Summary

• Midsommar explores being in a toxic relationship while dealing with grief.
• Dani and her boyfriend, Christian, go on a trip to Sweden that turns into something much darker.
• Christian's final betrayal pushes Dani to her breaking point, leading her to let go of her past, including her relationship.

Ari Aster's Midsommar took audiences on a journey of a toxic relationship. Dani (Florence Pugh) couldn't recognize her boyfriend Christian's (Jack Reynor) behavior until she went on an unexpected trip to Sweden with him and his friends. Playing with foreshadowing and poignant commentary, Aster created a cult classic horror film. He drew heavy inspiration from the folk horror genre, which typically relies on isolated settings and pagan traditions for its scares. While the monsters can sometimes be supernatural, more often than not they're simply human beings who commit monstrous acts in the name of religious beliefs.

Midsommar bears key similarities to Aster's previous film Hereditary, which also dealt with bizarre elements of inexplicable situations and the key theme of grief. But its true strength lay in the way it intertwined its setting and plot with the far more mundane horrors of toxic relationships. On the surface, Midsommar focused on Dani's attempt to overcome loss by going on a trip with her boyfriend and his friends. However, it was actually about their deteriorating relationship. Instead of leaning on each other to survive, Christian and Dani were pulled in opposite directions, primarily due to Christian's inability to be a good partner, which paid off in the film's relentless and brutal finale.

Updated April 29, 2024, by Robert Vaux: Midsommar has become the go-to example for folk horror in the 21st century, as well as the movie that made Florence Pugh a star. The introduction to the article has been updated and the text expanded slightly to develop some of the key themes. In addition, the article's format has been adjusted to match CBR's current standards.

What Is Midsommar About?

The Film Is a Modern Take on Classic Folk Horror

Dani was a college student whose unwell sister had just murdered their parents and killed herself. Her unbearable grief was stunted by her boyfriend's dismissive attitude about processing it. Christian intended to break up with her just before her family died, but the tragedy ruined his plans. So he begrudgingly invited her on a trip with his friends Josh (William Jackson Harper), Mark (Will Poulter) and Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) to the latter's remote village in Sweden to partake in Midsummer, a festive celebration marking the end of the summer season.

As it turned out, the group, accompanied by two other travelers, Simon (Archie Madekwe) and Connie (Ellora Torchia), had actually become part of a ritual of the cleansing of the harmful elements of the commune, ultimately leading to their sacrificial deaths. Pelle had brought them here deliberately for this purpose: deceiving them about his intents and essentially seducing Dani into his community's cult.

The ritual occurred every ninety years and involved things like stuffing victims with straw or burning them alive. The visitors were kept disoriented and off-balance by the use of drugs in their food and drink and by the village's physical location in the northern part of the county. The sun never set during the summer months, leaving the visitors unsure of the passage of time. Meanwhile, the commune was preparing to induct Dani as their new May Queen and welcoming her as a member: part of ensuring their genetic viability by bringing new members into the cult. However, to embrace her new life, Dani had to let go of her past, including her toxic relationship with Christian.

Midsommar's Shocking Ending, Explained

Dani's Choice at the End Feels Inevitable

Christian was chosen by Maja (Isabelle Grill) to be her mate to prevent incest within the commune. She concocted a love potion with period blood, pubic hair, and other things to seduce him into having sex with her in a ritualistic setup. Dani walked in and saw Christian cheating on her. Horrified and saddened, she began to sob uncontrollably, and the women of the commune joined her in mourning her broken relationship. Since Dani couldn't properly grieve her parent's and sister's death, Christian's betrayal pushed her beyond her limits. Unfortunately, it left her at the commune's psychological mercy, ultimately leading to her induction and his murder.

After having sex with Maja, Christian realized how disturbing this all was and escaped to a shed, where he discovered Simon's dead body with flowers stuck to his eyes. Before Christian could leave, he was incapacitated. Having fully embraced her grief and May Queen duties, Dani had to choose between Christian and a random person from the commune to finish the ritual. In her angry state, she picked Christian to die. He's then dressed in bearskin and burned alive with five others. In the distance, Dani appeared visibly upset, but after a few moments, she began to laugh maniacally. At the very end, she smiled ominously, letting go of her boyfriend once and for all.

What's the Deeper Meaning Behind Midsommar?

Beneath the Shocking Gore, There Are Deeper Horrors at Work

As well-constructed as Midsommar was, the film holds many questions, mainly the story's intentions. As gruesome as the film was, Dani and Christian's relationship was the central conflict. Christian's inability to be a suitable partner to Dani pushed her into the arms of a cult. After she lost her family, instead of doing the right thing by staying home and helping her grieve, he offered her a trip because that's ultimately what he wanted to do. This was Dani's first birthday without her family, and Christian only thought of himself. He even forgot her birthday and how long they'd been dating. These instances added to the looming issues of their relationship.

When the group witnessed the death of two elders jumping off a cliff, Dani was rightfully mortified, considering her sister had committed suicide not that long ago. Christian admitted that it was bizarre but didn't recognize the real problem. His inability to realize the severity of Dani's trauma allowed their relationship to slip further and further apart.

"We view life as a circle, a recycle. The lady who jumped, her name was Ylva, yes? And that baby over there who is not yet born will inherit that name. Instead of getting old and dying in pain and fear and shame, we give our life, as a gesture. Before it can spoil. It does no good dying, lashing back at the inevitable. It corrupts the spirit."-Siv

Maja's love spell and Christian's ultimate betrayal finally let Dani break away from him. Instead of going off alone and swallowing her tears, as she had been doing the entire trip, she let the sadness consume her. The women of the cult replicated her cries to show that it was okay to fall apart. It brought her badly needed emotional catharsis at the cost of emotionally bonding her to the commune.

This was mirrored during the opening of the film. Dani was alarmed by her sister's email and tried to hold it together while speaking to Christian. He brushed over the seriousness of the situation and emotionally manipulated her to shut down. When Dani learned about her family's demise, she leaned on Christian. But instead of consoling and feeling her pain, he just awkwardly held her as she sobbed. But when she cried with the commune, they could acknowledge and validate every emotion she expressed. Dani felt as though she was putting her problems onto Christian, but the truth was he was her romantic partner. She should have been able to confide in him, considering they'd been in a relationship for four years.

The Bear Holds Deep Significance in Midsommar

Christian's Death is a Dark Piece of Horror-Comedy

• Though set in Sweden, the film was shot in Hungary. The necessity of shooting in the heat of the day made the production an arduous one.
• Almost 30 minutes were cut from the film's theatrical release to avoid an NC-17 rating. Those scenes have been restored for the director's cut.
• Director Ari Aster based the central couple on a painful personal break-up in his own life.

The bear Christian was placed in was another big mystery. Aster claimed, "The bear is a very important symbol in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. It was loaded in all of the right ways. To sort of tie it to Christian and the way that he dies. It occurred to me at some point in doing research for the film that this is the right way to send Christian off."

Ultimately, the bear symbolizes a sacrificial offering for Hårga's sins. However, it's easy to see it another way. In Norse mythology, the bear is closely associated with warriors. That's a group that Christian would have likely related to, given his toxic attitude, but with the bear being part of his death, it showed his true weakness as he paid for his mistakes. He resembled not so much a warrior as a self-indulgent Winnie-the-Pooh: centered on his own needs and wishes rather than those of the woman he ostensibly loves. Looking at it from a slightly different angle, Christian's face appeared in the middle of the bear's open jaws: gobbling him up as its prey. Regardless, the ghoulish "costume" became a symbol of his failings.

Midsommar Brings Folk Horror into a Modern Toxic Relationship

Dani and Christian's Problems Connect Them to the Horrors of Their Situation