Midsommar
Midsommar is a 2019 folk horror film written and directed by Ari Aster. It stars Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor as an American couple who are drawn into a violent cult in rural Sweden. Supporting actors include William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Ellora Torchia, Archie Madekwe, and Will Poulter.
A co-production between the United States and Sweden, Midsommar was initially pitched to Aster as a straightforward slasher film set among Swedish cultists. While elements of the original concept remain in the final product, the finished film focuses on a deteriorating relationship inspired by a difficult breakup experienced by Aster himself. The film's soundtrack, composed by the British electronic musician Bobby Krlic, takes inspiration from Nordic folk music. The film was predominantly shot on location within the Budapest metropolitan area of Hungary, from July to October 2018.
Midsommar was theatrically released in the United States by A24 on July 3, 2019, and in Sweden by Nordisk Film on July 10, 2019. The film grossed $48 million and received positive reviews, with praise for Aster's direction and Pugh's performance.
Plot
In the middle of winter, an American student, Dani, is traumatized after her sister Terri, who has bipolar disorder, kills their parents and herself via carbon monoxide poisoning in a murder-suicide. This strains Dani's relationship with her already increasingly distant boyfriend, Christian.Several months later, Christian and his friends Mark and Josh have been invited by their Swedish friend Pelle to attend a nine-day midsummer festival at his ancestral commune, the Hårga, in the rural Hälsingland region of Sweden. The festival occurs only once every 90 years. Josh, writing his thesis on European midsummer festivities, regards it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Christian had intended to break up with Dani, who is still grieving the death of her family, but reluctantly invites her after an argument.
At the commune, they meet Simon and Connie, a British couple who were invited by Pelle's commune-brother Ingemar. Ingemar offers the group psychedelic mushrooms. Dani has a bad trip and hallucinates about her dead family. The day after their arrival, the group witnesses an ättestupa ceremony, whereby two elders commit suicide by jumping off a cliff onto the rocks below. When one of the elders survives, the commune members mimic his wails of pain before crushing his head with a mallet. The commune elder, Siv, attempts to calm Connie and Simon by explaining that every member does this at the age of 72, which is considered a great honor.
Christian also decides to write his thesis on the Hårga commune, irritating Josh, who has also decided to write solely about the Hårga commune. Dani is disturbed by the ceremonies, but Pelle convinces her to stay. He explains that he, too, was orphaned after his parents perished in a fire, and the commune became his new family. He questions Dani over whether she feels supported by Christian. Connie and Simon, disturbed by the Hårga's practices, demand to leave. While packing, Connie is told Simon was driven to a train station on his own, as the commune follows the Swedish traffic laws, but that they would retrieve her later. Connie protests that Simon would never leave her without leaving a message, and walks away silently in anger. During his thesis research, Christian is told that outsiders are sometimes brought into the commune for "mating" purposes to avoid incest. He is encouraged to participate but refuses. After unwittingly urinating on a sacred tree, Mark is lured away by Inga, one of the female commune members. That night, Josh sneaks out of bed to take illicit photographs of sacred texts. He is caught by a half-naked man wearing Mark's skinned face and is bludgeoned to death.
The following day, Dani and Christian are pressured into drinking a hallucinogenic tea. Dani wins a maypole dancing competition, inspired by the myth of Hårgalåten, and is crowned May Queen. Christian drinks the hallucinogenic tea and is coerced into a sex ritual to impregnate Maja, a 15-year-old member of the Hårga, while older nude female members watch and mimic Maja's moans. Dani witnesses the ritual and has a panic attack. She is surrounded by the commune's women, who mimic her cries of despair. After the ritual, a naked Christian attempts to flee. He discovers Josh's leg planted in a flowerbed and a barely alive Simon on display in a barn, having been made into a blood eagle. An elder blows a powder in Christian's face, paralyzing him.
For the final ceremony, the commune leaders explain that the commune must offer nine human sacrifices to purge itself of evil. The first four victims were outsiders lured to them by Pelle and Ingemar, while the next four are from the commune. As the May Queen, Dani must choose the paralyzed Christian or a randomly selected commune member as the final sacrifice. She chooses Christian, who is stuffed into a disemboweled bear's body and placed in a wooden temple alongside the other sacrifices. As the commune prays, the temple is set alight. As the temple and its human sacrifices burn, the commune members mimic Ulf's screams. Dani sobs, but as the temple collapses, slowly smiles.
Cast
Production
Development
In May 2018, it was announced that Ari Aster would write and direct the film, with Lars Knudsen serving as producer. B-Reel Films, a Swedish company, produced the film alongside Square Peg, with A24 distributing. Aster's previous horror film, Hereditary, had been a huge critical success, making over $80 million to become A24's highest-grossing film worldwide. According to Aster, he had been approached by B-Reel executives Martin Karlqvist and Patrik Andersson to helm a slasher film set in Sweden, an idea which he initially rejected as he felt he "had no way into the story." Aster ultimately devised a plot in which the two central characters are experiencing relationship tensions verging on a breakup, and wrote the surrounding screenplay around this theme. He described the result as "a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film." Aster has mentioned 1981 Albert Brooks film Modern Romance as an inspiration for Midsommar, and also called it "The Wizard of Oz for perverts".Aster worked with the film's production designer, Henrik Svensson, to develop the film's folklore elements and the traditions of the Hårga, while visiting Hälsingland together. He researched Hälsingegårds, "centuries-old farms that typically had painting on the walls", to develop a stylized version for the set, as well as May Day and midsummer celebrations in Swedish, German and English folklore. Aster also researched spiritual movements and communities, saying he particularly drew inspiration from Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy and Theosophy.
Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter, Vilhem Blomgren, William Jackson Harper, Ellora Torchia, and Archie Madekwe joined the cast in July 2018.
Filming
Some early scenes set in the United States were also filmed there; Dani's apartment was filmed in Brooklyn, New York City, while other scenes where Christian's friends interact were filmed in Utah. The majority of the film was shot in Hungary rather than Sweden, primarily due to financial constraints, but also as Sweden limits daily film shoots to no longer than eight hours. Principal photography began on July 30, 2018, in Budapest, and wrapped that October.Harper said the shoot was "arduous" due to the heat. Wasps were highly abundant and a major issue on set. Pugh reflected "the shoot was totally nuts" and commended Aster's direction: "he was dealing with possibly 100, 120 people, additional extras and actors there, all speaking in three different languages and he was the captain of the ship".
Ahead of filming the drug use scenes, Reynor said that the cast discussed their own experiences with psychedelic mushrooms. On her breakdown scene with the Hårga, Pugh commended the other women involved, saying they "made this scene possible" as she typically struggles to cry on camera. She reflected: "I knew I would never be so open and so raw and so exhausted like I was that day ever again".
The sex scene between Christian and Maja was filmed on the final day. Reynor said he spent time attempting to boost morale among the extras involved, none of whom spoke English, and Isabelle Grill who was appearing in her first feature film role. He reflected that he felt male nudity was unusual for a horror film, where female nudity is more typical. He said that he "advocated for as much full-frontal nudity as possible, I wanted to embrace the feeling of being exposed and the humiliation of this character. And I felt really, really vulnerable, more than I had even anticipated".
Props and costume design
Svensson said the mallet prop used for the senicide scene was a replica of one at a museum in Stockholm, and that the cliff-jumping was based on historic practices in Sweden. Costume designer Andrea Flesch developed the Hårga's costumes with antique linen from Hungary and Romania, and buttons from Sweden. Aster asked for the clothing to appear handmade, and for the Hårga to dress in white. Many of their costumes were hand-embroidered with rune designs unique to individual community members, signifying their families and occupations. Murals and tapestries in the background of some scenes indicate events in the film.In April 2020, A24 announced it would be auctioning off props from its films and television series, including the 10,000-silk-flower May Queen dress worn by Pugh, which was reportedly purchased by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for $65,000, after both Ariana Grande and Halsey had expressed interest on social media. The proceeds were donated to provide COVID-19 pandemic relief for firefighters and their families. Other items from the film that sold at auction were the bear costume worn by Reynor for $4,760, the mallet used to crush a cult member's skull for $10,000, and other villager costumes that sold in the $4,500 range. All the proceeds from the Midsommar collection raised over $100,000 for the FDNY Foundation.