Midsommar Plot Summary
Midsommar is a 2019 American – Swedish folk horror film, written and directed by Ari Aster. It is inspired by the famous Midsummer festival celebrated widely in Sweden to commemorate the Summer Solstice, and its association with fertility and rejuvenation harks centuries back to the Viking era. Dani Ardor (Florence Pugh) is grief-stricken by news of her mentally disturbed sister, killing herself as well as their aged parents.
A visibly traumatised Dani seeks solace in her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor), but soon realizes that all is not well between them. The spark in their romance is long dead. He’s been wanting out of this relationship for almost a year. But Christian still cares for Dani and he can’t bring himself to break off with her. Instead, he gives her false hope as he allows her to tag along on his boy’s trip to Sweden.
How does Dani find herself in Sweden?
Christian and his post-grad friends, Mark and Josh have planned a trip to Sweden, the coming Midsummer on the invitation of their friend, Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren). When Dani learns of it, she’s naturally upset. So Christian invites her on the trip, hoping she’ll refuse. Dani feels too vulnerable to be alone without her partner. And thinks that a change of scene would do her good. So, she decides to tag along.
What is the Harga?
Dani and the boys reach Pelle’s village in Halsingland. A remote village, the Hårga (Harga) is a commune, an isolated, self-sufficient society, where the villagers sustain themselves in agriculture, animal husbandry and cottage industries. It’s a secluded society.
The Hårga is one big giant family, a collective enterprise. There are no family units or private homes. Children are raised by the entire community. The Hårga lead their lives in harmony with nature, far removed from the modern technological world.
What is the Midsommar Festival?
The tourists reach Pelle’s village just as the festival is about to begin. They are welcomed as honoured guests and overwhelmed by the pristine beauty and purity of the place. It’s almost as if they’ve travelled back in time – to a glorious Swedish summer, bright sunshine, and not a hint of modernity, no electricity, TV, cell phone or Internet.
The Midsommar is a nine-day festival, which occurs once every ninety years, filled with lots of pageantry, special ceremonies and folk dances. But not all of its rituals are pretty, or even legal, as the outsiders soon discover.
What is the Attestupa?
On the second day of the festival, Dani and friends witness a ceremony called the Attestupa, where an elderly Hårga couple is accorded great honours, accompanied by solemn rituals and a ceremonial feast. And then, they give up their lives by jumping off a cliff. The tourists are naturally horrified.
Siv, a matriarch, explains that this is a long-observed custom. The couple had reached the end of their Hårga life cycle. And it was something they did willingly. Siv says that when it is her turn, she will happily do the same. The Hårga view life as a circle, a recycle. Instead of getting old and dying in pain and shame, they renounce their life. Death is inevitable. And trying to fight it, corrupts the spirit.
How does it end for Mark and Josh?
Mark (Will Poulter) is a typical American teenager, non-serious and a brat. He has come to Sweden to enjoy himself. And he can’t fathom the relevance and solemnity of Hårga customs, and he couldn’t care less.
At one point, Mark urinates on a dead tree, little knowing that he’s defiling a sacred ancestral tree. He is violently castigated. Soon after, Mark is lured away by a pretty Hårga girl and that’s the last he’s seen.
Josh (William Jackson Harper), the research scholar, sneaks out one night into the sacred building and starts taking pictures of their sacred scriptures on his mobile phone, knowing fully well, that it’s forbidden. He is bludgeoned to death by a stranger wearing Mark’s face, which has been flayed from his body.
What is the significance of the Maypole Dance?
The culmination of the Midsommar festivities is the Maypole Dance by all the damsels of the village. Dani is invited to participate. Before the dance begins, Irma, an elder, proclaims, “Long ago, the Black One lured the youths of Hårga and seduced them into dance. And once begun, they couldn’t stop and danced themselves to death. Now, as a defiance of the Black One, the girls are to dance until they fall. And she who survives last will be crowned the May Queen.”
This ritual is inspired by the ‘Dancing Plague’, a mysterious phenomenon that occurred in Medieval Europe, where people would en-masse start dancing erratically for days, even leading to deaths. The cause of this is still unknown. So, the ritualistic dance begins. The girls twirling and whirling, start to fall one by one, till Dani is left, the winner. And to her utter astonishment, is crowned the May Queen.
What’s with Christian and Maja?
The Hårga is a small, close-knit community, where ‘mating customs’ are codified, to preserve bloodlines and the elders approve mates. Incest is taboo. And outsiders are ‘invited’ to maintain a healthy gene pool. Maja (Isabelle Grill), a young Hårga damsel, has a crush on Christian. So, she sticks a love rune under his bed at night and feeds him a special (and gross) love concoction to make him fall in love with her.
And all under the benevolent approval of the Hårga elders. Christian is then given a special brew, a hallucinogen, which breaks down his defences. He’s led away, (like a sacrificial bull) to a sacred hut, where he is ‘made to copulate’ with Maja, surrounded by nude female elders, the act shorn of pleasure and reduced to a mating ritual. Christian is simply a stallion. And once he’s served his purpose, he’s expendable.
What’s the story of Rubin?
The Hårga Sacred Book called the ‘Rubi Radr’ is a work, forever in progress. The current iteration is being written by Rubin, who is the Oracle. The Oracle, Rubin (Levente Puczkó-Smith) is a grotesquely malformed boy, with physical and cognitive limitations.
The little boy is unclouded by normal cognition, which supposedly makes him open to the source. He draws and the elders interpret. In fact, Rubin, like all Oracles in the Hårga before him, is a deliberate product of inbreeding.
What is the Hårga’s ulterior motive?
The Hårga is not some sex-crazed, bloodthirsty satanic cult. However, it definitely has some very twisted rites according to current moral standards. They follow the Old Norse religion, and their scriptures and writing system of the ‘Elder Futhark’, the oldest of the Runic alphabets, traces back to Old Norse heritage.
And like their Viking ancestors, the Hårga believe that for Nature to stay bountiful, they need to give back to nature. So, human sacrifice is an important part of their practice. Their rituals are symbolic of their endeavour to blend in harmony with nature. And the key to their survival and way of life is isolation and secrecy. No one who enters the village is allowed to leave.
The youths of the village undergo a ‘pilgrimage’ to the outside world, as part of their education and also to invite outsiders to help propagate the Hårga way of life. The final climax of Midsommar is the sacrifice of nine people. Four volunteers from their own community and five outsiders. Even their deaths hold special symbolic meanings and are related to the elements of nature.
Simon is subjected to the ancient Viking sacrifice of the ‘Blood eagle’, where the lungs are drawn out to resemble the eagle’s wings. One of the most horrific ways to die, it is symbolic of air.
Connie is drowned in water.
Josh is discovered buried laterally into the earth like a plant with his leg sticking out.
Mark is flayed and skinned, reminiscent of the ‘Skin the Fool’ game of the Hårga youths.
The fifth sacrifice is to be selected by the May Queen. And Dani chooses Christian, who has been rendered incapacitated. The paralyzed Christian is sealed inside the skin of a bear (freshly disembowelled), and placed inside the sacrificial hut, along with the other victims, and consigned to the flames.
Why does Dani sacrifice Christian?
Dani’s grief over her bereavement is intensified by Christian’s aloofness. It’s in sharp contrast to Pelle, who is affectionate and considerate, even giving her a birthday gift, which Christian has forgotten.
At one point, Pelle tells Dani that he understands her pain because he too had lost his parents when he was very small, (his parents were probably sacrificed). But the community embraced him, gave him the love of a family and never let him feel like an orphan.
Dani realizes that the Hårga have accepted her into their family when she is crowned the May Queen. The adulation and adoration she receives from the entire community is in stark contrast to Christian, who is consistently ignoring her. He doesn’t even glance at her when she wins the Maypole Dance.
And the last straw is when Dani witnesses Christian, participating in the mating ritual. While he could care less that he is cheating, the Hårga women empathise with Dani and cry with her, sharing her pain. So, in the end, when given the choice, she chooses the Hårga and consigns Christian to his fiery death. In any case, even if Dani had spared him, it is highly improbable that Hårga would let him live.
It’s interesting to note that the pagan folks sacrificed their final victim, Christian Hughes, by burning him alive – the same favoured by medieval Christians.