Ari Aster's MIDSOMMAR (2019)

So I guess the streaming version retains the brief mention of Austin Powers by one of the adult villagers, but omits the payoff several scenes later where we actually do see the kids watching it :'(

I watched it with my gf, a horror movie non-enjoyer who had avoided it since it came out but knew a lot of the memes. She liked it, but disagreed with all of my takes (Christian is the worst imaginable boyfriend; Dani finds real connection and heals from her trauma; the sex scene is good and cool [tbh I didn't expect her to be on-board with this one but my first time sucked])

imo he sucks not because he's a bad boyfriend, but because he's an aggressively mediocre person who shouldn't even be her boyfriend by the time they leave for the trip. you can chalk part of it up to youth or inexperience, but continuing to be an aggressively terrible boyfriend is not being a better person than breaking up with your girlfriend who just went through the worst trauma of her life!

also he sucks in about four other ways

i mean my memory could be motheaten but i do not remember a scene in this movie where the kids are actually watching austin powers, just the line of dialogue about it

xp "Aggressively mediocre" is kind of an overused cliche, but I agree with its use here, because Christian's overriding motivation is to "not be a bad guy." It's the fear of getting blamed for stuff that animates him at the only points in the movie where he really seems actively engaged (Telling his bros that he invited Dani, "but she's not actually gonna come," and also he lied and told her the invitation was coming from them, so go along with it; telling the village elders that they are so sorry, but they have no idea where the sacred text disappeared to or where their missing friends are, and how he would hate to be associated with something Josh did)

I didn't think Christian was meant to be viewed as "a bad boyfriend" or "a bad person", but rather as a very generic dude who was completely incapable of dealing with a traumatised girlfriend.

The most moving scene in the film, to me, was the moment when the Swedes start screaming along with Dani's screams, sharing her pain. Exactly what a traumatised person needs! Share my fucking pain with me!

Also it's been mentioned elsewhere, but not here, and I think it's super-cool: the actor playing the ättestupa guy is Björn Andrésen, who played Tadzio in "Death And Venice", and was a secondary character in Roy Andersson's "En Kärlekshistoria". Cool bit of casting

The idea that the cult is pushing cinema's quintessential Ganymede off a cliff because he's gotten old is pretty delicious imo!

The most moving scene in the film, to me, was the moment when the Swedes start screaming along with Dani's screams, sharing her pain. Exactly what a traumatised person needs! Share my fucking pain with me!

that scene is certainly the most intense & moving scene, but to me there's a grotesquerie to it bc its clearly gaslighting. the reason she's in pain is because they, the people screaming with her, brutally tortured and murdered everyone else - they are definitely NOT sharing her pain except in the most superficial & manipulative way, trying to get her to accept her role in their cosmology - a role that they've forced her into because, again, they took away all her other options by brutally torturing and murdering everyone and made it clear that she cannot refuse and leave alive. shes presented with a false of a choice, theres always the specter of violence hovering.

i never understood people who dont feel like shes not still in acute danger at the ending. imho the gleeful horror-movie logic exhibited by the cult throughout the movie makes it seem perfectly likely that the next day or the day after next she could wake up and they'd be like "we worship and honor our May Queen who shall look down on us from the heavenly firmament, so we're going to cut your head off and put it up on this tall pole wheeee!!!!!" and i think she knows it at the end too.

Good posts itt. My gf said that once they got to the village she never stopped thinking "If I were in Dani's place how would I escape?" and I can understand viewing it that way (One Eye Open, it sounds like you had a similar perspective) but that could not be more different from my own experience. I was immediately plugged into the film on an affective level, and the vibes in the first half hour were so bad that "run away, go back to that" never entered my mind.

the reason she's in pain is because they, the people screaming with her, brutally tortured and murdered everyone else

it's been a while since i watched it, but i didn't read this scene that way at all. i thought she was letting out the pain rooted in the loss of her family that she had previously hid to avoid making others uncomfortable, e.g. in the airplane bathroom. i do think there was an underlying grotesquery in that the cult was being manipulative to connect with her, they had the one-sided knowledge given to them by the recruiter guy that she was deeply traumatized and alienated and therefore vulnerable to being recruited. and i never got the feeling they wanted to kill her, i thought they need to recruit people periodically to widen the gene pool

agree One Eye Open. we're not meant to follow the community's ideas to their horrific conclusions, but their beliefs on community-shared trauma and healing are interesting, and Pelle does accurately diagnose that Dani has truly not been able to heal because she has no real support system. her familial one is dead, her boyfriend is terrible at it.

it's just one of those things where, yes, the Hårga are bad, deluded, murderous people, and yet....have done more to help assuage Dani's pain than anybody in her life ever did. They also contributed heavily to her grief, but when a murderous cult understands empathy better than your own boyfriend, it should be a sign that maybe you're in the wrong relationship.

but yeah they probably killed her a week after for some not-previously-forseen super-sacrifice

it's been a while since i watched it, but i didn't read this scene that way at all. i thought she was letting out the pain rooted in the loss of her family that she had previously hid to avoid making others uncomfortable, e.g. in the airplane bathroom. i do think there was an underlying grotesquery in that the cult was being manipulative to connect with her, they had the one-sided knowledge given to them by the recruiter guy that she was deeply traumatized and alienated and therefore vulnerable to being recruited. and i never got the feeling they wanted to kill her, i thought they need to recruit people periodically to widen the gene pool

― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Friday, June 14, 2024 2:35 PM bookmarkflaglink

well, a large part of her reaction is seeing her boyfriend being raped/having intercourse with a 15-year old girl, which is what happens immediately before her reaction. yeah, there is probably more she is reacting to than just that, given all she's been through, but they directly caused that upsetting visual image.

in years when they're not having this festival and not doing ritual sacrifices though, and there are no scheduled antestuppes, they probably do have healthy wailing sessions together!

ah yeah, i forgot that's what immediately preceded it. i still read her reaction as a culmination of her trauma and total lack of connection to what was supposed to be her support system though

Yeah I was gonna say, she is tripping balls & walked in on her boyfriend fucking a 15yo in front of an audience, kind of an important detail!

cap'n save-a-cult over here

i'd like to go on record in saying the cult is good and we are bad

was kinda hoping for an ending where Neal Howie washes ashore shortly after the sacrifice is completed/evidence discarded, to the Planet of the Apes realization of the audience that it was Summerisle all along

I like the idea of Ari Aster's Dune where everyone is resigned to their fates like, welp, guess I'm gonna be a sandworm now, as was foretold in the orange catholic bible spy who shagged me.

Some good posts in this revive, but I particularly want to highlight this:

the Hårga are bad, deluded, murderous people, and yet....have done more to help assuage Dani's pain than anybody in her life ever did.

I really think this is the crux of the matter. I haven't been traumatised in the same manner as Dani (and have been reasonably fortunate in my choice of partners) but as someone with all the issues I have in my life... a large part of me wanted what I was watching on screen. That isn't a "the cult is good, actually" reading, but a recognition that when you are trapped and unsupported, you can willingly walk towards another danger if it seems to provide you with what you have been missing. The joy of burning your past mistakes and feeling visceral empathy within a community, those things are valid to look at and desire. It's still just another trap, it's still bad, but it's so tempting to give yourself over to it.

Just, like, don't let me ACTUALLY join a cult, please?

I like the idea of Ari Aster's Dune where everyone is resigned to their fates like, welp, guess I'm gonna be a sandworm now, as was foretold in the orange catholic bible spy who shagged me.

― Philip Nunez, Friday, 14 June 2024 bookmarkflaglink

He'd give Dune an interesting look based on this film.

I agree with you emil.y. I’ve long held that the most horrifying scene in the film, the one that is actually shot to terrorize the viewer, is the opening scene, the source of Dani’s trauma. I think this was intentional, not to make The Cult Look Good but to create a greater understanding as to why Dani would be drawn to them, despite their murder vibes