blog 3 : midsommar

Midsommar (2019)

Director : Ari Aster 

For my third blog post, I thought I would explore Ari Aster's 2019 psychological thriller/horror Midsommar - a film I wish I had looked into before watching. Admittedly, I did only watch this film because I saw that Florence Pugh and Will Poulter were in it, but it quickly became one of my favourite films after, and has been on my mind since I first watched it last year. Despite being slightly traumatising, Midsommar is an incredibly clever and unique horror film surrounding an troubled couple's trip to a friends ancestral commune, in hopes of fixing their relationship, that changes their lives forever. 

! Potential spoiler warning !As always, I will be discussing the plot of Midsommar which will include spoilers for what happens throughout the film, as well as other topics like themes and references. If you haven't seen it, I would recommend watching it if you are into horror or psychological thriller films (and then coming back to read this). As well as this, there will be mentions of suicide and rape, so if that is triggering to you I would advise against watching the film or reading this blog.

How Midsommar portrays mental illness

Midsommar's protagonist Dani, played by the amazing Florence Pugh. is consistently shown grappling with mental health problems following the death of her sister and parents. However, her empathetic needs for support are rejected by Christian, and his friends who merely see her as the 'crazy girlfriend', reflecting the common pathologization of those with mental health disorders in ignoring the severity of it. Dani is met with support only by the Hårga later on in the film, which contributes to her brainwashing into thinking the Hårga community is loving and sympathetic towards her. Whilst this is shown throughout the film, it is shown most emphatically when the Hårga women join in Dani's wails during a panic attack. From Dani's perspective, this reflected finally being surrounded by a supportive community who shared her problems with empathy instead of disregarding them, something she hadn't experienced throughout her grieving. This plays into how Dani is brainwashed into becoming an agent of the Hårga, and her lack of remorse or guilt over her actions at the end of the film. She shifts into an agentic state under the perceived authority and love of the Hårga, meaning Dani doesn't see her actions as her own responsibility, but rather a collective responsibility of the entire commune. Dani's disturbing smile in the last scene perfectly reflects this, as it shows she is finally happy, and without the weight of her grief and trauma. 

TW : suicide. So whilst Midsommar's portrayal of Dani's grief and trauma is relatively realistic, showing the long lasting effects of losing people, the impacts of a lack of support, and the impact of finally receiving support, it's portrayal of of bipolar disorder is problematic. Even though Dani's sister Terri isn't shown much throughout the film, her role is crucial to the story. The film begins with Dani receiving ominous emails from her sister, Terri, that show her suicidal and homicidal urges before it is revealed soon after that Terri has not only killed herself, but her parents too through carbon monoxide poisoning. However, the problem lies in the fact we are explicitly told that Terri suffers from bipolar disorder, and that being the reason for her actions. This further perpetuates the stigmatisation of mental illnesses, in this case bipolar disorder, causing violent actions and being used to excuse them. From this, it strengthens the already massive stigma surrounding mental health, and can lead people suffering to not speak out in fear of harmful stereotypes. Similarly, the common demonisation of mental illness in films sustains the idea that people with various mental illnesses are dangerous, or violent, or threatening.  Midsommar isn't the only film to do this, M. Night Shyamalan's 2016 thriller Spilt also demonises a mental illness, dissociative identity disorder. I don't want to stray away from talking about Midsommar, but I would recommend watching Split due to its interesting but harmful portrayal of DID. As so many horror/thriller films employ the use of mental illness to villify a character, or as a reason for their actions, it is important to be mindful and wary of these potentially damaging and stigmatising portrayals. In this sense, I feel it's important to research into mental health disorders after watching a film that may portray them inaccurately. To conclude, Midsommar is a controversial film when it comes to its depictions of mental illness, showing both relatively accurate and harmful portrayals. 

Ari Aster's clever use of foreshadowing in Midsommar

Foreshadowing is evident throughout a lot of Midsommar, but most notably right at the beginning of the film when a tapestry is shown outlining pretty much the plot of the film. I will admit, somehow I didn't notice this on my first watching of the film and only realised after watching many, many videos about the film, but it's a smart way of foreshadowing the plot without making it extremely obvious. For those who haven't seen the tapestry or like me, didn't notice it, here is a picture of it.

As you can see, the left side of the tapestry shows three bodies seemingly dead with a skull and crows above, with stitching randomly around them. This basically replicates what happened to Dani's family: one body being Terri, the two above being her parents, with the red stitching being the pipes that were used for the death. And, of course, the skull representing death. Next, we see a woman covering her face, presumably crying, with a man next to her who looks like he is attempting to comfort her. This mirrors Dani and Christian's relationship, her being understandably distraught over the deaths, with him not knowing how to support her through it. Interestingly, above these two people in the tapestry there is another person. Could this potentially represent Pelle, as if he is spying on Dani and Christian to decide whether they are the right people to take to the festival? The next bit shows 5 people walking through what looks like a forest, replicating the five friends (Dani, Christian, Josh, Mark and Pelle) travelling through the fields to the commune. The five people in the tapestry are then shown arriving at the entrance, met by the Hårga who are all dressed in white, as they are in the rest of the film. Lastly, the very far right of the tapestry shows a multitude of events that happen later in the film. At the bottom, the meal in which Christian is drugged before being raped as other women of the Hårga watch. Above this in the tapestry, we see women dancing around the may pole, perfectly mirroring how Dani is crowned as May Queen after winning the competition. To me, the smiling sun above may represent Dani's smile at the end of the film. With the smile being inside a sun, this could potentially be a reference to the fire that eventually kills Christian, after him being chosen as the final sacrifice. Therefore, this shows the tapestry basically perfectly shows the plot of the film, but, to me, in a way that would only be understandable after watching the film.

A smaller, more intricate detail that foreshadows later events is the placement of what looks like a flower crown around a picture of Dani on the parents bedside table. This is shown below, almost perfectly foreshadowing how Dani is crowned May queen and presented with a flower crown near the end of the film. Similarly to the tapestry, this is a foreshadowing that only really makes sense after watching the film, but nevertheless hints at future events. Overall, it's a very clever detail and placement from Aster that contributes to the use of foreshadowing throughout Midsommar.

Another smaller scene used to foreshadow events is during Dani's nightmare. In her nightmare, she envisions her four friends (Christian, Josh, Mark, and Pelle) driving away from her in a car, leaving her at the commune with the Hårga. Despite her eventually seeming happy at the end of the film, she is nonetheless the only one of the 5 friends who went to survive. This mirrors her nightmare, as she is left alone with the Hårga following her friends deaths. So whilst her nightmare doesn't exactly replicate what happens later on, it still foreshadows how Dani is left alone without the four people she arrived with.

Whilst this next one is less of foreshadowing, more of a reference/link to another Ari Aster film, I thought I would include it anyway. Despite having not seen Ari Aster's 2018 horror Hereditary, I (unfortunately) am very familiar with the scene where Charlie has her head knocked off by a telephone post. This theme of head trauma is once again shown in Midsommar following the Ättestupa, where one of the elders has his head bashed in after he survives the fall. I love when another film is referenced within a film, so whilst this is a pretty disturbing reference, I appreciate Aster's constant theme of head trauma even in different films. Ari Aster has also said gory head trauma is something that he will always use in his films, so I guess that's something to prepare for in future...

How lighting is used to accentuate the horror of Midsommar

The use of lighting in Midsommar is something that really interested me, since it doesn't fit the typical way in which lighting is used in most horror or thriller films. With the exception of some, horror films typically take place at night time, or where the lighting is very dim and very dark, as if to represent the darkness and horror of the film. A good example of this is Jordan Peele's horror film Us, where a large proportion of it takes place during the night. Of course this isn't a bad thing, but the way in which Midsommar almost does the exact opposite of this to exemplify the horror of the films plot is, to me, very intriguing. Excluding scenes such as when Dani's parents are shown lying dead, or her looking in the mirror seeing Terri, a lot of the film takes place during the day time, and as it's set in Summer, it's often very bright throughout. Midsommar shows horror in broad daylight, changing the narrative that it always happens during the night or in the dark, also accentuating the shock factor for the audience when events like the Ättestupa take place in the middle of the day. Therefore, the stark contrast between the bright, summery feel that is given by the cinematography of the film, and the horrifying events that take place shows the significance and impact of the use of lighting.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed! I would personally say that Midsommar is less of a scary, horror film, and more of a disturbing, psychological thriller but nevertheless I do think it is a really good film, and would definitely recommend it. As always, any comments are very welcome and appreciated! As I already gave a list of a few other psychological thrillers in my post about Get Out, I will leave some of my favourite films I have seen recently below! Not necessarily newly released films, but any that I've seen recently and thought were good:) Once again, thank you for reading!

My recent favourite films :

Luca (2021)

Director : Enrico Casarosa

Shiva Baby (2020)

Director : Emma Seligman

Knives Out (2019)

Director : Rian Johnson

Minari (2020)

Director : Lee Isaac Chung

His House (2020)

Director : Remi Weekes