more akin to a cult, which believes in human sacrifice to purge the land of evil. However, as events gradually become more sinister, Dani’s reactions to them become more muted, and more accepting. There are several reasons for this. Her increasing anxiety throughout the first half of the film, played out in raw, vivid detail by Pugh, drives the wedge further between Christian and her. He instead turns his attention, half-heartedly, towards his upcoming dissertation and the attention of the other women within the commune.
Their disconnect leads to Dani being embraced by the matriarchal commune, who express their empathy with her by mimicking her breathless cries and wails towards the end of the film. Unlike Christian and his friends, who resent Dani for expressing her feelings, they provide a safe space for her to explore her emotions. This becomes abundantly clear in the Maypole dance towards the end of Midsommar.
While Christian is drugged and forced to impregnate another woman in the commune, Dani is convinced to take part in the dance. A ritual where the last woman standing is crowned the May Queen. The pacing of this scene reflects Dani’s own feelings. Starting slow, she is nervous and on edge at first, but as the pace quickens, we see her let loose. The rhythmic beat provides a new focal point that is solely about her. The very nature of the competition allows Dani to prioritise herself, something that has been refused her since the opening moments.
In the very first scene, we see emails and phone messages from Dani to her sister. Unbeknownst to Dani, her family is already dead, but she continues to offer a level of support. Prioritising her sister’s mental health over what we can assume would be a very intense time in her studies (as everyone else is prepping for their dissertations).
Then, if she wanted Christian to be there to help her grieve, she had to come to Sweden with him. He had to support him, with only the vaguest hint of support back. In the dance, she only supports herself and there is a group of people around her, wishing her success. It’s the first moment in Midsommar that we see a true, carefree smile on Dani’s face. She feels accepted, despite what this cult has done prior.
Obviously, we can read more into the cult’s intentions. The depressing truth is that they have their own reasons for supporting Dani, for finally severing her from Christian. Dani’s acceptance of the events following the Maypole dance is partly due to her search for any level of support and care. She has found a new family of sorts but one that is just as problematic in different ways. A family which has manipulated events to ensure that she remains in the commune. In ways both subtle and overt, they have gaslighted every visitor there, just in a way cleverer way than the emotionally immature Christian was ever able to.
Returning to the final scene, where Dani watches the hut burn to the ground, with the corpses of Mark and Josh, and a paralyzed Christian inside. Her smile has often been seen as her taking revenge for the emotional abuse she has suffered and while I’m sure the character was written to feel a certain level of satisfaction, I believe that smile represents something more naive and far sadder.
Dani’s smile is her feeling like she belongs. Perhaps for the first time in her life. Without her sister’s mental illness looming over her, Christian’s abusive disengagement, or the judgement of his friends for being a ‘downer’. There are signs that the commune might be an idyllic place – these sacrifices happen once every ninety years – and Dani embraces that, choosing to ignore another series of red flags in the hope of a better life.
Writer/director: Ari Aster
Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter
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