Midsommar -

A visceral, emotional masterwork. Just don’t plan a trip to Sweden for a while.

In the summer of 2019, director Ari Aster invited audiences not to a vacation, but to a waking nightmare bathed in perpetual sunlight. Following the crushing grief of his debut Hereditary , Aster returned with Midsommar —a film that trades shadowy basements for flower crowns, demonic possession for folk dances, and jump scares for existential dread. Midsommar

In the final frames, Dani watches the temple burn. Christian, trapped inside, screams her name. At first, her face is a mask of horror. Then, slowly, the corners of her mouth turn up. A smile. Then a sob. Then a scream that melts into a grin. She has chosen him. She has let him die. And in that moment, she is finally free. Midsommar has been called a horror movie, a dark comedy, and a pagan fairy tale. But at its core, it is a fantasy about the end of a toxic relationship. It asks a radical question: What if, after you left, you found a family that loved you more? And what if they helped you burn the past to the ground? A visceral, emotional masterwork

Aster visually encodes this isolation. While Hereditary was a film of cramped, dark interiors, Midsommar is shot in wide, flat, blindingly bright daylight. There is nowhere to hide. The pastel grass and blue skies should feel idyllic, yet they create a panopticon of dread. Dani wanders through a paradise where everyone belongs except her. As the American guests begin to disappear—victims of ritualistic violence—the horror shifts from external to internal. The Hårga are not monsters in the traditional sense. They are a community that feels. They wail together, they eat together, they mimic each other’s emotions. When Dani cries, the women of the commune cry with her. When she experiences psychedelic pain, they hold her. Following the crushing grief of his debut Hereditary

This is the film’s subversive argument: What if the cult is actually better for Dani than her boyfriend? The Hårga offer what Christian never could: validation, belonging, and a framework for processing trauma. The film does not endorse their murderous ways, but it forces the audience to understand why a broken person might choose them. The climax is a masterpiece of perverse catharsis. After winning the Maypole dance (through sheer, exhausted endurance), Dani is crowned the May Queen. She is given power, adoration, and a final test: to choose the final sacrifice. The last ritual involves nine human offerings, including Christian, who has been drugged, seduced (in a disturbingly comedic scene involving pubic hair and a drugged mating ritual), and paralyzed inside a disemboweled bear carcass.