#midsommar traumatized me too

[mrschwartz]

where's that post that says "i'm so glad that ari aster clearly never went to therapy" i just watched hereditary and that encapsulates my feelings

[urfavisapermaregressor]

In your story could I ask what character/media it was? I would really like to find a series that has a canonical age regressor if you can remember ^^

yes it was riamu yumemi from idolmaster cinderella girls starlight stage! the game isn't in english but there are a lot of fan translations and such online and there is a way to download it outside of japan but it's pretty complicate imo.

there are some tutorials online, like for android you can download it with qooapp but for apple users it's harder. the game is event based and there's a lot of other characters so she isn't the main focus, but still is a cool game regardless. i've only been a fan of it through translations and gameplay vids for the last couple of years since i find the tutorial a bit overwhelming though :'3

but anyway she is a canon regressor but it's just not outright stated. with one of the parts i mentioned it later in this post but here is the link to the full video

here she is in a crib with bottles, diapers, a rattle, and pacifier. this was the one where i said they played it off as a joke and for the life of me i can't find a photo of where this was said?? but basically prior to this photo there was a reference to the movie midsommar where very graphic and dark stuff happens, and they parodied it. she was forced to witness a sacrifice ritual and afterwards she became so traumatized from what she saw that she regressed to a baby. she's flipping off the camera because after the events of what she saw she couldn't trust any adult (the person taking the picture was the producer/player which is an adult) which caused her to regress and cry.

she even calls her acquaintances mama and likes being comforted and taken care of by them.

she even uses baby talk sometimes and she also makes little noises that i personally headcanon as vocal stims but she says things like "yuck" and whines a lot. she also often repeats "no no no" in a whiney tone too and to me i see that as regressive behaviors, especially given she canonly regresses to 2-6.

and this part is just self explanatory. i can't put anymore screenshots because tumblr so be sure to watch the full version, but if you don't want to she gets so upset after realizing that shes so "childish" and not as mature as her peers as an adult that she regresses to a 6 years old.

it's really sad and i feel so bad for her because all she wants is just to be treated kindly/respected and seen as smart. she is an idol and she begs her fans to not say anything mean to her. usually idols are equipped for people trash talking them but she gets very sad from it. she's mentally ill and suffers a lot and i relate to her heavily especially with her age regression too. i know she is a a character but i still feel bad seeing her regression played off as a joke but yeah that's all. she's a good character.

but it's nice that people don't usually make fun of her for this reason. she gets drawn a lot with pacifiers and people call her a baby and stuff but she does have bad luck so she does get teased with that, but not really the regression stuff so it's nice to see that from a fandom seeing as agere tends to be stigmatized/mistaken for nsfw stuff sometimes

[murdrdocs]

EYEEEE DIDNT CATCH THAT IM SO SORRY 😭😭

Just reading midsommar and the tech behind it was fucking traumatizing, I could never imagine watching it

I always get made fun of for being too "scared" to watch horror movies, but I'm pretty sure I have a sleep disorder, and the anxiety that is passed down from family is NOT the way José 🙏🙏🙏 I'd rather be a pussy than sleepless for months 🙏

N e ways our show closed 😪 (THANK FUCKING GOD ITS OVER ITS OVER ITS OVER *gunshots*)

Don't get me wrong it was sm fun

But so emotionally draining so I am relieved ☺️

-- 🎭

NOO UR OKAY !!

plus its lame to make fun of u for not liking horror???? like thats v valid shit haunts u fr.

and congrats!!!! proud of u for getting through another one

[rose-and-lemongrass]

Okay I'm trying to be chill about the fact my computers busted and I can't edit sooo here's my favorite horror films I watched in 2023!! So far, at least, I'll update if I find some more great ones in the next month. These are in no particular order.

Talk To Me (2023) LOVED IT. I was genuinely really really stressed while watching it. Honestly give me a character I like and put them through the ringer and I will be invested. I REALLY wanted Riley to make it. I know some people don't like the end but I did. It's a very existential and depressing ending but I thought it was fitting.

Sissy (2022) This is a super super underrated movie. Barely any discussion of it all online. I thought it was incredible; it perfectly nailed what it feels like to be in a social situation you know you don't belong in. I felt called out several times. Cecilia is a really fascinating character too, and I loved the social media aspect.

Creep 2 (2017) I couldn't believe how into this movie I was. It's basically just two really weird characters manipulating each other (with one being way way way more successful than the other) and it's so wild to watch. I liked the first Creep but the relationship here was so fascinating. I almost feel like this movie would have been better as a standalone bc we as the audience know that Aaron is a serial killer. It would be fascinating to be like Sara and not know for sure. Either way though, I loved it, I hope they make a third one.

Terrifier 2 (2022) Dude I LOVED this movie!! Controversial opinion maybe but I thought it was fantastic. Sienna is such an amazing character, Art the Clown was on his A game. I weirdly resonated with the family stuff (i got emotional at points) The special effects were great. I know it has a reputation. And it has earned that reputation. I have found no one I can comfortably show this movie to that I trust isn't going to be horribly traumatized. Which sucks bc when I saw this in theaters I got like. Sexually harassed. And I dont want it to happen when I see the third one. I wish I had a buddy I could take. But regardless every time I watch it I have a blast, and I really wanna make a video discussing this series soon bc I have so many thoughts!!

Halloween (1978) Yeah everyone was right this movie is awesome. I'm totally going to add it to my halloween watchlist every year.

Candyman (1993) Yeah again it's really really good, everyone was right lol. Really dragging my feet on the remake bc honestly this movie is basically perfect.

Cube (1997) I always thought I'd like Cube. And I did. It's really weird and psychological and cool. I watched it like 11 months ago so I don't feel like I have a lot to say right now, but I just remember how much I was invested while watching it and how much I gushed about it after I finished.

Deadstream (2022) Honestly this was most fun I had with a movie all year. I was dying laughing the entire time. I've watched it three times and I sent the opening scene to everyone I know. It's just a very funny and very spot on parody of YouTubers and I love it

Fresh (2022) I don't love the abrupt ending but the rest is basically perfect. The levels of performance during the dinner scene OH MY GOD. And it's a really fun and disturbing exploration of how terrible dating is and I appreciate that a lot.

Hereditary (2015) This movie hurt the entire time and I loved it. Toni Collette's performance is the best I have ever seen, I am actually furious she wasn't nominated. Her screams man, they are haunting. Also really realistic dream dialogue I pegged right away it was a dream bc that's exactly how people talk in my dreams. This is a movie with a lot of layers and something about it resonated with me, especially after the terrible terrible year I had.

Midsommar (2019) I vibed with this one hardcore. I think its just weirdly cathartic to see someone in a bad social situation get accepted while the person who put them in that situation gets rejected. Again because of the terrible year I had. But also its bad that that happens! Like its creepy how easy it is to be taken in by a cult. I also didn't feel the length at all I was very very invested the whole time. My friend Emily absolutely hates this movie though lol

Trick R Treat (2007): I didn't find it scary at all. But I vibed with it. It just FELT like Halloween, and some of the stories really really worked for me. Particularly the werewolf one and the one with the zombie kids.

VHS (2012): This is entirely because of the Amateur Night and 10/31/98 segments. I love those segments to death, I've watched them over and over. I still haven't watched Siren (the full length Amateur Night adaption) but I am so psyched they kept the same actress. She was an absolute star I'm planning on watching it entirely for her.

It Follows (2014) I know I can't keep saying I vibed with these movies but I did. I love the dreamlike quality, the ambiguity, the idea behind the monster is actually one of the most terrifying things I can imagine. Even if you get rid of it there's a chance it'll come back to you so you're never safe. Certain sequences were really really cool. Also one of the best jumpscares of all time in this. Like I don't even like jumpscares, they never get me, but this one did! Also I adore the opening sequence and how it's complete nonsense until you rewatch it and realize what's happening.

Infinity Pool (2023) I went in completely 100% blind. It was a wild ride that's for sure. I said "oh fuck me" full volume at one point if that tells you anything. Honestly I have nothing to say about the plot but the feelings this movie evoked in me were intense. Really good movie for someone who secretly hates themselves and is scared that everyone around them does too, I guess, because it captures that feeling perfectly.

[lilaclunablossom]

Beau Is Afraid Review

Ari Aster’s newest film, the 3-hour psychological horror epic Beau Is Afraid, completely fucked my brain in a way few movies ever have.

Ari Aster has quickly become one of my very favorite directors. I first saw his movie Midsommar in a theater, and I loved it. I later decided to watch his first feature-length movie, Hereditary, and it became my favorite horror movie ever made.

Both of these movies have a healthy amount of mind-fucking, but Beau Is Afraid takes it to a whole other level. The main character, Beau, suffers from an extremely intense anxiety/paranoia disorder, possibly schizophrenia, and because of this you CANNOT tell what’s really happening in this movie, at LEAST until you’re a good 2 hours in. It’s an arthouse film, and plants yourself COMPLETELY in Beau’s shoes, taking you on an extremely confusing, yet mesmerizing, horror adventure. The movie also features more comedy than any movie Ari has made so far, with many shocking and disgusting moments being laced with irony and black humor. This type of humor doesn’t usually make me laugh on first watch (I’m too busy being traumatized), but I later found myself thinking how funny it truly was, especially a certain completely unexplainable twist closer to the end… Oh yeah, and, being a psychological horror movie, it’s FILLED with plot twists, whether you doubt how real they are or not.

The acting is also amazing, starring the incredible Joaquin Phoenix, recently famed for Joker, as Beau. He’s a perfect fit for the character, and every other actor is basically perfect too.

Beau Is Afraid is an EXTREMELY weird, confusing, scary journey. If you’re not into art films, you might not like it very much, but if you enjoy weird shit like this, it’s ABSOLUTELY a must-see.

4.5 / 5

Dunno what the fuck I just watched, but I love it

[stinkrascal]

Are Ari Aster movies too intense for someone who has bad anxiety? I want to get into watching horror but I’m very sensitive

it's hard to say, i dont know how squeamish you are or if youre easily scared. his movies dont have jumpscares or anything like that, but they are graphic. although i will say that beau is afraid is definitely his least scary movie out of his three releases, with the least amount of graphic scenes. there are graphic scenes within that movie but they arent nearly as gratuitous as in hereditary or midsommar. hereditary is probably his scariest, but personally i didn't find that movie super scary either, it just has a really tense atmosphere. midsommar has the most graphic scenes, but none of them jump out at you, it's very apparent that they're about to happen so you have time to shield your eyes before seeing the grotesque images. to be honest, i still haven't watched the one graphic scene from midsommar even though i've seen that movie countless times lol (if you've seen midsommar, y'all know EXACTLY what scene i'm talking about. i shield my eyes every time i watch it).

to me, ari aster's films are more unsettling than scary, so if you're easily scared his films might be a good start to get you into the horror genre! it definitely kickstarted my interest in horror in general, as i'm also someone who's extremely squeamish and easily scared. as you explore the horror genre you'll grow less squeamish, i promise!!

if you wanna explore ari aster's films, i'd definitely recommend his short film "the strange thing about the johnsons" on youtube! it's a great introduction to his storytelling style in general, as it has all the general components of an ari aster film (i.e. familial trauma) without all the graphic head trauma that he's also known for lmao. if you like that short film, then you'll definitely like his other movies bc the theme of traumatic families is prevalent throughout his discography!

[blackandwhlteaesthetlc]

https://deadline.com/2023/03/denzel-washington-gladiator-sequel-cast-paul-mescal-ridley-scott-1235302321/

Hey M,

Hope all is well. Some good projects coming soon. I just saw creed 3 a thought JM and MBJ were amazing. It was a great directorial debut for MBJ and JM was spectacular as usual. I’m looking forward to seeing him in Magazine Dreams.

As you know i love me some Paul Mescal so I hope the above article is true. I think him a Denzel will play well together. ☮️

Hello, ☮️ anon!

Ahh!! Such exciting news 🤩 Denzel INSTANTLY elevates any project he gets attached to. Having him paired with Paul Mescal AND Barry Keoghan (I believe he’s in talks too) on the sequel for Gladiator?? Already iconic, I can’t wait to see it.

And agree about so many new projects to see! I think I’m most curious about Parachute (Brittany Snow’s directorial debut that did well at SXSW) and Ari Aster’s next film with Joaquin Phoenix. I’m sure Ari’s will traumatize me just as much as Hereditary and Midsommar but I won’t be able to stay away. 😩

I haven’t seen Creed III yet but I’m so happy with all the reviews for both MBJ and JM! They seem like an incredible duo, even the trailer was gripping so my expectations are high. I’m seeing Scream VI tonight but I’ll try to catch Creed III tomorrow or next weekend if I can. 🤓🍿

[sleepymarmot]

Get Out (2017)

[Watched on July 15th]

Very glad to see this film lives up to its reputation.

Of course I haven’t escaped spoilers in all these years; I knew what the plot was going to involve, but didn’t know how. So I figured it out 45 minutes in, when a young black guy was acting like an old white guy and also like the husband of an old white lady. This made the pacing feel pretty slow until the secret was out in the open, though I can’t tell if it’s the film’s fault for playing its hand too openly, or my own for knowing spoilers. The only thing that stayed unclear until the reveal was whether Rose was in on the conspiracy or not.

As a fan of the “bodyswap” and “actors playing each other’s character” tropes, I was very impressed by the writing and performances of the bodysnatched black characters, especially Andre Hayworth/Logan King. Throughout the whole film but in these scenes in particular, I kept thinking that it must have been difficult to localize it for other languages, especially in dubbing. The film places a lot of attention on speech — I’m glad to discover it won an Oscar for best original screenplay, well deserved — and a lot of horror comes out of how unnatural both their words and intonations sound, which is probably hard to convey in localization. I usually find the “person acting weirdly” kind of horror to be tropey and contrived, but it really worked for me here. After rewatching a few of their scenes, I also noticed that the two grandparents acted in an eerie, semi-hypnotized way, while the guest behaved more naturally as an old man with a young face; I wonder if that’s intentional and why. Another difference between them I noticed is that the grandparents have a more youthful body language, while the guest is slouching and pulling in his head as if he still has an old body with a bad back; I’m assuming that’s because he is the newest “patient” and not yet used to being young again (there was a shot of him showing off his new body to other guests).

Some nitpicks:

I had to rewatch the scene to see that “Georgina” died in the crash — the shot of her still face was very dark and short, so I assumed she survived and was confused why Chris didn't go back for her again.

The portrayal of Rod veered into comic relief a bit too much. More importantly, what was with the glorification of TSA? The film goes out of its way to say “Cops, even black ones, are dismissive, useless, and drunk on their power. You know who doesn't share the same flaws at all? The kind of cops who frisk people at the airport.” ????? Am I missing something about the US realities again or is this choice really bizarre?

Connections to other films:

I think this was more cohesive than the other directors’ recent films in the satire/thriller genre I can think of. The 2021 Candyman sequel (also co-written and co-produced by Peele), Midsommar, and Knives Out kind of undercut their own narrative each in its own way, and as for Parasite, I have already posted two angry rants about everything that didn’t work in it for me. It feels like Get Out was much better at showcasing its own themes — or maybe I’m still in the post-viewing high and the fridge logic hasn’t kicked in yet.

The plot has a surprising amount in common with Midsommar: a young American person traumatized by the loss of their family is invited into an insular traditionalist white cult so that they could be brainwashed and their body used for the perpetuation of that community. In both cases the protagonists are targeted specifically because of their race, for opposite reasons.

In retrospect, the plot of Get Out is pretty much what I expected the plot of Parasite to be. The rich are literally parasites in this one! Conversely, Parasite is like if the family from Get Out didn’t actually have a violent sinister secret and their wrongdoings were limited to “being wealthy” and “committing microaggressions”.

Had a bit of deja vu at the beginning: the protagonist of the Candyman sequel was also a young man with a successful career in arts. A relatable archetype for Peele, I’m guessing :D

Other notes:

Immediate red flag: Rose tells Chris her parents don’t know he’s black. You mean you have a good relationship with your parents and have never shown them a single photo of your boyfriend of five months? You mean your parents have invited your boyfriend to their house even though they haven’t even seen a picture of him? Bullshit.

The microaggressions were so painful and embarrassing to watch that the straightforward horror scenes were almost a relief.

Why did the grandparents pretend to be servants? Why didn’t they hide, or pretend to be other guests? Was that another mind game — did they think seeing black servants in the house would prepare Chris for his fate on a subconscious level? So in addition to his personal trauma (guilt for his mother’s death) the family also intentionally triggered his generational/racial trauma?

I’m surprised to see most reviews on LB talk only about race: my own impression was that the film was defining the conflict as being between classes/social groups as much as it was between the races. The protagonist is well off, but the difference of wealth between him and the family is even more striking than the difference of culture. One of the secret society members is Japanese. There’s a fairly long scene where a black man goes to the police about the disappearances of two other black men and expects sympathy from the policemen because they’re also black — and they laugh in his face, because they’re cops first and everything else second. It’s interesting that the film avoids a simplistic “white bad, black good” dichotomy not by adding sympathetic white characters, but by adding asshole characters of color.

[whorrorgrl]

My Beef with Parker Finn's 2022 Film, Smile.

My gripe with Smile (2022) is not because I'm a hater. I mean...I am on most things as I'm sure we all are. I briefly reviewed this movie in my monthly watches and didn't have anything good to say but said it anyway. I had an idea as to why this movie annoyed me but couldn't put it into words then. Weeks later, in a longer format, I can finally properly explain why this movie irks me.

It simply was a missed opportunity.

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain, nor prove. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying present.

Let's start on a good note.

I love the visuals for Smile. The eery smirk combined with the tilt of the head that casts shadows on piercing eyes. It was enough to be the movie's entire marketing. What was the plot? No clue. We just knew there were creepy people posted up around cities, baseball games, and abandoned roads staring ominously into cameras. It even drew my attention, who usually miss movie advertisements in this day and age of streaming. That's the only thing I like about the movie. The actual smile.

Smile tried too hard to be something it was not. It took itself too seriously. The visuals are unforgettable, fresh, and reminiscent of the Joker, whose image is iconic on its own. But this same visual is playful. It reminds me of movies like Fantasy Island (2020), Truth or Dare (2018), Countdown (2019), Happy Death Day (2017), etc. They all have visuals and plot that aren't taken too seriously, or if serious, is still a fun, self-aware watch. Blumhouse, not A24. Cronenberg, not Carpenter. I tie it back to the obsession movies have today with being "elevated."

Take Get Out, for instance.

I consider Get Out elevated horror. However I'm not using Get Out to prove a point about the term. I'm using it in the sense of Jordan Peele starting a new trend in storytelling.

The 2017 film stars Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams as an interracial couple going to see the 'rents. Chris, black, is nervous about how Rose's white parents will receive him -- he allegedly is the first black partner she's been with. She reassures him it'll be fine, so off they go to unpredictable horrors. This movie, like many before, intertwined racism with modern horror plot lines. Similar to movies like You're Next (2011) and The Strangers (2008). Only racial. We see this in 1992's Candyman, so racism interwoven into horror didn't start with Peele, sure, but more so revived.

I say revive because we begin to see series like Lovecraft Country (2020), Them (2021); movies like Karen (2021), The Invitation (2022) get greenlit that feature racism backdropped. Many wanted to profit off of Peele's paved path and a movie such as his having huge box office success made a lot of similar works be trusted to be released. A lot of these works copied Peele's signature directing, down to the sound effects and how their actors were managed. Others were decent enough and I was here for the storyline...even if it was becoming a boxed in trope. Diet slave movies.

With elevated horror, Hereditary, Midsommar, the Witch, It Follows, etc. were hits after hits. It started to grow the pretentious sectors of horror fans that didn't want to go near a slasher or poltergeist ridden movie unless it linked back to some multilayered psycho analysis of some textbook chapter of sociology/psychology. We've kind of already seen that with The Shining (1980) and how its talked about then and decades after. Everything had to be deep, doubled up on meaning with slow, lingering shots to match. I adore many of these, don't get me wrong. It's just a new era of horror like any wave.

But Smile trying to ride that wave annoyed me.

How many more movies about grief-horny demons can we have? Actually, I don't even think that's my issue. I can watch ten in a row and love them all. But at least know what you're making. It's why Riverdale is a corny, funny mess...and Thirteen Reasons Why, who took itself too seriously, is an unwatchable corny, annoying mess. With visuals like that, do you really think making a movie about a woman facing her grief of a lost loved one is what I want to see? I want to see playfulness. A group of friends thinking the other's just killing themselves off when really the victims are witnessing the entity. A survive the night. Something Evil Dead (2013) meets Drag Me to Hell (2009).

Smile taking itself too seriously, as if they're tackling the topic of grief in a new fresh way, feels like if House of Wax (2005) tried to be Hereditary (2018); just a silly family dispute. What if Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) tried to be Raw (2016); family members going on a unique diet? Even if Smile didn't want to handle grief differently like Antichrist (2009), Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019), The Witch (2015), The Babadook (2014), The Descent (2005), Pet Sematary (1989 & 2019), The Final Girls (2015), The Uninvited (2009), or its better twin The Night House (2020), then why exist? A cash grab then? If so, now we fall under morals. Did you try to depict grief in a different scope terribly or cash in on the growing focus on mental illness? Which is it? 'Cause I got you in a rock and a hard place.

A win we deserved for such a year as 2022 was Smile just being schlocky with some fun jumpscares and a good enough director to drudge it out of the murky forgettable waters of fad-filled, cheap movies like the ones of Countdown, Truth or Dare, or even Fantasy Island. No offense. The Boogeyman (2023) is a perfect example. The title is explanation enough but with a solid director such as Rob Savage, this movie, also about grief, didn't feel repetitive and is actually able to be on someone's favorites list. It was a solid watch and pretty good. I assumed the childish villain’s retelling would set a silly tone for the movie but it held its own and executed a plot we can take seriously. Seeing people deeply analyze Smile like a art critic would a painting (what it means, what it signifies, the undertones, bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh) kills me. It's 3D painting of a pool on a sidewalk.

The Night House is truly what I believe Smile was aiming for and has earned the respect that Smile thought it would get. I'm really so saddened by a disappointing plot surrounded by one of the best horror visuals I have ever seen. Let's all bow our heads and mourn.

[abbysreverie]

Midsommar

This film is so fucked up

(no pun intended)

Look, I don’t really like it. It’s such an overrated film tbh. But maybe that’s just me. Maybe I just didn’t pay attention. But the fact that everyone’s claiming it to be that horror film that would make you so disturbed after watching, I admit I expected a little too much from it.

Of course before even seeing it, I already briefed myself about the gory pagan cult practices of Midsommar (only in that film ofc, swedish peeps don’t do that irl because if they do then wtf), to be honest, they didn’t feel scary or disturbing to me—to the point that I won’t be able to sleep normally after watching it or that it will keep haunting me in my dreams. No fam, I actually just felt really weirded and disgusted by it. All throughout the time the characters came to Hårga, I just keep mouthing “the fuck?” when I’m expecting to say “WHAT THE FUCK!!!”. You get my point. Besides, Ari Ester’s (the director) customization of the actual festival is so, I dunno, sort of a try-hard cult film? It’s just so unrealistically gory and awful to watch. I didn’t even flinch to that part (WARNING: Spoiler ahead) where the 2 oldies jumped off of a cliff, and even hammering the head of one of them multiple times when they saw him literally still gasping for air after jumping. I immediately thought that it was so unnecessary and stupid.

Ok, so that’s one of the popular scenes of that film, the next and last one I’m gonna share is the weird ritual sex scene. Again SPOILER WARNING, stop right here if you don’t want to ruin your experience. So yeah, that scene specifically made me want to throw up, funny because that’s what also Dani did when she saw them doing it. I also saw this from a lot of people saying they didn’t find it disturbing (which is I think what the director/writer’s actually trying to portray, like it’s not really meant to be disturbing), it’s just weird and really really disgusting. It only got even more uncomfortable when the old woman started helping/pushing Christian lmao fr it was so uncomfy watching that but it was also kinda funny. I’m so unserious sorry.

If I’m going to be honest, the only really traumatizing scene is when they showed Dani’s family, especially the sister who killed herself (and apparently their parents too) from gas poisoning. Her sister’s exploded lungs and internal organs looked really horrendous and disturbing, not only the way it looks, but the fact that this is what suicide can make us look like. It’s painful and awful. Another passable scary scene is when Dani chose Christian over the Hårga native—who openly volunteered to be one of the 9 lives to be sacrificed. It could be the hippie drug, or the awful sex ritual, but the fact that you’ve known that person the most out of everyone around you and still choosing him to literally get killed is so sickening. Honestly, I kinda felt bad for Christian, I mean he really isn’t that a good partner to Dani at all, ffs he was also drugged and helpless most of the time they were there, but he still ended up in the worst position and it’s because of his girlfriend. But don’t be fooled, I kinda lost it again when they started putting Christian in the bear carcass lmao.

Uh, I think that’ll be all for my Midsommar review. I guess I can say the only thing I liked about it is the color grading. I liked that they didn’t try hard enough to make the setting look gloomy or dark. Doing the opposite ambiance which is that bright, colorful cinematography actually helped in giving it off somewhat another vibe of a creepy feeling. But if I’m gonna compare it to Hereditary which is also based off some pagan cult, Hereditary obviously wins. That shit really set the standard for American horror films. That’s truly what scary and disturbing mean in a film.

Final Verdict: 6.7/10

[jeyramarie]

Hi! If requests are open could you do a Florence x reader(female) maybe they were together since Florence did Midsommar and maybe they are staring in a movie together and maybe the interviewer is just gushing about them like maybe they both have a habit of wearing each other’s clothes the whole time and they put up a photo of it and maybe it’s just R gushing about Florence in general and maybe they show them a YouTube video like “R and Florence being Adorable for 10 minutes straight” or something?

Of course it’s A okay if you aren’t taking requests thanks for reading have a lovely day/Night!

love this idea!! instead of clothes i’m gonna use jewelry cause it’s more neutral :)

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After finishing Midsommar, Florence and I became inseparable. We have a great bond. She would sleepover at my place and vice versa. And we also shared everything, specially jewelry. And fans had a tendency to know when we would share it. They would notice if I was wearing some of her rings or if she was wearing my earrings. They always knew. 

So I posted a photo about it. It was a bit old from a few months ago. Florence was over at my house with her sister, Raffie, when she started to raid my jewelry drawer. I was sitting on the bed, staring at Flo while her back was facing me and Raffie snapped a picture (without either of us knowing). Then I stood up and walked towards her as she put on some earrings, which made me stare at her lovingly. Raffie took a picture of that too. 

It was no secret that I was in love with Florence. Everyone noticed. The fans, her family, my family, all of our friends. Everyone except her. So when Florence and Raffie left my house, the youngest Pugh sent me the pictures with ‘I wish she could notice how you look at her xo.’  And lucky for me, she will. 

After I posted the pictures, fans went insane. They were all commenting on how I looked at her. They brought up old interviews from the Midsommar press tour and Insta stories that Flo had posted while filming our new movie. Which is why we’re currently in an interview in the middle of our press tour. And of course, they brought up the pictures. 

“So, you guys already know each other from working together in Midsommar, which is the complete opposite of this new film. What was it like to see each other tackle this new characters?” The lovely interviewer asked and crossed her legs as she held her index cards tightly in her hands. 

“It was fun.” I smile and looked at Flo. “It was definitely interesting to see Florence go from a hysterical traumatized woman to this kind passionate character. Her range is amazing, really. I’m always impressed.” 

“You’re too kind.” Florence said, tilting her head towards me, causing me to chuckle. “But it was certainly interesting. Watching Y/n go from some creepy psycho lady..” She chuckled. “..to a very vulnerable woman who is so in love, it was incredible.” 

“That sounds amazing!” The interviewer smiled before someone from her crew gave her an iPad. “Okay well, I know that you both have a lot of love for each other and you’re each other’s biggest fan. Of course, the fans go insane with you both and there’s many many edits and YouTube videos. Have you seen any of them?” 

“I have seen a few tiktoks but no videos.” I replied, tucking a piece of hair before turning to Flo.

“I have not seen a thing.” 

“Really?” The interviewer and I asked simultaneously as she shook her head. 

“Well I want to show you guys this video put together by a fan.” She continued, handing us the iPad. I took it from her hands and it read ‘Y/n being in love with Florence for 10 minutes straight’. 

My hands started to shake and I was scared to look at her so I hid it all under a smile while playing the video. It started with the first interview we ever had for Midsommar, which is when I started to realize that I liked her as much more than a friend. 

The video later changed and it showed bits of a ‘Cooking with Flo’ segment that I had joined while filming our new movie. We stayed at the same apartment throughout production. It was like a sleepover everyday. Which made my feelings for her grow stronger. 

The clips kept changing and out of the corner of my eye I could see Florence’s eyes change. She hid it pretty well but I could tell and that made me start fidgeting with my rings. I got nervous, anxious even. I didn’t know how she would react to it after the interview was over. Would she talk to me? Would she ignore it? 

“Oh that was so cute.” Florence giggled, breaking my trance as she handed the iPad back to the interviewer. 

“Yeah, it was adorable.” I said, following her lead. “Fans are so talented.” 

“They really are and they love you guys.” The interviewer smiled as Florence and I chuckled. She asked three more questions before the interview as over and we said our goodbyes. 

I got up from my chair and was about to walk away when a hand grabbed my wrist, making me turn around to see Florence. “Can we talk?” She asked and I nodded. 

She gripped my hand and pulled me a bit far from where the interviews were being held. It was a dark corner, no one really did anything there, not even walk past it. “Are you alright?” I asked, watching as she took a deep breathe. 

“I know you’re in love with me.” Florence muttered, looking down at the floor and then looking up at me.��

“I- umm.” I stuttered, looking at her in fear as my hands shook. “I-I’m so sorry, I-”

“I love you too.” She almost whispered, cutting me off as she walked closer to me. “I have loved you ever since we did Midsommar... and we spent all that time together...” 

“Y-you have?” I whispered, feeling as if my heart was gonna jump out of my chest as she nodded with a smile. 

“I have.” Florence whispered, now standing right in front of me. She placed her hands on my cheeks and I immediately grabbed her wrists while she leaned forward, finally connecting our lips together.  

[positively--speculative]

So, here are my thoughts on Midsommar (2019). I have so much to say, but for now, I want to only focus on Christian and Dani.

Let me first be clear, I am not excusing Christian for being a terrible boyfriend, a gaslighter, and an overall asshole to both Dani and his friends. However, there is room to see things from his perspective at least in the beginning of the movie.

TW: Sui/cide menition. R*pe mention.

Even from the beginning of this movie, I had some difficulties...because I have been in both positions before. No, not with a romantic partner, but with friends. Before I learned ways to cope in healthier ways with some trauma I had developed, I was more like Dani. I was young and naive, and most of my relationships were codependent. I relied on my friends to help me through my problems, and it did cause a strain on those relationships. It's amazing what a few years of experience and learning healthy coping mechanisms can do, because within that amount of time, I was able to grow and become a different person. It's not like the problems went away, but I'm better at managing them. With that, I became the friend who someone overwhelmed with their problems. It's really not a fun place to be. It was incredibly emotionally and mentally draining, but at the same time, I always felt pressure to maintain the friendship because I felt I would be abandoning this friend if I made myself unavailable to them. So, yeah. It's a very tricky situation to be in. It hurts if you are in Dani's position and someone who is supposed to care about you is starting to seem tired of you seeking them out for help, but at the same time, it IS tiring to be that person so heavily relied on when you are not equipped to help them in the way they really need it.

In my case, my friendships ended because of these emotional battles, but those relationships taught me a thing or two and have helped me to work on building a better relationship with myself. I also learned how to maintain healthy boundaries with potential friends. I think this was Christian's problem. When we see him at the beginning of the movie, his friends point out that he was struggling to break up with Dani for a year. And let me be clear, Mark and Josh were terrible, but even they can see the toll the relationship was having on him. I understand that it's not an easy decision to end a relationship after four years, but by letting it go for too long, he put himself in the position where he couldn't find a way to break up with her without feeling worse. I don't think anyone wants to be in that position where a tragic event happens to their partner right as they are about to break up with them.

Now, again, this is not me saying that Christian was a good person. The nail in the coffin for me was when he decided he wanted to write his thesis on the Harga when Josh had been working on the topic for years. And I couldn't help view this from the racial lens, because it seemed like Christian was too eager to abandon his friendship with Josh, insult him, and throw him under the bus for the sake of winning the favor of this ALL WHITE COMMUNITY. Consciously or not, he had to be aware of the gravity of that choice. They were in the middle of nowhere in Sweden and at that point, Josh was the only person of color (specifically, Black person of color) in the commune (I mean, at that point, the Harga had already killed him, but Christian didn't know that yet). He was willing to put his own friend's life in danger in order to take full credit for a thesis.

Overall, my feelings about Christian are mixed. I think he was terrible, but it's just so weird to me how people are viewing Dani's choice to have him sacrificed as "empowering." And it's weird to me how people view what happened between him and Mia as cheating rather than r*pe. In the end, Dani was love-bombed and groomed by a cult that will expose unsuspecting visitors to traumatic acts such as public su*cide, hold no value towards the elderly and hold ceremonies where they k*ll them*selves, mutilate and murder the bodies of visitors they lured in, and practice r*pe ceremonies.

Like, if someone is seeing this as a woman's power fantasy, I can't help but think those women are young, white, neurotypical, and able-bodied and view empowerment as being able to participate and benefit in the patriarchy run by white men. It also tells me that these people don't imagine the commune as a place where *they* would be considered for a brutal sacrifice. The way these people seem to simply forget about the awful things the Harga does because they just think it would be nice to bake all day, wear pretty dresses and flower crowns, and dance is enough to convince me of this.

So, yeah. Christian is a terrible person, but his death in the end is not cause for celebration and Dani's position of power comes after the deaths Josh, Mark, Connie, and Simon (the last two who are the additional people of color who fall victim to the Harga). And Dani has no power at all in the end. Her loneliness and alienation were used as weapons against her, which was why she easily fell in line. Others have also pointed out that we cannot say for sure if she will even be allowed to live after the ceremony (none of the characters were introduced to past May queens)...so that's something to keep in mind as well. Dani needed help, but instead she was lured into a dangerous cult with the promise of family and a sense of belonging.

[whateveryousay04]

I just finished watching Midsommar (2019) for the first time and I spent a little bit of time watching YouTube videos about the film and I saw one particular person who kept commented that Christian(the boyfriend of the protagonist) was abusive and I seriously can’t stand such a claim.

I have been thinking about how for a while now, I have noticed that people on the internet will defend others people who said something that let’s say, doesn’t depict their current or more often past partner as the best fairytale by calling the partner toxic when maybe they do not know what even happened at all. While sometimes I see the bad in the other andI could even call them a red flag, I do not just throw around that word unlike others who say it at the littlest misunderstanding and I know very well that relationships and people aren’t perfect and everything needs to be worked on. Some things aren’t even bad, the person just wanted it to be different.

In a few words, people will 50-70% side with the person of which they see the point of view only and that is common also in arts such as music(video or lyrics), performing arts(cinema,television,theatre), written text, audiobooks, painting and sculpture representations even. Unfortunately many side with the protagonist regardless and rarely we see people seeing some sense in the actions of other characters. Unsurprisingly,it happened in this film too but what I do not understand is that as much as Christian was not the main character, he still was one of the most important ones and we got to see a ton of him.

And what have we seen from him?: That he has been doing as much as possible to help his girlfriend from the literal beginning of the film and even when he wanted to break up with her, he cared for her and had the intention to help her get over her though time for at least a bit before breaking up with her. The only 2 mistakes from him were not telling her directly that he was going on a trip beforehand and not cover her eyes when the village was sacrificing the 2 elders (but I understand that he was shocked himself and I was actually quite angry that the other friends didn’t move either,but they were all probably traumatized in that moment). He always cared for her and her well-being. The only thing that was putting their relationship at risk was that Dani was starting to become a lot for him to deal with. He obviously knew that it wasn’t her fault and helped her but it seems like it was by then a “normal” thing that happened and he has a mental health to maintain too. Didn’t we start talking more about how it is valid to not have to help others with their mental illness 24/7 ,especially when they didn’t ask beforehand and drop everything without thinking that the other should at least be aware that they are about to start talking about a certain topic that could be upsetting or triggering to some people? Not everyone can and should be a therapist to others! The same way she was suffering of trauma , he was suffering of burnout.

Christian was always there for her and he is actually a goal partner. Just because he didn’t love her as much as before or because he is a human being like her with a mental health to maintain and not a machine, it doesn’t mean that he was uncaring of Dani at all! He even asked her to come with him and his friends and tried to stick with her anytime to make her feel comfortable. “You don’t have to do this” “It’s fine, I can come with you” “I will accompany you to this walk” “Do you want me to come?” He literally said stuff like that at least 6 times in the film!

Christian was one of the most caring boyfriends I have ever seen portrayed on the screen and he deserves recognition for that. Get yourself a partner like him.

I will absolutely not accept any Christian Huges slander by anyone who is forcing the vision of him as a villain just because he wasn’t the dreamy fairytale boyfriend with no character and feelings of his own and not exclusively of his girlfriends’ and simply was maybe the right person at the wrong time or just not the right person (but definitely one of the best!) for her like Dani’s friend mentioned at the beginning of the film. I actually like that both Dani and Christian took consideration of the other even though everything was a bit messy. She knew that everything was too much for him to handle and that if anything, he might not be the perfect match for that matter because soon or later, he will also have a limit like her. Her friend didn’t even put it in a passive way, she said the truth. They wouldn’t even need to do some kind of “fight” because there wouldn’t be any hard feelings aside from malinchony.

Also, if the whole Midsommar sacrificial rites didn’t happen and it was more…less sacrificial, maybe they could have continued their relationship until a possible engagement in the future (1+ years) or she would have at least came back with a fresher mind. Because he definitely stood with her until the end and she quite recognized that from him. They definitely both wanted to continue the relationship.

-I dislike that he tried to steal his friends’ idea as soon as he saw how unorthodox and interesting everything was but I don’t blame him for being a student and take the opportunity as soon as he found it. He was a bit dictating to his friend tough.

-Some people will say that he forgot about her birthday by it may be a cultural vision from me but it isn’t a huge matter at all. Maybe it would have been nice but as he said himself, there was a lot going on in that period of time and he was clearly stressed too. Forgetting a date isn’t abusive.

[stina-is-a-punk-rocker]

on ‘midsommar’

“By the end, I hoped people would feel moved, and unsettled, and confused.” - Ari Aster, director of Midsommar (2019)

Warning for discussions about death, gore and rape. Also, spoilers.

To call Midsommar a great film would feel disingenuous, because ‘great’ simply wouldn’t cut it. It’s nothing short of a masterpiece, from the incredible plot to the captivating cinematography to the haunting aesthetics provided by the scenery and score. It’s brutal, and it’s beautiful, and it’s brilliant.

The film begins in winter- both in setting and the protagonist Dani’s life alike. The death of her family continues to haunt her for most of the runtime; and she has to bear the grief alone for quite a long time. Her boyfriend Christian is just about as charming as you’d expect someone named Christian to be, and, much like the backdrop at the beginning, is cold and aloof- as are his friends Josh and Mark. Pelle, and the rest of the Hårga, in contrast, are the summer.

Or are they?

One of my favorite shots is near the beginning, when Dani, Christian, Josh, Mark and Pelle are driving under the banner to Hälsingland, and the scene turns upside down. Everything is not as it seems.

An idea made obvious at the Ättestupa. Dani is quite reasonably traumatized- as was I, who discovered that not just blood but bone, too, made me queasy. A complete contrast to the ending, where she beams at the carnage in front of her. “Character growth,” say the masses. I’m a bit reluctant to agree.

There is a distinction to be made between female empowerment and self-empowerment. Midsommar is not a paragon of either.

“It’s about a woman leaving someone who gaslights her and emotionally manipulates her. It’s about her getting out of a toxic relationship.”

Indeed it is. And then she enters another. One that is arguably worse.

Midsommar does not have a happy ending. It is not a fairytale. The princess leaves her tower and is swallowed alive by the woods. Winter always follows the summer.

It’s a horror film. A masterful one, and markedly unique from others, but a horror film all the same. And horror films love the idea of cycles. The idea that: you think you’ve one-upped the poltergeist. You think everything is over. But there’s that final scene when you realize that it never left.

It’s not feminist, either. The women who wept with Dani in those final few moments, the ones who shared her grief over what happened between Christian and Maja- those same women were the ones who caused it. The ‘empathy’ of the Hårga is all smoke and mirrors- “Take from the yew tree; feel no fear,” but you still scream as they burn you alive.

Aside from the knotty connotations should it be interpreted as feminist; the one woman of color is murdered, and the idea of rape and subsequent murder as retribution.

Women being raped to further men’s emotional journeys is a trope that’s been discussed before, and is worryingly common in media. But reversing the Theon-and-Sansa trope isn’t punching upwards like many think it is. Even more worrying is the amount of people who say, “He had it coming for him.”

Sexual assault is not revenge. It takes someone truly twisted to justify Christian being drugged and coerced into a situation he is afterwards horrified with- and yet I’ve hardly seen anyone bring it up.

He drinks the trippy tea- with some coercion, mind you- and he’s definitely had unholy thoughts about Maja- but for fuck’s sake, he runs out right after with his dick hanging out. There’s that one old lady who has to push his ass to keep him going. And people laugh.

He’s far from a good character. He’s a douchebag of the highest degree, and the 8th note I’ve made is, ‘I hope Christian dies’.

He still did not deserve to be raped.

Midsommar is deceptively horrifying, with a stunning dichotomy in its settings and characters alike. It’s not one of those stories where you can definitively classify anything into ‘thing bad’ or ‘thing good’. A paradox to its ofttimes blindingly bright visuals, Midsommar is a story in shades of grey.

[crypdoezoology]

ik you touched on it a little bit but i'm still like extremely curious about why you don't like hereditary and midsommar specifically? i can't say they're my favorite horror movies either but i do like them so i'm curious about your criticism!

i really struggle to be totally coherent w/ my complaints about these movies 😅 i mainly have just a very gut reaction to them. like i GUESS i can see why people like them, they both have some really well done effects and gore visuals, and they both have a pretty cohesive aesthetic style. but ultimately both of those things end up feeling rather hollow to me.  in hereditary’s cause i think when so much attention is put into the visual look of a film, and clearly had great actors and a good budget that someone would have edited the the plot (and i’ll struggle to stay calm about how frustrated that makes me). if a little indie B movie w/ unknown actors and a tiny little budget makes a somewhat slapdash movie w/ some plot holes but they blow some stuff up in the end or have 2 minute scene of someone’s face melting off you feel like yeah ok this makes sense it is what it is and i can really appreciate that. hereditary has so much going for it and yet it feels completely superficial. it’s all about looks and it has no substance when IT REALLY COULD HAVE. there’s just no excuse! the plot makes no sense to me, the whole cult this is completely convoluted and needed massive editing. nothing adds up and to me it really pulls away from what’s happening in the movie. it kind of seems like it jumps from shock value gore scene to shock value gore scene which is like FINE if that’s what the movie is SUPPOSED TO BE but hereditary parades around in the skin of a psychological horror film about family tragedy. AND IT’S REALLY NOT  ONE. the focus is massively pulled away from the family dynamics w/ all that fucking cult demon ghost shit going on and in the end neither the family drama OR the demon cult ends up being well fleshed out enough to make sense. it’s like they had two scripts lazily glued them together and then put a real expensive dress on it. i really. REALLY. don’t like it. to me it doesn’t feel organic or honesty or fun. i fucking hate every character they are so god damn unlikable there isn’t even anyone to hold on to or enjoy. it just makes every little annoyance stick out to me, there’s nothing to sooth it over and make me feel like the little faults are forgivable.  and that brings me to midsommar. which is a bloated, self important hell film. honestly i would just write it off as insufferably boring if not for how it was received by the public. the way audiences interpreted this movie have created so much loathing in me for the movie itself. which AGAIN comes off to me as being superficial. all flash no substance. again not really any likable characters! which WOULD AHVE BEEN GREAT TO HAVE SINCE IT’S A LONG LONG ASS MOVIE. jeSUS it’s so god damn long did i watch a directors cut by accident or is it really three hours long?????? EITHER WAY it needs massive editing, there is so much garbage in there, it wants to have this deep lore and everything but there’s just too much!! like fucking pick your set dressing!!!! it’s just exhausting and pretentious that a director would think the audience really needs to see every single little thing you thought up like you’re not the second coming man, get ur point across and get out. i just don’t feel a heart or soul in the movie, it wasn’t fun to me to watch, or even haunting or traumatizing. it was just annoying the reason i keep fucking thinking about it is because i hate that i wasted time watching it and every time someone brings it up i feel SO mad that people really think this is what is the pinnacle of horror media when it feels like a gentrification of horror media. dress it up make it glossy and pretty, it feels corporate and sterile. and what is it w/ BOTH these movies dragging mental illness into for no fucking reason?? w/ in hereditary saying the dead mom had schizophrenia and dani’s sister in midsommar having bipolar? WHAT did that add to the movies?? other than villainizing people w/ mental illnesses REALLY what was the point? like this is one of those little details i was talking about earlier, like the fact that it’s in both movies really makes me fucking wonder. like if this was just some stupid little b movie that no one watched it would barely matter to me, but the fact that these movies are so fucking popular and there are so many of these ~le problematique~ features in these movies that everyone is willing to condemn the genre for! BUT THEIR STILL. HERE. makes me feel like people only give a shit about advocating for the awareness of the demonization of the mentally ill in horror media when the movie can’t be turned into pretty aesthetic gifsets. 

i’m not going to say no one is allowed to like these movies, like i said at the beginning to an extent, i can see their appeal, i admire the gross shock value that hereditary kind of has, and i can dig the serene aesthetic of midsommar. and you’re allowed to enjoy a movie that’s problematic, we all do, i’m not trying to “cancel” these movies. i do think ari aster has some thing about the genre down and i’d love to see him make a movie i can really enjoy. but jesus i will never ever ever come to enjoy these films, the really rub me the wrong way and i think they’re both too big for their britches. 

[givemearmstopraywith]

will you please go off about midsommar? i would love to hear your thoughts on this film

i am so glad someone asked, i have so many thoughts! and i apologize for getting too personal in this, but this movie means so, so much to me, let’s talk about it. x

cw: suicide, abuse, cult abuse.

more under the cut once again, because apparently i have a LOT to say. tumblr fucked up my post again so i’m so sorry you have this monster post on your dash

i want to start off talking about how ari aster frames some of his shots in this film, mainly because i am OBSESSED

above, christian is the center of this universe. he occupies the middle, he is flanked by his friends, he is framed in the shape of a triangle which significantly shows a hierarchical position of which he occupies the apex. his friends are resentful of dani and her emotions. they encourage him to cut her off.

below, as christian burns, dani now occupies the middle space and she has taken on the triangular shape: she now occupies the hierarchical apex. she is now the one surrounded by “friends”, and these friends feel her emotions with her. they are in the same hysterics which she has experienced throughout the film. her grief is acknowledged by those around her, meaning she no longer occupies the space of her grief alone.

the first thing is that i don’t particularly think it’s a feminist or empowering film: above all, it is a film about a cult and cult manipulation. dani is coerced into taking drugs and obviously, however likeable or unlikeable the men she arrives with are, they are ultimately murdered in sadistic and disturbing ways. this does move away from the trope of girls being killed or brutalized onscreen- something that satisfies voyeuristic desires around female suffering in the same way there exists a voyeuristic desire to see female sexuality. (this trope does not only in horror, but throughout all kinds of visual media, particularly action-based media like game of thrones or star wars.) 

dani is never sexualized, but neither does she truly take on the role of the final girl as identified by carol clover. clover argues that in slasher films, the viewer shares the perspective of the killer until about halfway through the film, when perspective suddenly switches to the final girl: she was generally the only survivor and either escapes or vanquishes her killer by the end of the film. 

obviously, the plot of the movie positions the hårga as the villains: but we never experience the perspective of the hårga through the film’s narrative. this is effective because their violence seems senseless, disturbing, and terrifying, purely because we do not understand their motivations or what is going on beyond the experiences of the newcomers to their settlement. but this also distracts us from the only perspective we experience besides dani, which is christian. 

christian is a villain. i know we’ve all picked up on this, but there’s a tendency to say “the real villain is christian” but that’s not true either: christian is an embodiment of interpersonal abuse, of trauma on a person and microcosmic level. the hårga are a much larger, socially-oriented continuation of trauma, and they themselves are evil. they select dani as the may queen because they sense her vulnerability and thus the ease with which they can manipulate her, not because there is a black and white separation of good versus evil and christian versus dani. and obviously the hårga are white supremacists and xenophobes- something that is shown to us immediately, even before we meet the members of that community:

(the sign reads “stop mass immigration to hålsingland” in swedish, and i will take this moment to self-indulgently mention how i speak and read swedish.)

dani is co-dependent on christian. we know this. and co-dependency is not healthy for anyone involved. she is also deeply traumatized and looks to christian as a kind of saviour for her- arguably this is why his name is “christian” in the first place, because dani behaves as if he is going to absolve her of her trauma by being her support system. and while it is unhealthy to look to any one individual as a source of support, christian is also co-dependent on dani: not in the same way, but in a way that he derives a sense of power and satisfaction from having someone who is attached to him as deeply and unhealthfully as dani is. hence why he wants to have his freedom, but isn’t sure if he wants to break up with her:

the opening scene of midsommar is almost verbatim an experience that happened to be repeatedly in my relationship with the person to whom i was engaged. i have been dani in this situation. i openly cried the first time i watched this scene because it was the first time i had ever recognized my own experiences with my abusive relationship onscreen: the scrambling to get ahold of the person who brings you comfort, the discussion between that person and their friends about how clingy you are and how annoying it is while you are in question is in the midst of a serious crisis, and the inability of the person you are with to actually permanently leave you because, although they don’t admit it, it feels good to a narcissist to have someone unequivocally "need” you (and we know christian is a narcissist because he steals josh’s idea for his thesis):

christian gets something out of his relationship with dani. he doesn’t admit it, he acts as if she is a burden to him, but the truth is that abusers derive sadistic pleasure from co-dependence. and yes, i will go so far as to say christian is an abuser, because if you are not capable of supporting someone in a relationship, you need to leave them even if it’s hard. it is better to be learn to survive alone than be in a relationship with someone who sees and treats you like a burden to them while simultaneously enjoying the fact that you feel like you can’t survive without them. 

this is why that famous conversation between dani and pelle is so important and moving. 

you can be possessed by someone but not held by them. possession and control is not the same as being held. to hold is a relationship: you must extend something to be held, that thing must be taken and taken tenderly. christian possesses dani without holding her. he acknowledges but does not empathize with her pain: he merely acknowledges that the pain makes her cling to him because she has no one else to rely on:

this is entirely the opposite of what dani experiences with the hårga: a community built on the common experience of empathy, of the mutual understanding of a shared agony. like a body, what hurts one part of the community hurts the rest of the community. 

it is not something dani has ever experienced before, and this is why she is particularly vulnerable to it. pain is designed and inflicted on her by the community so they can control her. and arguably this is a symptom of society’s much broader tendency to continually re-victimize trauma victims: a vulnerability can be exploited, but it’s dealt with in a way that’s kind of twistedly satisfying here, because as much as dani has been exploited she’s also survived where her peers have not, and been elevated to a higher position because of that vulnerability. 

this is also why christian changes so much towards the end of the film: he is no longer the center of anyone’s attention, not even dani’s: she’s accepted and, at least on a surface level, loved and supported. their positions have been completely switched:

EDIT: and i just realized that during the moment when dani is being embraced as the may queen she sees her parents among the hårga:

that brings me back to what i’ve started this piece with: the significance of the hårga experiencing dani’s pain with her. the disturbing part of it is that she’s escaped victimization from one person and simply fallen into another, more sinister victimization: but i like to think that the lesson here is that you should expect empathy from people who care about you. dani is full of grief until she turns back to see the hårga also expressing grief:

and i believe that is why she smiles at the end- not because she’s accepted her madness, not because she herself is insane, but because for the first time, she hasn’t felt alone with her grief.

i don’t think this is a story of empowerment, nor is it particularly feminist in the way i generally regard feminist media. but it is a skillfully, beautifully told allegory for abuse and trauma, and it means something so, so deep to me because of that. the takeaway from midsommar, for me, is that if someone makes you feel alone with your grief, you shouldn’t be with that person. and i will end it here because this already too long! thank you for asking! x