I've never been a big fan of horror movies. Personally, I find jump-scares to be cheap, and I have watched very few horror films in my life that have actually scared me. On top of this, I feel that most modern horror films forsake an engaging story in exchange for cheap scares. Then I watched Midsommar. This film has shifted my perception of modern horror films and given me hope for the genre going forward. So in natural film nerd fashion, I have decided to dissect what I enjoyed about this film and why I think it works so well. (There will be spoilers in this post, be warned!)
I picked Midsommar to watch one evening because I had heard and seen a lot about it. I was drawn to this film, despite not being a horror fan, because of the visuals. The idea of a horror film with a primarily green and white colour palate and a visual identity which featured flowers truly intrigued me. In retrospect, I was right to be interested. This film is gorgeous to look at, and the way Ari Aster manages to craft such an overwhelming sense of dread and horror in such a bright setting is impressive. Some people might say that Aster managed to create this feeling despite the setting, but I would say the visual identity of this film is a large part of why it works so well.
The plot of Midsommar is essentially about a cult, and how a vulnerable woman is drawn into it. On the surface, the commune and it's people are beautiful and alluring. It is a hunter drawing in its prey. Underneath the beautiful exterior, it is a horrible and terrible place, right? For certain, some of the horror in this film is drawn from the contrast between the beautiful exterior of Hårga and the darkness underneath. But it goes further than that. The beauty of this cult is more than skin deep.
There is a line near the start of the film, where Pelle tells Dani (about the people of Hårga) "We do everything together." At the time this seems fairly innocuous, in small communities like this one, people tend to live a very cooperative lifestyle. Later in the film, however, this line turns out to mean more than it first appeared. When Christian has sex with Maja, other members of the commune join her, when Dani cries over Christian, the other women of the commune cry with her, and when the human sacrifices scream as they are being burnt alive, the rest of the commune screams along with them. On paper it sound bizarre and horrifying, and to some extent it is, but at the same time, it is strangely beautiful. There is a strong sense of human connection and empathy in these moments that speaks to the loneliest parts of us. In the last shot of the film, when Dani smiles, you understand her. You empathize with her. You see how someone could be sucked into a cult such as this, because you can see the allure. This sense of empathy magnifies the other major feeling this film creates, horror.
Midsommar gave me the most palpable sense of horror I think I've ever experienced watching a film. Most films in the horror genre don't actually aim to create a sense of horror. Rather they intend to scare, and to frighten and to thrill. But Midsommar didn't make me feel afraid. It made me genuinely horrified. And I truly believe it is the way this film dances along the line between what is beautiful and what is horrifying that created such a reaction in me. Because yes, I watched in horror as the events unfolded, as people died and were sacrificed. But that is a detached kind of horror. Horror at events that did not happen to me. But I also felt a very personal horror. Horror at myself because I understood Dani, because I felt empowered when she chose to sacrifice Christian after he cheated on her, and belittled her and gas-lighted her. I felt horrified at myself because in the final shot, when Dani smiled, I smiled too.
I knew Dani was going to stay at Hårga fairly early in the film. Some might say this makes the ending predictable, but I would disagree. For me, this ending felt inevitable. Midsommar knows why people join cults, it knows how vulnerable people get sucked in. It knows that the line between what is horrifying and what is beautiful is a lot thinner, and a lot blurrier than you might think. Therefore, there was simply no other way this film could end. And that is truly horrifying.
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