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Midsommar: The Film that Brainwashes the Audience


From the director of “Hereditary,” “Midsommar” is a harrowing film that follows a grief-stricken and lonely young woman named Dani as she goes from being horrified by the violent traditions of the Hårga – a small religious community in Sweden – to actively taking part in them as we the audience cheer her on. The film has been described by fans and critics as a dark fairy tale, folk horror, and an operatic breakup movie––a story about “the importance of empathy, shared emotion, and finding family in the most unexpected places” (Chitwood, 2019). But “Midsommar” is much darker than that. It’s a story about indoctrination––the slow surrender of individuality and identity to the suffocating embrace of the collective. In many ways, the film’s message is a direct antithesis of empowerment. So why does the ending feel like a victory for Dani?



In the final scene of this film, Dani defeats the main antagonist – her repressive boyfriend, Christian – by burning him in her emotional isolation to the ground. Incensed by his betrayal, she releases herself from her unhealthy attachment to him and offers him up to the Hårga to be used as a religious sacrifice. At this point, Dani is completely cut off from society and reality at the mercy of a group of people who have killed everyone she came to Sweden with. While it is implied that they will let her join them, it is also entirely plausible that they will kill her as well––yet she smiles and we smile with her.


What makes “Midsommar” such a unique film is the way it convinces us that a happy ending has been achieved. Similar to how the Hårga brainwash Dani into thinking she has found her new home, the movie brainwashes us into believing that Dani is safe and empowered in the end. One of the ways the film achieves this is by keeping us on edge. Brainwashing is really just a matter of mental exhaustion, which is why cults constantly keep their members stressed and tired. It’s why dooms-day preachers are always thinking up new dates for the apocalypse and alt-right figure heads are always trying to scare the hell out of their listeners––we can’t make healthy decisions for ourselves when we are scared and confused all the time. This movie uses our fear of the Harga to make us more familiar with them; the more it jostles us, the more we obsessively watch them. Ari Aster, the movie director, gives us plenty of time to dread and puzzle over every bad omen. His camera floats rather than shocks. Instead of utilizing jumpscares that make us raise our guard for a brief moment, he calmly sprinkles in these ominous warnings that make us alert throughout the whole movie, even when nothing bloody is happening. All these stressful moments amount to little questions being planted in our brains, questions which start getting answers all in a row right as Dani start’s giving into the Hårga. Immediately after she hits her breaking point, the movie gives us answers on what happened to all the other characters––it’s a narrative reward for wrestling with this anxiety for so long. By relieving this stress right at the climax, the movie lets us ignore the difficult question of what’s going to happen to Dani to focus instead on an easier question: what happened to everyone else? It’s a question we are more than happy to go along with.


Another way “Midsommar” successfully brainwashes us is by incorporating lots of light and beautiful imagery into every scene. Throughout the film, brightness is always present––everyone wears white and it’s always daytime. One particular scene – the scene that introduces us to the violent practices of the Hårga for the first time – has been color corrected to be so blindingly bright that it makes the Hårga feel pure and heavenly. Just like most cults, the film hides its horrors in the daylight; it uses light to create a false sense of security, making it increasingly more difficult for us to stay afraid of the Hårga for the whole two and a half hours. Ultimately, by the time the film reveals the Hårga’s plan and we realize that they’re killing the guy we hate and welcoming the girl we most empathize with, there’s this profound relief we get from just letting go and drifting along the current of sunshine.


“Midsommar” provides a very unique experience for horror movie fans. It examines the horrors of life in a very untraditional way, exposing the fragility of the human psyche. Audiences in 2020 might feel especially vulnerable to the suggestions in this film given the isolation they are currently experiencing due to technology and COVID-19. Overall, “Midsommar” is not a film for everyone but it is a thrilling and psychedelic watch for those who choose to sit through it.


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