Hi guys, welcome to Novum and welcome to The
Complete Guide to Midsommar. There s about 30,000 more of you since the last time we did
this. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart, it means the world to me and it means that these
videos can hopefully happen a lot more frequently. It was really difficult not rushing this out to
try and capitalize on that big wave of views but ultimately I decided to take my time and do it
properly. And I am so glad I did, because just like the Hereditary video I can promise there is
huge stuff here you aren t going to hear anywhere else, this is the product of months and months of
research and I ve got so much to show you because there s so much that s gone unanswered, so much
that s gone unnoticed and so much that all the big media outlets have been getting wrong. I m
extremely excited to tell you about it, but a quick caveat before I do: obviously there is stuff
in this movie that I cannot show on Youtube. It s extremely graphic in places, my solution before
was to simply black over these moments with a timestamp so you can look at that exact still from
the movie should you desire. I ll still be doing that, but this time, if you want you can go watch
the fully uncensored video on my Patreon. It s the exact same content from me, just with uncensored
visuals, the stuff I definitely can t show on Youtube, you won t be missing any of the content
if you don t choose to. With that out of the way, this is Part One: Foundations. So, before we look
at the opening scene, let s lay some groundwork on what this movie is and why it s important in
the context of Ari Aster s filmography and some other behind the scenes info about why and how the
film got made. And I want to start that off with a conversation about perfection and imperfection.
Now, with the Hereditary video I said, made a big point out of even, that the film was perfect,
and that not only was that the ultimate outcome, but it was also an initial concern. The film uses
a number of tropes that seemed tired in other movies and reinvents them. To me, it s Ari Aster
rocking up to Hollywood and saying I can do it, and I can do it better. It s honestly perfect.
But in aiming for that it does still follow some pretty recognised stereotypes of horror. Couple of
easy examples, the secluded house, the questioning of the main characters sanity, the amount of the
film that takes place in darkness. And so when I say Midsommar is not trying to be perfect, what
I mean is Ari Aster had already proved his point with Hereditary. His skill was not in question,
he was immediately established in a lot of ways. And so Midsommar represents something else,
it represents a willingness to take chances, a willingness to step outside of the horror
audiences we re used to. In his own words, he doesn t want to make movies that everyone likes.
This all may sound like a back handed compliment but I assure you it isn t, because by taking these
chances he managed to create some of the most fresh and haunting imagery that the genre has ever
known. And if we look at Hereditary, Midsommar and Beau is Afraid together I think we can see
Aster taking more and more chances as he goes. So you could say that Midsommar sits in this Ari
Aster goldilocks zone of feeling certain amounts of pressure to deliver perfection and establish
himself in Hollywood, and his wild, more abstract and hallucinatory side. And I think that describes
Midsommar pretty soundly, it does have that sharp precision to it. That exactness and density that
defines his work. But it s also wild, it s unique, it s so instantly recognisable and original that
it gouges out it s own spot in your mind to exist within forever. And I think that s nowhere more
true than in this shot, that for everyone really has come to define the movie. Chances are when
most of you call the film to mind this is what you ll see. And I think that s because, even without
all the haunting interior context of the actual film, from one look at it something in your brain
recognises the controlled chaos of it. It is wild, it is vivid and abstract, but there s also
a calmness and structure that tempers that oddness and reigns the whole thing in. And for me
that is what defines this film. It s the contrast, the balance between chaos and control. Beauty and
horror, natural and unnatural, life and death in close continued proximity to each other. So would
I describe Midsommar as a perfect movie? No, but it s specifically trying not to be. The reason
that Hereditary fits the bill for a perfect movie, something all perfect movies have in common
seemingly, is restraint. It s restrained in its cast size, in its number of settings, in what
it tries to do and what it aims to discuss. I think it s no secret how much I adore Hereditary,
but up until everything gets turned upside down it should, by design, be feeling like quite a
routine psychological horror to the uninitiated viewer. With Midsommar right from the jump the
aesthetics are dialled up, the gore is dialled up, the boldness in presentation is dialled up, the
threads the film is pulling together are more varied. Everything you re seeing on screen is
more difficult to pull off. To put it simply, it s more complexity in most regards and it
s doing and saying more for a longer period, especially if you re looking at the directors cut
as we re going to. I don t have any criticisms of this film, I absolutely adore it, in many ways it
feels like it was made exactly to my tastes. If that makes it perfect then I suppose you can still
call it that, but to me that word seems in some way disingenuous to the motivation behind the art
here, which is to take risks. Now I want to move from talking about why it s unique to the exact
opposite, the driving influence behind the film, which is this movie, The Wicker Man. I saw this
when I was eight years old and it still terrifies me today. It s one of my favourite movies of all
time. It is a beautiful and unhinged film and the similarities to Midsommar are extremely apparent.
The basic plot of the film sees Officer Howie, a Christian, virginial and by the book police
officer arriving at Summerisle, an oddly tropical paradise just off the coast of northern
Scotland. He s there to search for a missing girl, the May queen of that year. Just like we see
in Midsommar the islanders are a pagan cult, the women deliberately Swedish and beautiful to
point towards this Nordic paganism and bountiful, perhaps unnatural level of fertility. The
same themes are present, life and death as part of a grand cycle, sacrifice for harvest, this
communal agreement that their beliefs are valid, the main character being involved in the ending
sacrifice, fertility, public lewdness, the green man - I could go on and on. And when I say it was
a driving force behind the film, I mean that the studio wanted something Wicker-Man like, but it s
important to note that this isn t a direct homage, it s not a rip-off of any kind. They share a lot
of the same bones, but in Ari Aster s words he tried to let go of The Wicker Man as an influence
when making this film. Which is to say he wants you to recognize it, it s influence is ubiquitous
in folk horror, but he s also looking to subvert it. To do the things you won t be expecting if
you have seen it. And so while there are a lot of similarities we can point to, we re going to
be more explicitly interested in the differences, where, how and why he chooses to subvert
expectations that are built from our knowledge of that film. It's also important to note that
the idea for this film didn t originally come from Ari Aster. The early concepts for Midsommar came
from Patrik Anderrson, the producer for Midsommar along with his friend and psychologist Martin
Kalqvist. Martin actually plays one of the H rga, named Ulrik. You ll see them credited at the end
as having Created the concept of the H rga . They didn t write the story as we see it, but they did
create a lot of the core concepts. They wanted an American writer as the film was told from an
American perspective, from there they link up with Ari Aster, who then makes Hereditary and
subsequently gets the go ahead to make Midsommar based on Hereditary s success. But when we
look at what Patrik s motivation was, in his own words he was trying to make a very ambitious
Swedish folk horror. Much on par with The Wicker Man , yet from the Swedish perspective as we
have such an iconic Swedish pagan remnant in our Midsummer traditions. So wherever we look, from
the writer and director, to the concept creators, to the genre of folk horror itself, the presence
of The Wicker Man looms large over all of it. And the last pre-film thing I d like to discuss is
budget. Hereditary had a budget of $10 million, Midsommar is $9 million. We ll be looking at The
Witch next and that was made with $4 million. Now as much as that would be lifechanging money for
the vast majority of us that is truthfully not a lot when it comes to getting something filmed.
Throw in a couple of recognizable actors like Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne and we re already down
a fair amount. So I just want to point out how stunning these films are given what little they
had to work with. And maybe that isn t putting it in perspective enough so howsabout one episode
of She-Hulk, that s $25 million. They re spending roughly one million dollars per minute on that. So
for one episode of She-Hulk you can get Midsommar, The Witch and Hereditary with 2 million left over.
I ll let you draw your own conclusions about which is better but I just wanted to demonstrate the
skill and artistry and tight control required to pull something off like this on such a shoestring
budget. Midsommar is an aesthetic masterpiece with visuals that are recognizable to people who haven
t even seen the movie. That s something that s extremely difficult to do with only $9 million
dollars. Alright with all that out of the way, let s get on to the movie. The opening shot of
the film is this still image, a mural depicting the coming events, set across two pieces of wood,
that slide open to reveal the film. This is quite an out of place effect, we don t really see
anything else like it for the rest of the film, and it s essentially there to frame, or otherwise
allude to what s coming as being its own folk tale or fairy tale. That it s happening inside
what s known as a toy theatre, or paper theatre, which have been popular in Europe for a very long
time. If you ever saw a Punch and Judy show as a child then think pretty much like that.
So we ve got this feeling, this suggestion that we re gathered round watching one of the folk
tales that would be told in this kind of street theatre. And the whole thing is presented in what
s known as kurbits or "kurbitsm lning" in Swedish. That refers literally to these filigree like plant
designs but the term broadly encompasses the whole aesthetic. Kurbits painting is characterized
by colorful and elaborate paintings of plants, animals, and landscapes, as well as depictions of
everyday life and scenes from mythology, which is exactly what we re seeing here. These paintings
were historically, not exclusively, but commonly found on various wooden objects like furniture,
cupboards, chests, and decorative panels in Swedish rural households. This was created for the
film by the artist Mu Pan, someone that Ari Aster described as a modern day Hieronymus Bosch,
another artist whose artwork also influenced the movie. There are a couple of other influences on
the aesthetic here but we ll look at them later. nd this mural is a lot less guarded than the
clues in the Hereditary introduction and once again it does show you pretty much the entire
plot of the film. So we re going to go through it reasonably quickly as I think a lot of this
will be obvious to you, but there are some key elements we need to discuss because we re going
to build on them later. And please don t worry if some of this doesn t make sense, we re going to go
through it all eventually.S, I think the overall takeaway here should be the idea of the seasons
representing the cycle of life, something that has been a part of art history and spirituality for
as long as both have existed, but is particularly relevant here because of how it relates to
the H rga s view of spiritual circularity and the natural cycle and of life and death being
progressions of one another. We very clearly have winter representing death, and in contrast to this
we have the blossoming of life in Summer. And we re going to look at what colours mean in much more
detail shortly, but for now I just want you to pay attention to the fact that one side is very blue
dominant and one side is very yellow dominant, given what we ve just been discussing that
raises a pretty obvious parallel that one is associated with life and the other with death.
Looking more closely now we first have this skull, which is pretty clearly representative of death,
it s spewing snow out so we have this visual link between death and winter. We also have two
black birds flanking it and this is a bit of a tricky one because they re either crows
or ravens. Both make sense, if they re ravens then they absolutely refer to Huginn and Munnin,
Odin s eyes that he sent out all over the world. That would either imply the H rga are watching
Dani or more likely that there s this spiritual, universal power somehow setting events in
motion. Not something specific like Paimon, more of a nod to the fairytale style serendipity
that we see in the film. Odin is also the god of death in Norse mythology, so again that fits with
what we re seeing. But if they re crows then that makes perfect sense too, crows are traditionally
associated with death and two crows in particular symbolizes the balance and cycle between life
and death, which is of extreme importance here. I did ask the experts on r/whatsthisbird and
their general assessment was there just isn t enough to go on to determine either way.
On to the main focus of this panel and we see Dani having the red umbilical bonds of
family severed. Her mother and father dead above her and her sister Terri just below. And
as we ll come to find out they re red because they represent the familial ties, the bloodlines
that link these characters together. They re being severed in allusion to the family s death which
we ll see shortly. And they re being severed by a skeleton which just as we saw above is a
traditional motif in the personification of death, both in history and in contemporary culture.
We can see the trees and the fields are barren, alluding to winter being this time of death
before the rebirth of spring and summer. Moving on to the next panel and we have Pelle
sat in a tree watching Dani and Christian and taking notes, perhaps drawings to send back to the
H rga. Being sat in a tree is quite a common motif in art and literature, the idea of the jilted
or unrequited lover eavesdropping, and we can infer from this that his watching of the couple
is covert and perhaps driven by his own feelings for Dani. Next to him in the sky we see three more
descending birds, pretty clearly representing Dani s deceased family, we ve got one blue and one pink
suggesting a male and a female and then one that s a combination of blue and pink, so Dani s parents
and then her sister who s a combination of both. And we see them descending down over a city, which
we can presume is New York where they re attending school. It s cramped with tall buildings, really
it s just representing the big city , but the biggest takeaway should be the cross on the
church spire signalling that they re coming from a Christian background in contrast to the H rga
paganism they re about to encounter. And speaking of Christian here we see him consoling a crying
Dani with his fingers crossed behind his back, a common sign for I don t mean what I m saying right
now that you might have done as a child. This could mean his feelings for her aren t sincere,
it could mean his consolation is insincere, it could mean that he s a liar in general, but
let s just say it s all three. Dani, who is extremely uncomfortable telling people, but mostly
Christian, how she feels, is hiding her face and turning her back. We also see the sprouting
of spring as the plant life begins to return. Moving to the middle and we re in lush woodland
now symbolizing the trip to rural Sweden. We see the floating notes of a melody that come from
Pelle s flute or pipe. He s leading the rest of the group and this is a pretty definite
reference to The Pied Piper of Hamelin, which is building this idea of this being a
folk tale, aligning it with stories we might recognise, but most crucially it s become
shorthand for someone leading people on, possibly leading them towards very dangerous
ends, by using false promises. Which is exactly what we see Pelle doing, lying to the group and
leading them towards their death. Behind Pelle we have Mark dressed as a jester, or fool,
foreshadowing his extremely grizzly end. He s also carrying a vape pen which as we ll see
is used as an emblem of outsider, specifically the American tourist, obnoxiousness. Behind
Mark we have Josh carrying a stack of books, highlighting his consuming passion for academia.
Then we have Christian and lastly Dani bringing up the back, the unaccepted outsider of the
group. And these characteristics we see here are exactly what leads to each character s
downfall. For Dani, we ll see her being exploited specifically because she is vulnerable
and feeling alone, with Christian we see his lying and infidelity ultimately leading to his sacrifice
and condemnation. For Josh his pursuit of knowledge will absolutely be his undoing and Mark
is even more obvious, he acts like a brash and rude outsider and is punished for his disrespect.
And below them we see the blooming of flowers, specifically the yellow St John s Wort which as we
ll look at is closely tied to Midsommar and we ll see growing in the leadup to the H rgan commune.
On to the penultimate panel and first we ve got this throne in the sky, symbolizing a seat
of ascension and afterlife. I ve seen a lot people saying this is the throne we ll see
Dani sat in towards the end but I m not sure how accurate that is. I think if we take it in
as a whole, with these winged angelic figures just below it tumbling through the sky,
and the clouds, it s more reflective of an afterlife. A divine seat of sorts. We have
the prophet Ruben sat on this seat of clouds, now it s not a throne, but I think they re both
alluding to this above the clouds divinity, speaking to a higher or elevated state that is
achieved in death, or in Ruben s case incest. The falling angel figures represent the attestup.
They re not completely dissimilar looking to Dani s parents either, a motif we ll see again during
the actual scene. Below that we see the group walking through the H rgan sun gate. Pelle
has stopped playing his pipe signifying that he s got his unsuspecting victims to their target
destination. We see the H rga greeting the group, some of them are topless and holding a combination
of skulls and goblets signifying their dual offer of death and hedonism. And right at the bottom
we have this image of a bear pawing at, or being distracted by a blue cow. Now there s several
myths and bits of folklore from around the world where the idea of a blue cow is somehow sacred,
cows in general have been seen as a prized animal. And we know for obvious reasons that Christian is
represented by the bear, so we can pretty safely assume that this cow represents Maja, the prime
or prized bit of H rga breeding stock that they offer up to Christian. But there s quite a bit
more going on here, starting with the concept of the Fylgja which is essentially a spirit animal or
totem anima, a supernatural being or spirit that s often represented as an animal. They re also tied
in with shape-shifting, which we ll get to when we discuss Christian and bears but should be pretty
obvious connection here given he gets sewn into a bear skin. And in the Fylgja tradition we have
what s known as tame nature and untame nature , essentially the idea that the animal would
represent the identity or character of the person they were spiritually linked to. So a barbarian
warrior would likely have a creature that reflects an untame nature. And one of the most common
examples of untame nature is the bear, and one of the most common examples of the tame nature
is the cow or the ox. Now that might not be 100% intentional, but it's wrapped into the cultural
understandings of these animals, the yin and the yang that they represent. At it s most basic
we can call it a masculine and feminine energy, a balance, a dance between binary opposites. And
that s really interesting because as we ll see the bear and Christian, become a symbol of the black
one that features heavily in the H rgan folklore, essentially a devil or destroyer figure, overt or
antagonistic masculine energy. And in specifically Norse mythology we have Au umbla which is this icy
blue cow that features in Norse creation myths, licking away the rime-covered rocks to uncover
Buri, grandfather of Odin. So now we ve got a creator figure in Au umbla and a destroyer figure
in the black one, masculine and feminine, predator and prey, Christian and Maja engaged in this dance
of distraction and this perpetual cycle or balance between life and death, which is bang on with
what the H rga believe and what this ceremony, this image is all really about. I should point out
an alternative reading, in the script Pelle tells Dani he is a Taurus so we do see him represented
as a bull there, and this could possibly represent his distraction and misleading of Christian. But
to me, given that Pelle is really doing this to the whole group and Maja is Christian s specific
distraction it seems a less likely alternative. The last panel is probably the easiest to decipher
but we do have this extremely concerning looking sun at the top here. It was very common to
draw faces on the sun, on maps, on artwork, and especially on early precursors to newspapers.
And a lot of the time they were really creepy just like we ll see here. I don t want to dwell on
this too much because we re about to cover what s going on with the colour yellow, but let s
consider the image as a whole for a moment, left to right at first glance it s death to life,
sad to happy. But once we start looking closer we come to realise that s not the case, there seems
to be death over here on the right side too. Skeletons dancing around the maypole, hand in hand
with the revellers. So we can safely assume that the sun isn t going to be the ally here that
it usually is in horror movies and that just because something looks inviting and friendly
it doesn t mean that s going to be the case. And then lastly, moving down we see this clever
piece of foliage working both as the bottom of the maypole and Dani s plant throne at the head of
the H rgan banquet table. And that s everything, so maybe not the entire plot of
the movie, but a good amount of it. Now this omniscience to the lens of the
film, the pre-destiny and the foreshadowing, the fact that this artwork seems to know what s
going to happen, we know they re things Ari Aster likes to do. But whereas in Hereditary this was
designed to allude to an over-arching entity or being that s watching and governing the events
of the film, here it s done to create the feeling that we re watching characters from a fairy
tale, a folk-tale in a toy theatre, with it s well known moments illustrated on it s housing.
And we can hear that fairy tale sense of wonder reflected in these dreamlike opening sounds that
are very reminiscent of that Wizard of Oz, early animated fairy tale sound of you being whisked
away to somewhere else. I did actually wonder if they were sampled from The Wizard of Oz, so I got
in contact with Gene Park, the sound designer for the film and asked him if it was an influence. And
it wasn t but his reply was still very interesting nonetheless saying he drew inspiration
from No Country For Old Men and Under the Skin , or rather his memory of those films, as a
starting point for the opening mood of Midsommar. And we open to these shots of a snowy forest, very
reminiscent of the Black Forest and elements of the Swedish landscape. From the script we know
this is intended to be H lsingland in Sweden, but given that none of the film was shot
in Sweden and filming in Hungary took place during the summer, my guess is that these
are either shots from Utah that have been achieved in a way where you can t tell the
difference, or alternatively stock footage from Sweden, or somewhere reminiscent. Honestly
it s entirely inconsequential because we know they re intended to be Sweden. Not just because
the script says so, but also because we have this eerie H rga lullaby being sung over the top.
And we re very much building on this link between winter and death and isolation and sterility here,
with these shots of brutality and lifelessness, this entire absence of people and modernity. And
while we ll stay in winter, in death, this will be contrasted with the following shots of Utah,
filled with lights and houses and cars. It s a very clever cut between the two where the serene
forest is intruded upon by the ringing phone. And with every ring we see the camera snap closer to
the house. It s very intentionally and jarringly done. Opening films with a ringing phone is a
well-recognised trope, especially in horror, but the specifics of this shot really reminded me of
the opening shots from Psycho which has a similar set of cuts closing in on a singular building.
In this case the ringing of the phone is particularly annoying, particularly intrusive
and that s really the point of this opening scene. The opposition between the modern
sensibilities of the main characters and the audience and the more spiritually attuned, archaic
community they are going to be confronted with. On to the Ardor household itself, and this
is a real location in Draper, Utah that was rented from a local family. And as we saw in
Hereditary the building has this quasi-toyland feel to it. It probably does use tilt-shift to
some degree but it s more subtly employed in comparison to Hereditary. In Hereditary this was
done to allude to some observer being looking at the family in some sort of cosmic vivarium.
But here I think it s more craftily employed to tilt the aesthetic towards this storybook or
toyland feeling. And Beau is Afraid really nails the dreamy toyland aesthetic, so as much as it
may be calling back to Hereditary, I think it s fair to say that this aesthetic has just become
an established part of Ari Aster s work that he s leaning into more and more as time goes on.
Now, given that it is in Utah my first thought was that Ari Aster or someone on the crew had
seen this while location scouting for Hereditary, same with the woods. They did a lot of location
scouting and it could well be that they d seen things they knew would work for this. And,
it may just be as simple as that. But again, if it s a recurring theme in Aster s work, we
do need to look at why. So in this instance that could mean he really just likes the
landscape in Utah. But actually there are a couple of links between Hereditary, Midsommar
and Utah that are worth looking into. And it s a slight tangent but it s going to lay some really
important groundwork for the rest of the video. So, for Midsommar and Hereditary, Utah and
the presence of a cult are pretty obvious commonalities, and without wanting to offend
anyone Utah has pretty ubiquitous links to the Church of Mormonism. Now I have to put
a disclaimer in here that Mormonism is a recognised religious institution, in every
legal sense it is not a cult and by and large they ve been a lot less bloodthirsty than all
the other big religions, but they re still very much not without controversy. If you were to ask
other denominations of Christian, if you were to poll non-Mormons in America on what they thought,
quickly you ll see that the case isn t so clear cut. At the very least we can say, Mormonism
began with many of the hallmarks of a cult and many people today criticize it for some of those
elements still, despite it being recognised as a religious institution. Now not all Mormons are
white, but it s also fair to say the religion is predominantly white and does have quite a troubled
history, for example the religion was racially restricted until 1978 and despite eventually
taking an anti-slavery stance later in his life, Mormonism s founder Joseph Smith and his many
priests were of the opinion that the black skin colour was a result of being cursed from God. So
while we can always find exceptions to the rule, I think everyone can agree that the stereotypical
image of a traditional Mormon family isn t too far away from most of the cult members we see
in Hereditary. I think this is why all, or 99% of the cult members we see in Hereditary are
white, key ones with blonde hair and blue eyes. It s not necessarily Aryan but it certainly
visually alludes to the puritan-bred either Mormon or just hyper-Christian stereotype that pervades
the American mid-west and has been popular in horror for a long time. This homogenised version
of American puritanism that the cynical among us may recognise as being a mask for something
worse. A cheerful and friendly face that in general seems neglecting of it s violent past.
These constructions of rural whiteness, often linked to cult-like or close knit communities,
are very common in horror. Children of the Corn, Deliverance, The Wicker Man is a big one,
Get Out, even stuff like the Hills Have Eyes perhaps. The idea of a local homogenised
group that has developed a dark set of beliefs, traditions or practices, and wield essentially
unlimited power in their local area. And for the most part because of history and
geography and a hundred other factors, in 90% of those instances the antagonist group
are going to be white. So I m not saying that Mormonism is that, at all in reality, but
I m saying that maybe for Aster there are elements there that he wants to pull
from. It s not an attack on Mormonism, or White America. It s essentially the same energy
you may see from an inner-city cop movie in the 80 s with a group of black or Mexican young men
on a street corner. They may well not commit a crime on screen and only act as dressing for
the scene, but they re used to present danger through your recognition of a stereotype, of how
a group is portrayed and the negative elements you may subconsciously associate. As we ll see
right from the start here whiteness is going to be one of those elements Ari Aster uses to build
this cult identity. And I think it starts here, or rather it started in Hereditary, by
tying these cults to Utah, the spiritual centre of this powerful group in heartland
America so often accused of being a cult. Now very crucial to us, during the 1800 s,
late 1800 s particularly and into the 1900 s America saw a huge wave of Swedish immigrants,
a significant portion of which settled in Utah. For example there is a neighbourhood in North
Salt Lake, developed by Swedish settlers going by the name of Swede Town. By 1930 the majority
of residents of Grantsville in Tooele County were of Swedish descent. And as may not come as
a surprise, many of these god fearing immigrants, in need of somewhere to attend service, joined
up with the local Mormon churches. This is very likely a contributing factor in why blonde hair
and blue eyes is quite common among American Mormons. Now I said the Ardor residence, Dani
s family home, presumably where she grew up, is in Draper, Utah. Swede Town is here. Toole
County is this area and Grantsville is here. So nothing certain, nothing definite, but Dani is
growing up not just in the spiritual heart of the Mormon religion, but also in an area that saw a
lot of Swedish immigration. I m not saying Dani is definitely Mormon, but if she was born in Utah
she has a roughly 60% to 80% chance of being one, and I m not suggesting Dani is of Swedish descent,
mainly because we re not at that part of the video yet. And, at this point centuries later, Swedes
represent the second largest ancestry group in Utah, second only to the Brits for obvious
reasons. So what I am saying is that this presence of Mormonism, this area in particular having a
large number of descendants from Swedish settlers, I absolutely think those are things the film
is aware of. So not Dani, not her parents, but maybe her great great, grandparents left
Europe and signed up with a new religion in the new world. Which thematically is on point
with what we re going to be discussing and you can see how it s already layering criticisms at
the feet of spiritual groups. The film is going to be very critical of new-wave nationalist
groups in Europe and cults in general, but it s also quick to point out the hypocrisy of
the American group and the flaws present in their society, that perhaps the things it s telling
us to be afraid of are happening everywhere. Inside Dani s parents bedroom and we get this
slow pan across their final moments. They are visibly still breathing, but as we know they re
not long for this world. We don t know if they hear Dani s voicemail, it s doubtful, but there is
something beautiful here in Dani s final words to them being quite loving and reassuring. If this
was purely for shock value we d get a closeup of the answer machine and pan out to them already
dead. And so I just want to encourage you from the get go to look at the ways this film tries
to show you beauty amidst the horror and utter bleakness like we re seeing here. Because that
s crucial, it s something the film has to strive for throughout its runtime in order to get to
this point at the end where it subverts the audience and has at least half of them rooting
for Dani s decision. It s a very divisive ending in terms of emotional takeaway, half of us will
see the beauty and the other half the horror and it s a very subtle line the film has to tread in
order to get there. Literally the last line of the script is it is horrible and it is beautiful
, and so I think that s a very important thing to keep in mind as we go through: especially in
how this film relates to relationship trauma, and breakups, and this idea of death
and rebirth that persists throughout. Now we get a lot of information thrown at us all
at once in this scene, firstly Dani s family name Ardor . Ardor meaning an intense passion or
zealous devotion. And at first it seems quite ironic, there isn t much zeal, much passion to
the Ardor residence as we see it here. But as we know, by the end of the film we ll see a
different Dani, elated, passionate, zealous, choosing her boyfriend for Midsommar sacrifice. In
the script described as experiencing a joy known only to the insane , so I d say she qualifies.
We see photos of the Ardor family together, ending with this flower arrangement foreshadowing
Dani s crowning as May Queen, and we hear Dani expositing to us through voicemail. She s clearly
very concerned about the situation at home. She references a scary email from Terri but is
unsurprised that her sister isn t responding and thinks they may have been fighting. So
we re getting this hint that her sister is perhaps unstable, perhaps mentally unwell, which
as it turns out she very much is. But the number one question here and one of the biggest things
we have to answer right at the start, is what s going on with the colour Yellow? And colours in
general? In the pictures we see Terri picked out purposefully in yellow which at its most basic
lets the audience distinguish between these two characters. There s a clear shot of Florence Pugh
all grown up before we see her in the next shot, the sister is the one wearing yellow. It
s easy visual language for the audience. But as we know, there s a lot more going on
there and there will be throughout the movie. So before we go any further, let s take a break
to discuss which colours represent what. This is a big topic of disagreement, everyone seems to
have their own theory on it and so there s many, many different readings online. I suppose
mine is no different but the reason this is a discussion at all is that every theory presented
falls down in some way, it doesn t quite apply, doesn t quite hold true. I m hoping that the
difference with my theory is that it encompasses all the others and makes sense out of the whole
thing. Now let s give a couple of quick caveats, this film is three hours long and despite having a
very controlled palette, there are of course going to be instances of these colours appearing on the
screen in small ways that don t necessarily apply to us. We re looking at really purposeful
colour choices like this and this and this, because if we take every single possible example
it s much more likely to give us wrong answers or be inclusive of things that don t apply.
Secondly this isn t a criticism of anyone else s theory, I actually think in a way this
demonstrates that they were mostly all right. So we have four colours in play, our main two
colours blue and yellow, and following them white and red. It s really the blue and yellow that
I think are the struggle, so let s start with white and red. And if you ve seen my Alien video
there s a lot on this, I touch on it in The Green Knight video and again in the Hereditary video.
You will see white and red everywhere in horror, and to give you the quickest possible run
down of hundreds of years of art history, the very quick answer is blood and the bodily
fluids responsible for creation and nurture, which is to say ejaculate and breast milk. Go
look at any poster for American Horror Story and it s all you ll see. It s all always alluding
to birth, life and death and usually done in a way where it reminds us of all the disgusting gooey
stuff that our skin is holding in and anything related to reproduction. And that is very much
represented here by red, red in the words of the H rga represents the blood, but to them that
doesn t just mean the fluid we have nine pints of, it means the bloodline, the new blood that will be
used to impregnate, and so on. So in the context of this film we can see red as representing both
fertility and impregnation. Characters that will be used for breeding are marked by red. The
girls that will be bred with are marked by red. These umbilical bonds of family are red.
The woman seemingly in charge of arranging H rga breeding wears red. Most signs of fertility,
throughout the film will be red. So in this film, red is really taking on the role that
white and red usually share in horror. White, on the other hand, is not used for this.
White is used for something much more specific. At its broadest we can call it, the colour
of the collective. The H rga are extremely easy to identify on screen because they re all
wearing white and they all are white. Their white robes are their signifiers of belonging to a cult
collective. White robes that Dani will be wearing by the end. Beyond that though whiteness in itself
is a part of the H rga identity. Look at these shots and think about what stands out immediately,
it s the outsider characters, the, and I mean this very literally, characters with colour to them,
they all have dark clothing, half have dark skin, contrasting sharply against the overwhelming
whiteness of the cult. A cult that is absolutely concerned with whiteness as we re going to get
to. And so the whole way through we ll see white as being this symbol of H rga unity, and we ll see
the characters that are visiting, the outsiders, picked out in dark colours, designed to represent
their otherness there as well as to simply draw our attention to them on screen. In every scene
it s clear the Americans don t fit. Urinating and vaping and talking loudly at the wrong
moments. It primes us for that moment where the H rga begin correcting the situation as they
see it. By removing the elements they don t like. So I think those two are very clear. Red is the
blood, by which we mean reproduction fertility and lineage. White is the collective, both in
its symbolic use and racial implications. The issue then comes from the blue and the yellow.
There are many different theories on this but I d say the prevailing one, the one that seems really
logical is that yellow spells death. Chances are, if you re watching this, that s probably the
answer you have in your head, and honestly when I saw it for the first time that is what I
thought. And that s mainly because of two things, primarily that we see Dani s sister consistently
shown in yellow in the photographs, and shortly after right in the middle of frame, with a
yellow/orange t-shirt and a yellow hosepipe in her mouth. Seemingly a pretty certain indicator
that yellow means death. Secondly we have the St Johns Wort flower growing inside and leading up
to the H rga commune, which a lot of people have somewhat suspectly suggested is associated with
death. It would seem then that that should be pretty cut and dry and I totally get why people
would lean into that reading. I don t even think it s technically incorrect, but it s an incomplete
answer that struggles in a lot of places. Mainly why are none of the other characters other than
Terri that die signalled with yellow? And, when we look at the same theories we ll find people
struggling to then figure out what blue means, the most common answer being that blue is the
colour of the collective, of the H rga. And I just don t think that s the case, white is the
collective of the H rga as we ve just covered. If blue is the colour of the collective then why
do all the outsider characters that are absolutely going to die wear it? And some other people say
no, no, you ve got it all wrong blue represents old age and yellow is the blossoming of flowers
and youth. Well again if that s the case why are the young characters in blue? Why do we see some
of them with blue and yellow? I don t dislike any of those theories, and they all bear some
semblance of accuracy, but they all seem to take one detail and try and make it all encompassing
which would be fine if it fit. Not to mention none of them provide a workable answer for what
blue means, and all seem to fly in the face of the very clear colour coding we have at the start
where blue is death and winter, and yellow is life and summer and the sun. So it was clear to me
that there was something missing here, a unifying Rosetta stone that would make all this make sense.
The answer is you have to view yellow and blue in conjunction in a way. The better way of saying
it is, in combination they represent the life and death cycle. Yes, yellow is blooming life,
yes blue is old age and the sterile lifelessness of winter, but one leads into the other and back
again, because this is what the H rga believe, it s their whole cyclic pagan deal of life and
death and rebirth. Which is to say that to the H rga, and just like we see with this devilish
sun with skeletons dancing below, summer is just as much a sign of the coming death of winter
as winter is itself. So yellow does mean death, absolutely. But it also represents life, blue
represents death but also with this promise that it shadows coming life. Blue and Yellow represent
the cycle of life and death, winter and summer, that is central to the H rga belief system. Just
like we see colour coded right at the start, and just like we see with this very malevolent
looking sun, the H rga have a way of contorting that idea blooming life into something that leads
to untimely or unnatural death. And for further clarification we can look to the comments of
Henrik Svensson, the production designer. He confirms that the prevalent use of yellow was
laid out in the script and then confirms that both yellow and blue are seen as signs of death, saying
the yellow flowers and the yellow of the house is actually in the script. More and more things
along the way made me want to make the yellow and the blue our signs of death our bad signs .
It does become a little bit more complex than that and this is where we see the differing
theories start to come together. In nature Yellow is traditionally a colour that draws you
in, and we see the H rga using it in much the same way. From the outside they re bright, summery,
happy, they have a yellow temple, they have a yellow sun gate with yellow flowers leading up to
it, their signage, the book about their language, even the scene where Dani learns about Sweden is
golden-lit. Every outward signal the H rga use, or is otherwise influencing the group to go,
is yellow, happy, summery. But when you get into the H rga compound, suddenly the H rga aren t
yellow, they re dressed in blue. Their outfits are all adorned in blue. The attestup couple is blue.
Their cliffs used for the attestup are blue, their executioners are adorned in blue. When you get
on the inside of that yellow temple, we have the reality, the blue of death on the interior doors,
the end result of the bait and switch. So again, you could just say that s life and death, but it
is employed in more subtle ways if you want to look for it. Yellow is a colour that to the H rga
represents life and the blooming of it, but from our point of view there could be a very troubling
dissonance there given how much the H rga seem to worship death and how readily they will end
blooming life. It s very common for cults and certainly the H rga, to be outwardly presenting
one thing and actually be another, and so we can see this colour combination as representing
that too, the bait and switch of the H rga, a bait and switch that at first appears to promote
the loving of life and in reality worships death, or at least the cycle between the two. I suppose
an easy way to think about it is that the H rga are a death cult masquerading as a life cult.
Blue is the reality, yellow is the masquerade. They both signify death in their own way, but it's
both of them together that represent the cycle. And there might be some push back on that, so I m
going to show you why this all works using these scenes at the Ardor household that really formed
the initial basis for the yellow means death theory. So let s go back to this scene of Dani
s parents and bring in some shots of the later scene where we see her sister too. The yellow
may be what stands out here, but only because that s the bright contrasting colour. The entire
scene is bathed in blue, it s what gives the scene the feeling of death, of this house filled with
bodies. The thing that is far more present in the shot, the thing creating this presence of death is
the blue. Now let s look at where yellow appears, we ve got the yellow bedspread, we ve got the
wallpaper, we ve got the flowers, the hosepipe and Terri s clothing. So parents bedspread, it
s not her actual parents, if Terri and both of Dani s parents were all dressed in yellow, that
would be a more clear marker. But her parents aren t dressed in yellow, they re dressed in blue.
And people have taken the yellow bedspread to mean the same thing, that it s signalling them
with yellow at the same time. But that s not the case because we will see this scene repeated, or
reflected, later on during the attestup. And very clearly Terri will be there wearing yellow and
the older couple reflecting Dani s parents will be dressed in blue, just as Dani s parents are
here. So if we say yellow means death, why don t we have six dead bodies across the two scenes all
dressed in yellow? As it stands it seems pretty clear visual language for two older people
in blue that had approached their death age, as the H rga see it. And one life in summer, in
bloom, in yellow that had been cut short. Now, the wallpaper is an easy one, because while
it might be difficult to make out it s not just yellow flowers, it s yellow and blue flowers
overlaid, so again it s not yellow representing the death in this scene, it s blue and yellow
representing the cycle of life and death, flowers are extremely common visual language for
that process, primarily because we witness them across their life cycle in pretty short order
and also because we use flowers as signifiers of these key moments from birth to marriage to
death. Next up we have the actual flowers on the nightstand and this one is really simple,
the flower crown that we see over the mirror foreshadowing Dani s rise to may queen has yellow
flowers clearly picked out in contrast. Dani does not die in the movie, but she is young and in
bloom so to speak, so again yellow isn t really signifying death here. Next is the hosepipe, and
this is really the big one because it seems like such a clear indicator. Now I should point out
first that these are certainly reflective of the umbilical links of family we saw in the opening
mural, a motif Terri has twisted with her terrible act. So this should be damning evidence, the
hosepipe killing everyone is bright yellow so yellow must mean death. Except the yellow hosepipe
actually has blue lines running down it which you can see pretty clearly in the other shots. So yes
yellow means death, so too does blue, but I think at this point we can say pretty certainly that
the conjunction of the two is alluding to the life/death cycle. And later on, we re going to
get into the reasons why Terri might have done this and how that ties together the meaning.
I don t want to get ahead of myself but I did already mention that we see this scene, this act,
reflected later on during the attestup. So let s just say for now that there is a suggestion that
the two may be connected in some abstract way. And so hopefully that covers everything, blue is
death, yellow is blooming life, but both bleed into one another and the sun and blooming life
are still indicators of death to the H rga so we can say blue and yellow represent a violent,
pagan understanding of the life and death cycle, where really both represent death as well as this
bait and switch between life cult and death cult. The question we need to ask is why? Why are
blue and yellow signifiers of death, or life being cut short? And to answer this we need to
go back to the interview with Henrik Svensson, who outright says he chose yellow and blue to
be signifiers of death precisely because they were the colours of the Swedish flag and this
film serves as a protest against nationalism, saying The main reason being [they
are] the colors of the Swedish flag, and I wanted to make the point of how wrong
nationalism is. In fact in his words Every typical Swedish element is a negative omen. We re
going to get deep into the nationalism stuff later on so please don t worry if that s come out
of nowhere to you, but as a quick answer, yes this film has some pretty negative things to say
about nationalist political stances in general, but certainly in Sweden. And so it makes very good
sense to use the colours of the flag, the thing these nationalist groups the film is criticizing
worship, as the signals for the coming horror. So before we move on from colours, there s
a couple of places blue and yellow also crop up we need to look at. Firstly in the work of
Hilma af Klint, a Swedish artist. Specifically her collection Primordial Chaos. She was one
of several artists who were used as aesthetic inspiration for the film and very purposefully
this painting uses the colours of the Swedish flag. You could even argue that when we see these
criss-crossing blue and yellow hosepipes there s a bit of an allusion to the design of the flag
itself. Now we could say this is representing a few things: the danger the country represents in
Dani s future, it could also be alluding to Sweden having some tie to the Ardor family s past, as I
m sure you re aware, there are a lot more clues about Dani s heritage coming up. But at it s most
basic we can say the film is building this link between Sweden and death. And it raises the
question why Sweden at all, why this choice of location? And the reasons really are twofold,
on the one hand because it s a wonderful fit with parts of Swedish history such as pagan sacrifice
and Midsommar traditions and it s historically and geographically tied to a wealth of fairy and folk
tales that the film is designed to be reminiscent of. But on the other hand the film is going to
be pulling from the current day, and specifically criticizing modern day, far-right extremist cells.
Many of which pull heavily from the nazis who in turn pulled heavily from Scandinavian history
and mythology. Sweden isn t unique in that it has minor neo-nazi contingents, but Scandinavia
is unique in that it has those elements and it also has the actual cultural heritage that those
groups lauded and attempted to attach them to. We are going to look at that in-depth, because there
s some really crazy stuff I have to show you, but for now that s why Sweden. Because it
s this conflation between actual real-life examples of modern far-right groups that exist
there and the traditional imagery, folklore, and mythology that a lot of those groups make use
of. And I just want to give the caveat again that we ll be looking at Sweden in particular here
and that is going to seem tilted, or biased, purely because the discussion is going to be
focused there. But every country in Europe has some aspect of this, I imagine most countries
in the world have groups like this in some form or fashion. America certainly does and given
the films timing we can presume that s where the majority of the anxiety is for Ari Aster.
And I m not just saying this as a disclaimer, it s important you know that the film is using
Sweden as an example, but the fear and anxiety it is addressing is worldwide. This 90-year cycle to
the festival that the film is using is doublespeak for a possible worldwide resurgence into these
dangerous and violent brands of political thought, just like many parts of the world experienced
in the early stages of the 20th Century. It s Ari Aster s concerns as to where the current
cultural climate may be heading. And his pointing to this being a part of a cycle that
we go through, a potential period of darkness on the horizon if we allow ourselves to
fall victim to the wrong messaging.
Back to chronology and after Dani finishes
the voicemail to her parents we cut to her, worried out of her mind at her laptop. We can
see her messages and there s a few things of interest here. We can see Christian already being
a little bit unreliable, we can see these Youtube links that Terri shared. They both actually link
to National Geographic videos, the top one links to this 2018 livestream of Yellowstone National
Park. Again we have this link between Terri and the colour yellow. The video is naturally littered
with comments from Midsommar fans sending Terri their best wishes which is pretty funny. And
most crucially we have this message from Terri: I can t anymore everything s black mom and dad
are coming too. Goodbye. Now when you first see this it s very likely you re going to focus on the
mom and dad are coming too part because holy shit what s up with Terri. And that s our main clue as
to what s happened, Terri has gassed her parents and then herself and she seems to be suffering
from some sort of delusion, either because she s certain of an afterlife or because she doesn
t want to necessarily address in writing what she s done to her parents. But we ve got this
suggestion of coming too, that there s some place Terri sees them as all going to following what she
s done. And it s important to note there s already parallels developing between this and cults. Where
members might be encouraged to take their life, perhaps in a group, in order to achieve some
kind of quasi-apotheosis or ascension onto some higher plane of existence. Given her wording you
could be forgiven for assuming they were willing participants in this, and that certainly fits with
the cult theme the film is running on. But given how we ll see the scene setup it s very unlikely
this was the case. That does not mean that we re ruling it out though and we are going to look
at that later during the attestup scene. And the first part of the message, I can t anymore,
everything s black is almost certainly an example of double meaning. It is very likely a reference
to Terri already having started this process when she s sending the message, she doesn t reply
after this so we can assume that s the case. It could also apply to how she feels in her life,
that she can t go on anymore and that everything is black and hopeless. And we should absolutely
take both meanings in here, they re both intended, but there s something else too, this blackness
Terri is discussing is similar to something we ll see brought up later by the H rga when they re
describing their historical enemy, The Black One, this black devilish figure that the H rga try to
ward away. So for now let s see The Blackness as this abstraction of all the things, all the
impulses, thoughts and mental unrest that were tormenting Terri and have driven her to this
point. It is a possibility that Terri, during a psychotic episode got it into her head she was
actually saving her parents from this blackness, we don t really ever learn if she s done this
out of resentment or confusion. But Terri doesn t tell Dani she loves her, opting simply for
goodbye and from everything we hear it would seem the relationship between them is strained to
say the least. We can maybe find answers in how this mirrors Dani s decision at the end, we see
evidence that Dani suffers with her mental health just like Terri. And just like Terri, Dani will
sacrifice her loved one to exorcise this darkness, this blackness in her life. And in Dani s case
that decision isn t made to help Christian, so take from that what you will when
it comes to Terri s motivations. Unable to contact her family Dani decides to
call her partner Christian, and there s two really important takeaways here, one is how
different these main character introductions are. Sure we also meet Dani first as a voice on
the phone, but this scene is really where we re first getting to know both Dani and Christian
and it s polar opposites in terms of how it s getting us to feel about them. We re up close
with Dani, her face is filling the screen so we see every nuance of her emotion, we never leave
her throughout the phone call, the film could cut to Christian as we move to him right after, but it
doesn t. He s distant, he s a voice on the phone that seems non-committal, that isn t concerned as
to what we ve seen is a very concerning situation. Everything here is designed to put us in Dani s
POV, to subliminally view Christian as opposition. To feel for Dani and to resent him. And the
other main takeaway here should be oh my god can Ari Aster cast leading women. This scene, this
performance is phenomenal and extremely complex. Up until now the first few minutes of the film
have been impersonal, intrusive and purposefully irritating with the ringing phone and camera cuts.
No dialogue at all for the first two minutes. And yet this one take scene with Dani on the phone
hits the ground running and gets you feeling with Dani right out of the gate, and that is
really only possible with Florence Pugh knocking it out of the park like this. It s nearly three
minutes long and she goes on such a rollercoaster, I was going to go through it point by point but
the list was so long I just decided to put it up on screen. I ll give you a brief example of
what I mean though, in the first five seconds of this phone call we see Florence Pugh move from
concern that her phone call won t be answered, to relief at hearing Christian pick up, to
trying to talk normally and pretend she s okay, to holding back sudden tears at realising she isn
t okay. And she keeps that pace up throughout the entire phone call, without any cuts, it is a
rollercoaster ride and I don t think this scene has got anywhere close to the respect it deserves
because it s so understated. It s so easy to just become immersed and let it slip by, but when you
break down everything Florence Pugh is achieving on screen here it s very easy to see why she blew
up as quickly as she did. This absolutely real and reserved crying here complete with nose leaking,
Her animal like wail a few scenes from now, her silent staring sobbing and chin wavering
at the end, I just cannot speak highly enough of this performance. She is extremely, extremely
good. So intense, so grounded and so believable, it probably won t come as a surprise that I think
she was robbed of a best actress award, she was actually nominated for a supporting actress role
that same year for Little Women, but that is widely seen as a mistake given the strength
of her performance here in a leading role. And this starting phone call is the lynchpin
to that amazing performance. It gives us such a clear idea of who Dani is, up close,
unable to do anything but empathise with her, feeling her emotions as soon as she does, it
gives us a fast track to getting to know her, and we can see a person that is not doing
well, that is all over the place emotionally, and by endearing us towards her it also
has the inverse effect with Christian, the nonchalant voice on the other side of the
phone that doesn t seem to care as much as us or Dani. That doesn t even really want to be having
the phone call we re party to. It s immediately instilling resentment towards him. Estranging
us from him as a disembodied voice on the phone, while we remain up close with Dani s emotional
state. And that s crucial to how we re going to view these characters, the primacy effect
is essentially that our automatic recognition of a character is going to be formed by their
introduction. So here we re being conditioned to side with Dani against Christian.
To see things from her point of view. On to the conversation itself and Christian is
putting up more red flags than an interview with Prince Andrew. He s non-committal, vague,
he leaves her hanging awkwardly when she asks to hang out and it s clear he doesn
t really want to. He cuts her off when she tries to explain what s upsetting her and he
s not concerned about the sister situation, downplaying the threat of it. He even blames Dani
for her sister s behaviour, saying she does this every other day and only because you let her ,
even doubling down on it when she tries to deny it, which is a pretty heinous thing to say to
someone but something Dani seems to ultimately accept. And while his arguments may have some
merit it s clear he is encouraging Dani to not take it seriously because he is bored of dealing
with it, not because he necessarily thinks it s the best course of action. He even hesitates
in returning her I love you and gives it the awkward delivery of someone who doesn t want to
say it publicly and maybe doesn t want to say it at all. Right at the end of the call she ll say it
again as a sign off and he ll reply with alright . And while at first it may seem like Mark s
reaction to the call, saying Hi Dani over and over again until he s acknowledged, is maybe
quite pro-Dani, we ll soon find out that Mark is extremely bored of her presence and what he
views as her intrusions on Christian and their friendship group, he s repeatedly saying Hi Dani
as a not so passive-aggressive way of pointing out such intrusions. You ll notice when she says Bye
Mark at the end he doesn t respond. It s not fully clear to us here right at the start, but Dani is
not welcome, not as loved as she should be by the group. Christian and his friends treat her as if
she s a millstone, and combining that with the coming loss of her family, Dani is in an extremely
vulnerable place and subsequently susceptible to putting up with this negative behaviour.
And that s exactly what we see from Dani s reaction to all of this boiling over of fear and
worry. She stops in her tracks, swallows it and tells Christian that he s right in every respect
and that she loves him. And there s two really key bits of body language from Florence Pugh during
this scene. The first comes right at the turn, where she decides to be honest with Christian
about her sister and why she s calling. She leans even further into frame, getting her face
even closer, filling the shot as the intensity ramps up. She s still holding back hysterics,
but she s letting us and Christian into what she s feeling. And this maintains, building the
anxiety as she tries her best to meekly talk around Christian. And then there comes this very
noticeable change in her, where she gives up. The energy changes and she says Yeah you re right. You
are right. No I know I know I know, you re right, you re right. I just needed to be reminded.
Thank you. I m very lucky to have you. And as a first time viewer we re likely to trust Dani s
assessment here, regardless of the red-flags. So we re right there with her as the moment comes
back to something happier seeming and she says I love you. But the catharsis never comes, Christian
s pause is too long, his reply ungenuine. And now, just like Dani we re wracked with anxiety about
this relationship. In three minutes and zero cuts the film has taken you from an impersonal and
abrasive introduction into feeling right alongside the main characters up and down emotional state.
And given that we do know that Christian is no good for Dani, her immediate 180 into agreeing
with him and thanking her lucky stars that she s even with him is obviously sign for concern.
Really, what we re seeing between this shift into frame where she starts opening up and this reset
where she decides she s being silly is Christian reasserting control and her submitting to it. So
we know that she s not just susceptible to that, but she s currently within a system
of control. Which is really important to remember for when we have to answer
the question, is Dani s decision truly emancipating if she s swapping from one system
of control in Christian to another in the H rga. It may feel as though Dani is perhaps an easy
mark, in many ways she does fall for Christian s gaslighting here, and throughout we ll see
her repeatedly fail to spot concerning signs of manipulation. So we could say she s not great
at perceiving how people might be manipulating her or who might have her best interests at heart.
That would be a reasonably fair assessment at face value, and would fit with the sort of
person that may end up falling victim to a cult. But there s something much more concerning
driving Dani, a very tangible fear of being alone. It s not that she can t perceive what Christian
is doing, it s that she s more terrified of him leaving and it s for this reason that she puts up
with the behaviour, it s this reason why she goes on the trip, why she has this nightmare and
even why she makes her decision at the end. All the same answer, she s terrified of being
alone. And given what s about to happen to her with the loss of her family we can see how that s
going to be extremely exacerbated. So just to go back to this incredible performance here, we can
only really tell that right away because of how on point Florence Pugh is. She does demonstrate
exasperation before telling Christian he s right, she chooses not to fight the battle. When she
says I love you her expression drops for the first time, she s not feeling there, she s
listening, scanning for the right response because she s immediately terrified he won
t say it. She doesn t like the response, or lack of one, and again we see her choose not
to have the argument. As soon as she hangs up the phone we see her expression change to fear,
fear because she can feel him pulling away. And right after we ll hear her on the phone to
her friend, not terrified for her sister but terrified about what Christian is feeling.
So while Dani is consistently manipulated, while she absolutely is in a concerning
relationship, it s really important to recognise from the jump that Dani isn t entirely unaware
of what s happening, she s just very willing to put up with it if it means she isn t alone.
Which is pretty much the exact tenor of the following phone call with her friend, who like us
finds it very easy to see through Christian. We can presume this is Amy, who we ll see Dani get
a text from later on. And we see Dani pushing back against what Amy s saying with the logic
she s just internalised from Christian. The main takeaway from this call is how differently
Dani is representing the issues with her sister, describing her messages as ominous bullshit .
She s now adopted Christian s position and is seemingly far less concerned about her sister
than she was while on the phone with him. Her friend tries to inquire, she is interested just
like Dani had wanted Christian to be, but now Dani isn t interested and would rather discuss her
fears around Christian. Dani s relationship drama completely supersedes her concerns for her family.
We as the audience know things are not okay there, so this drama, Dani s refusal to answer
questions about her sister, they re going to stick out as we can see the tragedy coming.
And it s building their relationship as this thing that s getting in the way for Dani,
something that needs to be got rid of, building towards that final subversion. But it
s also making a grander point, that these toxic relationships that this break-up movie is looking
at, they cloud our view from the things that are important, the things in our life we should be
tending to, and very toxic relationships can often have a habit of keeping people from their loved
ones through this whirlwind of drama and control. And just like she s downplaying the issue with
her sister, she s also not exactly being a great friend here. She s overly concerned about calling
Christian to emotionally lean on him as she puts it but she doesn t seem worried about doing
that to her friend. She doesn t argue against Christian blaming her for her sisters behaviour
but she will argue with her friend in defence of Christian. Now that s not necessarily the worst
thing in the world, Christian does want to break up with her after all so she clearly has reason
to be worried and her friends are happy to listen, but this is all building a picture of who Dani is
and it s crucial that we recognise from the start that Dani is a victim, but she is not brainless
and she is not guiltless. And so that s how we meet Dani, in the process of losing her family,
being mistreated by her partner and terrified of being alone. And that is a rough approximation
of backstories we often hear from people who have fallen victim to cults. When we re weak,
when we re emotionally vulnerable and without people to turn to it s exactly the time we might
find ourselves looking for answers in unorthodox places and comfort wherever we can find it.
A couple of little things before we move on, during the second call we ll see Dani medicating
herself with Ativan, which is a prescription anxiety medication, Christian referenced Dani
having panic attacks on the phone and she s clearly not in a good place. So there s a pretty
clear hint that Terri may not be the only one in the family struggling with their mental health.
I also want to bring your attention to Dani s apartment which is in Brooklyn, not Utah, in
case you were wondering. Specifically though I want to point out the interior design, which I
would say bears at least some resemblance to the Scandinavian hygge style. Think Ikea catalogue
covers and so on. Again the film isn t saying anything outright and you can take it or leave
it but there s this soft suggestion that Dani has some predilection for the Scandinavian style. Even
the thick weave jumper we see her wearing here is a little bit Scandinavian to me. We also see her
repeatedly surrounded by plants and specifically with plants over her head, foreshadowing the
flower crown, but also foreshadowing these hallucinations where we re going to see her
returning to nature in a very literal sense. Following Dani receiving the call from the
emergency services we cut to Christian and the boys in a pizza restaurant, also in Brooklyn,
having a pretty frank discussion about Dani. And their reactions to the situation essentially
inform their character flaws. Christian is entirely selfish and uncaring towards what Dani
is feeling, saying what if I regret it later and I can t get her back , even after stringing
Dani along in the relationship for a considerable amount of time he s still only concerned
about how the outcome might affect him. Mark is far more brutal, he wants Dani gone
because he wants them to have fun together, for his friend to be free as he sees it. And Mark,
as we know, isn t the most caring about other people s problems at the best of time, but more
than that he doesn t seem to care how he will be perceived in his decision to pursue blunt honesty.
He s happy insulting Christian for his bitching, Dani for not liking sex and as we know he
s going to go out of his way to irritate the entire H rga at once. Josh on the other hand
sees the Dani issue as a much smaller problem for Christian and suggests he may be using it to put
off academic work. Obviously this is a real issue, it s Dani s life and Christian s too, but as
we know Josh is entirely too invested in his academic studies. So in these first reactions we
re already being shown these characters flaws, in some cases fatal flaws and we see
they all have something in common, they re all very self-involved. Which in fairness
we could probably say for Dani too but to a lesser extent. And this self-involvement is one of
several American qualities the film emphasises that all the American characters are guilty of
to some degree. We ll also see Mark immediately stereotyping the culture, changing Swedish women
to Swedish milkmaids, again this is just more building towards the critical view of Americans
as tourists and outsiders we ll see later on.
We also see that Christian has a weakness for
women and fidelity in general as he softly flirts with the waitress. Something that isn t lost on
Mark who floats the idea of Christian getting her pregnant. Which is meant as banter but obviously
foreshadows Christian s use to the H rga at the end of the film. As does Pelle s addition about
all the Swedish women [he] can impregnate in June . That s a weird focus on impregnation for
four guys sat having pizza and as we can see in the wide shot the two characters that will be used
for impregnation, or at least selected for it, are marked with red, our symbolic colour for
fertility and breeding and so on. It also means that Pelle has been planning on taking them
home with him for a decent amount of time, this is six months prior and they ve already
got it planned. It shouldn t be a mystery what an utter piece Pelle is but I just want to
reinforce that this guy absolutely sucks. Like Christian sucks, don t get me wrong, but Pelle is
the biggest asshole on screen by a wide margin. Dani interrupts the discussion by calling again
and we see Mark having a pretty strong reaction to that, quite ironically describing it as
abuse given Christian s treatment of her. We also learn that Dani is in therapy so while she
may not be suffering quite like Terri is we are getting repeated hints that she is struggling with
her mental health, that it might be something in the family like we saw suggested in Hereditary.
Christian picks up the phone and we hear Dani s animal like wails of grief. When I heard this
for the first time I was all in, all of this wailing Florence Pugh does, I almost couldn t
believe it. Florence Pugh said she abused herself during filming and I absolutely don t doubt it.
There s some really clever tricks happening with the sound throughout this film starting here with
this beautifully achieved melding as we hear the scream of Dani get cut off by this oppressive
string sound that is very close to a car horn, something we re going to naturally associate
with a car being tended to by fire crew and the connotation of it running in the garage. It s a
clich the film is playing with rather than using, but often when people use their car to do
this sort of thing then the indicator we hear from an exterior shot is the person
inside falling on the car horn. This is using that clich to evoke in us a reaction
before we re even certain what s happened. Now we ve already looked at this scene a
little bit, and we re going to come back to it a few times, which is annoying because it
s difficult for me to show you what s happening, I m hoping that the image behind here is clearly
burned into your brain. But I do want to stress what a horrendous punch in the gut this is for the
first-time viewer. This is a nasty, brutal way to start your film, we re only 10 minutes in and the
audience has been on an absolute rollercoaster. Researching for this video I saw over and over
again people saying this was the scene that stuck with them, and it is intended to be a huge moment
of trauma, something Ari Aster is extremely good at delivering. There is one detail I d like to
cover, which unfortunately we ll need to use our imagination for. As you know behind this black
box we have Terri sitting dead with the hosepipe attached to her face. Her right eye seems to have
gone blind, or has otherwise suffered some pretty massive damage from the poisoning. It doesn
t mean much now, but later when we re hearing the H rga Elder discuss Ruben, they ll describe
his vision as unclouded . And as we could see if this black box wasn t here, Terri s vision is
literally clouded right now. And so we can assume that mental struggles, stress, anxiety, paranoia,
all these negative psychological elements are what they re meaning by clouded vision. The idea
that you can t perceive the world in a happy and healthy manner because of whatever factors are
mentally weighing you down. Something that Ruben doesn t suffer from because he s beyond Hapsburg
levels of inbreeding and just wants to scribble. You may also notice this section of wallpaper
which again to me evokes Scandinavian mountains, in a somewhat similar way to the pattern on Dani
s jumper. It s nothing solid, and nothing will ever be verified, but I d say there are a lot of
subtle aesthetic clues at the start that Dani, Terri, the Ardors could have a preference towards
the Scandinavian. It doesn t mean they are, but I think the movie is subtly playing with
the suggestion. There s something else on this wall that we re going to come back to
in a minute because it s very important. But before we leave this scene, a question that I
ve seen come up a lot online, did the H rga have anything to do with the killing of the Ardor
family? Given that Pelle already knew Dani, given that we see these hints that maybe Dani
has roots in Sweden? And the very quick answer to that is no. They do not. At least Pelle 100% does
not, we see him in New York at the same time the firemen are discovering the bodies at the Ardor
household in Utah, so unless Pelle can teleport he s absolutely cleared of that. Now there is some
confusion we ll get to later on about Ulf maybe having something to do with it, which isn t the
case either. In the interest of being unbiased and presenting both sides though a lot of people have
said this can t be the case because Ari Aster said the H rga had nothing to do with it, so end of.
But that s a misquote, he actually said Pelle had absolutely nothing to do with it but the question
didn t pertain to the H rga in general. So if you really want this to be the product of some
international H rga assassin I suppose there s still hope but I have a feeling that had he been
asked that it would have been the same answer. And to the people that do think that, I absolutely
get it. In a lot of ways it would make for a more interesting video for me right now if I
could say the H rga did it. And if that s what you want to believe, then no one can really
tell you you re wrong and there s nothing I can point to that says it 100% didn t happen.
They could have faked the message from Terri, arranged the flowers around Dani s picture because
foreshadowing is deeply important to assassins and then done a sick Leon style escape while dressed
as a fireman. But while Leon is undoubtedly a dope movie for me this would rob Midsommar of so
much meaning, that it would fundamentally kill the soul of it. Pelle is an opportunist, the H rga
are opportunists. They prey on the vulnerable, and manipulate and groom. This film is about
how cults and cultish sub-cultures prey on the vulnerable, it literally demonstrates the
mechanics of that process throughout and generally step one of that plan for most cults is
seek out the weak. The isolated, the downtrodden, the easily controlled. All things that Dani is
in a way. It s not a film about an international network of agents using all their resources to
assassinate a family in order to encourage one specific person to arrive at their commune. It
s about someone who is susceptible to control, going through a deep loss and in doing so opening
themselves up to a new, and far more extreme, system of control. If we make the loss something
that has been manufactured by the H rga, then we lose something crucial, that relationship with how
these groups operate in real life and how trauma can often be a gateway into them. In general I
would always advocate for meaning over mystery, but especially when we re looking at
fan theories like this. If your theory, your mystery, in any way undoes the intended
message of the film, then we can say it s probably not an accurate one because there would be no
reason for the writer to have ever included it. So I m sorry if that s a disappointment to some of
you, but I can assure you that if there was proof, and we are going to look at the confusion with Ulf
later on, I do feel certain we would have found it. And given Ari Aster s comments on the subject
and how it would detract from the films meaning in general, I think we can safely put the idea
that Pelle killed the Ardor s to bed. Moving on! What follows is for Dani the worst grief of her
life and for Christian just absolute nightmare timing for his breakup plans. Now to give him his
dues this may be the most emoting we see from him all film, and I do want to stress Christian isn
t an inhuman monster, he s a toxic boyfriend, maybe a bit worse than that and into the abusive,
but he s not someone that morally we could argue is deserving of death, we may not describe him
as evil. So obviously he s going to have a human reaction to anyone he knows going through trauma
on this level. If I had to guess what Christian is feeling at this moment though, I d say
he s probably concerned that he told Dani not to worry about it because Christian is only
truly concerned with what effects Christian. And when we fast-forward to summer, he ll certainly
seem pretty bored by the whole affair. To that end we get the camera moving through the
window into the blizzard outside as Dani and Christian sit shell shocked, again aligning
the season of winter with the concept of death. Now one thing we haven t looked at so far is
the artwork on the walls of Dani s apartment and that s because it s so important it needs it s own
section. We ve got these two paintings right here, this one hidden through a door, we ve also got
this cleverly hidden image on the wall of Terri s room and then this confronting image of a bear,
sat in the middle of frame making sure you take in the visual metaphor at work here. Now these
last two are the crucial part so let s get these two paintings out of the way first. On the left we
have The First Step by Franti ek Kupka. Now there s not a lot of analysis about what this painting
means, but it s certainly supposed to evoke the celestial, perhaps multiple moons, perhaps phases
of the moon, and that s what I got from it, but it s abstract so nothing concrete there. It
certainly fits with the idea of cyclic living and cosmic circularity as we have all these different
planets or moons and phases, and that s certainly a big undercurrent in the film. The painting on
the right is called A Yeren Leaping Forward. A Yeren is essentially a Chinese Bigfoot. And this
is also by Mu Pan, the same artist that did the mural for the film s opening. I m also pretty
certain they re responsible for this piece here, as it looks very similar to their other works
which are filled with surreal battle scenes between animals. In A Yeren Leaping Forward we
see something similar with this mother bigfoot character desperately sprinting to avoid these
demented baby-dog hybrids from chomping at her. But none of this is really clear on screen, what
we see is this very yellow looking, again blooming life, mother or female figure running across
the forest floor, with what looks to be a lot of babies in tow. And even when you see the
image close up, it s still pretty much that, it s just one baby she s carrying and a lot
of evil little critters in pursuit of her, having already wrestled her mate to the floor.
So what s that saying, well, to me it s a nod towards the feminine, natural power within Dani,
a semi-feral mother figure flanked by phases of the moon, I m going divine femininity. The idea
that there s a more natural state awaiting her, or perhaps within her. The thing we re going
to see start to awaken as she s taken in by the H rgas seduction. But that s just one reading, and
they re very abstract paintings so there s a lot you could associate with them, but for me that
s the overall message coming across, that there s something raw in Dani waiting to awaken. And
as for this one peeking at us through the door, we can see it again here, this is also by Franti
ek Kupka it's titled "Femme Cueillant des Fleurs" or "Girls picking flowers" in English. This one
has a much clearer application to the scene we ll see later with the H rgan girls picking flowers,
so no mystery there just a bit more foreshadowing. Alright, on to the good stuff
and I ll warn you right now we re going on a pretty big tangent here.
One of the main questions asked about this film seems to be, why is there a bear involved,
what s the significance of Christian and the bear and so on. And although you can find many
different articles and posts explaining that there is foreshadowing between Christian
and the bear, that the bear is Christian and Christian is the bear and where the
artwork is from and what it is called, none of them will actually explain why that
is. Christian ends up in a bear suit, yes, but what s the link between this painting and
Christian in the film? No one seems to know or want to acknowledge it, it simply is a bear and
there will be on later and so it s clever. And for something that a fair few fans have up on their
bedroom wall, I didn t find that to be a very satisfying answer. Ari Aster commented on it in
an interview saying "The bear is a very important symbol in Norse mythology and in Scandinavian
folklore. It was loaded in all of the right ways, to sort of tie it to Christian and the way that
he dies. It occurred to me at some point in doing research for the film that this is the right way
to send Christian off. Now there s two levels to this question, and Ari Aster s answer. The
first being why are bears important to the H rga and what do they mean in the context of
the film and their traditions . That s really what Aster means by this first half. We re
going to get to that later on, but for now, to address why this painting is hanging on the
wall, we need to answer the much more pressing question of why did Ari Aster include the bear
in the film at all, a decision he seems to refer to specifically when he says at some point during
his research it occurred to him that this was the right way to send Christian off. Because he
s definitely talking about finding something specific there and that got my ears burning.
As I mentioned this has become a very popular poster for fans of the film. It s quite widely
known that this painting is called Poor Little Bear! Or Stackars Lilla Basse! In Swedish.
It s painted by John Bauer and featured in a repeat anthology of Swedish folklore called
Bland Tomtar Och troll or Of Gnomes and Trolls that was released in the early 1900s. And it is
difficult to get your hands on a copy, but before we get to that let s start with the obvious,
why the image connects with fans so much because it foreshadows the ending. And in accepting
that we accept that Dani is the little girl, actually a princess, and Christian is the bear
given that, well you know. The unpleasantness. Now in the scene where we see Terri with the
hosepipe there is another painting that people have pointed out is also by John Bauer, also from
Of Gnomes and Trolls, although it s a different volume to the anthology. And that s a key
distinction because a lot of people are under the impression that these two princesses are the same
princess, that being Princess Tuvvstar, who we see in this image. And in that they both represent
Dani, they essentially are the same character as far as the film is concerned. But in reality
they are two very different stories that the film ties together and so we need to understand
both to fully understand what s happening here. Let s start with the more widely known one,
Princess Tuvvstar, or The Fairy Tale of Skutt the Elk and Princess Tuvstarr to give it the full
title. The story is both bleak and beautiful and also reasonably easy to access online if you want
to read the whole thing. As is a recurring habit of princesses in Scandinavian fairy tales,
Princess Tuvstarr has left the safe confines of her castle and gone out to play in the dark
forest. Before long she is met by a friendly elk that warns her of the dangers lurking there. The
girl, trusting as she is, asks the elk to let her ride on top of him, so that he may show her the
world. The elk warns her that the world outside the castle is a dangerous place, that it is full
of evil and wickedness, that it will hurt her. But the girl is stubborn, and she persuades the
elk to take her with him. They set off together, venturing further into the dark woods. Before long
they come to a clearing, where the girl observes some strange figures dancing. The Elk warns
the Princess that despite seeming friendly, the elves are renowned for their treachery
and makes her promise to hold on tightly to his horns. Noticing the Princess riding by, the
elves quickly swarm to her, grabbing at her and trying to prise the golden crown free from her
head. As the Princess removes her hand from the Elk s horn she forgoes some of its magical
protection and the elves are able to steal the crown and vanish into the woods. The girl
is distraught, but the Elk reminds her that it could have been much worse, that had she been
more careless the elves might have taken her. The next day they continue on their journey
throughout the forest, before long they cross paths with an old woman who the elk identifies
as a witch. The elk warns the girl of the danger, but when the witch asks to see the girls
golden dress the girl again removes a hand and the witch snatches the gown away,
disappearing with a cackle into the woods. The girl is distraught at losing her finest
dress and pleads with the elk that they might go after her, but the elk reminds her that
she was lucky to only lose the dress and tells her that if she had followed the
witch, she would never have come back. The next day the elk and the princess arrive at a
tarn, a secluded lake hidden deep in the forest. The waters are black and speckled with greenish
gold. The girl comments on how strange it looks and once again the elk warns her, telling her of
the danger lurking just below the surface. Despite the elk s warnings the girl leans in closer,
mesmerized by the strange water. As she does, her golden heart locket slips off her neck
and falls into the pool. The locket had been a gift from her mother on the day she was
born and the girl was inconsolable. The elk warns her that they must leave, that
if she keeps searching for her locket, she will forget everything else. But the girl has
had too much taken from her, and she is determined to find her heart. She tells the elk he should
leave, that she will stay as long as it takes. For a while the elk stands guard and watches her
quiet melancholy from the treeline, but after a long time waiting he realises she is no longer
aware of his presence there, and reluctantly he leaves. Many years pass, and every now and then
the elk would travel by the waters. Princess Tuvstarr still sits there waiting, still staring
longingly into the dark water, looking for her heart. She is no longer a little girl, instead a
slender plant, crowned with white cotton, leaning over the edge of the pool. The elk wonders if she
smiles at him, if she wishes she could follow her old friend, but he knows she cannot because
she has fallen for the spell of the forest. And she most definitely doesn
t live happily ever after. Now I imagine it s pretty clear from
that what the parallels are with Dani, but just to quickly clarify, we ve got a blonde
princess or queen figure, going out into the wider world, in both cases represented by the Swedish
countryside. The forest literally takes everything she has. Her station, represented by the crown,
her innocence represented by her clothing and finally her kindness and joy as represented by
her golden heart locket. And just the same Dani loses everything to the forest, to the learning
experiences of her fairytale, her kindness, her connection to those she loved, finally
making the decision to sacrifice Christian, the loss of her heart. And we see both of
them turn into plants. In a way at least. Now let s switch to the other, far less well-known
fairytale that the Poor Little Bear! illustration actually comes from. Which is called Oskuldens
Vandring, which translated into English is either Innocence Hiking , Innocent s Journey Virgins Hike
or Innocence Goes For A Walk . I can t tell you for certain because I couldn t find a version of
it, let alone a translated version of it and the few references I could find for it seemed to
give it conflicting names in English. In many, many places online you will find
people attributing this painting, to the story I just told you. Which as you may
have noticed, did not involve a bear at all. And at first I thought it was possible that
Ari Aster had made the same mistake, or just enjoyed that story and the artwork of John Bauer
and realized the bear image fit. And I assumed that because the other story, Oskuldens Vandring -
the story that this illustration is actually from, comes from a different volume of the anthology and
it is very, very difficult to track down. And you can trust me on that because I did track it down.
I couldn t find it anywhere online, and I ve been sailing the high seas for a long time, but I mean
I couldn t find it anywhere. ChatGPT couldn t even tell me the basic plot points of what happens
in the story and this is a piece of literature that s been around for a century. There were,
a select number of copies available to purchase from a handful of specialist resellers around
the world, but they were starting at several hundred pounds to buy and so fragile that I wouldn
t want to risk posting them internationally. But I did get the email of a reseller that I knew had a
copy in their possession, and from that I was able to get photographs of every page emailed to me, a
big, big thank you to Mauritz if you re watching. And so that s why at first I assumed
that Ari Aster, just like most other people online had just associated one John
Bauer illustration, our Poor Little Bear, with the story of Princess Tuvstarr. Because
Oskuldens Vandring is obscure enough that he d have to go to pretty extreme lengths to
even become aware of the plot to then want to reference it. At that point I was certain he d
just seen the bear image and wanted to use it. But then I google translated the pages the reseller
sent to me, and I started to read the fractured Swedish it kicked back out to me, and somewhere
near the middle of that I burst into a giggle, firstly because I realized this dude is
legitimately crazy. And then secondly because all of this essentially boils down to
a very convoluted and dark joke he s making. So, for potentially the first time online
in English, let me introduce you to the story of Princess Anna Jolanta Isabella
Elisabeth Maria Katrina Inez Beatrice, you can see why she may not have caught on as well
as Princess Tuvstarr. Luckily for us she prefers just to be called Bella . Now Princess Bella s
story is extremely similar to Princess Tuvstarr, although not quite as tragic. Just like Tuvstarr
she sneaks out of her castle to go and be a little rascal in the forest with zero regard for her
personal safety. But as it turns out Bella is a little boastful, she s a little bit too confident
in her abilities. After a successful escape from the castle she realises she is quickly too hot,
and so she takes off her gown. She shouts to the trees and marvels at how tall they are, but when
they reply kindly she reminds them they cannot run like her and as she starts sprinting away to taunt
them, she trips over her high heeled shoes. After removing the shoes she continues on her journey
and accidentally steps on a viper. She continues on this course of not understanding danger and
softly annoying the entire forest, losing her crown to a raven and giving her necklace to a
swan. Eventually she stumbles upon an eagle, disturbing its nest and waking up its children.
The sun is coming down and the girl is stranded in the forest. So, mainly out of aggravation as
to all the commotion the young girl is causing, the eagle tells her it will fly her back
to the castle, leaving her at the gate and taking her last possession, her linen frock.
Just like Tuvvstar she is without clothing, without her locket and without her crown.
She has lost everything to the forest, and now stands in front of her own castle without
any sign of her station. Fortunately for Princess Bella she is able to climb back into the castle,
where her mother and father have been worried sick about her. Which is all essentially the same as
Tuvstarr, little girl goes out into the world, loses everything symbolizing her loss
of innocence. In Bella s case this comes from her being rejected by the world, she puts
herself out there too boldly and suffers for it. But I missed out a key part -
in the middle of all of that, Bella ran into a big brown bear in the middle of
the forest. And seeing this great bear lumbering towards her she feels very sorry for it, because
it is too hot and it cannot take off it s skin, or fur. And the translation I have is
terrible but yes it is that literal, a big part of the story is Bella not really
being old enough to understand what she s seeing, she initially thinks the bear is a dog for
example. So in her mind, and in her words, the bear is too hot, because he cannot take his
skin off. That comes from the page right next to this illustration. Which as I ve said is funny,
but it s also deeply, deeply concerning that this man went to these lengths to tell that joke.
And when we consider the quote we started with, about Ari Aster finding something during his
research that locked in how Christian is going to die, the exact scene that this painting is
illustrating, I think it s impossible to deny that this is the answer. Christian, the bear,
too hot, because he cannot remove his bear skin. And there is something broader that we
should mention still relating to bears, which is the role of bears more generally
in Scandinavian mythology and fairytales. They represent power and natural strength
and so they have long been a popular figure for shapeshifting. Warriors turning into bears
is a very common story and there s hundreds of different riffs on it. And there are several
where it turns out the bear is, essentially, Prince Charming. The most famous example of
this is probably East of the Sun and West of the Moon. This time the girl is poor rather than
a princess, and living in a hovel with her family. One day a bear comes to the door and offers the
family wealth and prosperity in return for their daughter s company. The girl doesn t see the bear
as a threat and goes with him back to his castle, where every night he turns from a beast into
a charming prince. There are some other steps from there, but you can already figure out where
it s going and yes the girl and the prince live happily ever after. The point though is there
is this precedent within the folklore for bears to be this prince charming figure in disguise. Now
there s about 80 different versions of this story, and that s a real number not an approximation, not
counting the similar versions you might find in other cultures, just like Beauty and the Beast. In
some versions the bear is more malicious, in other versions the girl is a princess not a pauper. The
specifics aren t really important just that there s this shapeshifting, skinwalking blur between
Prince Charming and bears in these stories. And so, outside of what bears mean to the H
rga which we ll get to, that s why this bear, this bear, this bear, are all in the film and
how it relates to fairy tales. Christian is the inverted Prince Charming, the bear in human
clothing, too hot but unable to remove his skin. And no matter which story we pull from the outcome
for Dani is the same. The fairytale princess goes out into the world for the first time, full
of trust and innocence, and isn t aware of the dangers she faces, not aware of the threat
the bear may pose, not aware that the elves of the forest seek to take everything she has. And
that really is the defining point that all these stories have in common, even the ones where
the bear is friendly and that s just assumed, the overarching motif is that the little girl
or princess does not understand the threat of the bear nor does she understand the threat
the forest, a stand in for the wider world in general, poses. And it s important to remember it
s not just setting up these themes for Dani and Christian, but also metatextually positioning
them as a fairytale princess and prince and subsequently evoking this feeling we
ve had from the start that we re watching a modern day alternate fairy tale of sorts.
And the other big theme present in these stories, is the reversion to nature, that in learning
the way of the world they start becoming a part of it. They become unrecognizable from the
forest around them. That s why Princess Tuvstarr turned into a plant, it s the influence behind why
Dani is turning into plants, although there a lot more to that we ll look at. Now in the fairytales,
like we ll see in Sleeping Beauty and many others, this is about loss of innocence, which is very
often poetic shorthand for sexual awakening, a more biblical loss of innocence, let s
say. And Dani is being seduced in a way, but it s more spiritual for her, a seduction
into the H rga lifestyle, and that s represented in part through this reversion to nature, in
her becoming plants just like Tuvstarr did. And I m using the phrase reversion to nature very
specifically here, because it has significance to a very dark corner of European history, something
the film is hiding just under the surface and we ll see introduced to us over the following scenes.
And so I want you to keep in mind that Dani s reversion to nature isn t just metaphorical
of her being indoctrinated to the H rga, it s not just representing her loss of innocence,
it can be seen as something that combines the two, something else blossoming, the dangerous ideals
and beliefs of the H rga taking hold within her. Before we move on from the wall art I also want to
point out this painting above Dani s parents bed, it seems to be a landscape of some inland
islands, now again it s nothing concrete, but this does hold some resemblance to similar
islands we ll see as the gang are landing in Sweden. It could be nothing, it could be a
nod to the family having background there, or just an appreciation for
the scenery at the very least. So, back to chronology and we see Dani,
laying under our poor little bear that s too hot in all his fur. We can see the
plants Dani is surrounded by have died, not what we d expect to see in Summer and it
s absolutely a symptom and signifier of Dani s lack of self-care over the last few months.
But it also goes back to what I was saying about yellow and how it s twisting that idea of
blooming life into something dying before its time. And in walks Christian, desperately trying
to break free so he can go to a party. He knows he can t argue when Dani suggests she ll come to,
but he clearly doesn t want her to and rather than saying that he tries to manipulate her into
thinking not coming would be for her own good. Cut to the party and this is a really short scene
but there s a few important things going on here. Primarily it s where we first hear about the
trip, this is really cleverly done as we start with this bottled sound representing Dani s phased
out half listening, and it comes more clearly into focus when she catches the comment about them all
going to Sweden. Secondly, the conversation here, and at many points, is puerile, talking
about watching their parents have sex, being culturally insensitive towards Sweden. This
is all part of the somewhat obnoxious view of Americans the film is building. We find out that
Josh is visiting Sweden as part of his studies, and that it s where Pelle calls home. We also see
Christian lying to Dani in as casual a manner as he can muster, telling her he probably isn t
even going on the trip. And I don t want to just be critical of Christian here, there is an
element of the paranoid partner to Dani as well, zoning in as soon as she hears about Christian
doing this. Which is entirely fair given the circumstances, but if you watch Florence Pugh
closely here I think she s letting the crazy in just a touch, same with her sudden burst of
questions. It s clearly a little bit hostile, a little bit uncomfortable. On their silent
drive home we see Christian put his phone in his pocket and Dani s eyes fixate on it as if
she s concerned with who he might be texting. And one other thing, this guy on the left they re
talking to. I know a lot of people are interested in what happens after the film ends, do the
H rga get caught, what Dani does and so on, and unlike with Hereditary, I think we can get
some pretty solid answers on what that is. So for now all you need to know is this guy on the left
represents the only person the group tell where they re going, at least as we see it on screen.
When Dani and Christian eventually get back to her apartment they have the inevitable argument
and this is really to drive home to the audience that Christian is not to be trusted. After Dani
outlines the problem, Christian says Sorry? in a kind of confused and questioning tone, then lies
about when he planned the trip, then threatens to leave. And up until that point Dani has been
holding her own, she s trying to play it cool, but she s also pressing the issue. However from
the moment Chrsitian threatens to leave she begins to back down, she says she doesn t need
an apology, that she wanted to talk about it, past tense meaning she s done asking. She
immediately goes from subtly trying to discuss the Sweden thing to doing whatever she can to diffuse
it, because she s terrified of being alone. And Christian realises this ploy is working, but
rather than letting it be he doubles down on it, using that fear she has to bring her in line. He
repeats the threat of leaving and she essentially starts begging him not to and apologising to
him. To simplify all that, he turns him having to apologize into her having to apologize just
by threatening to leave. The whole thing is a big manipulation towards Christian getting what
he wants. And he only relents when she s crying and repeatedly apologizing and calling herself
paranoid. And because Christian is conflicted about the Dani thing, and maybe because he sees
it as another way to one-up her and smooth things over, he then makes up another lie, that he was
always going to invite her. Even blaming her for ruining the surprise. Jack Reynor is particularly
good in this scene, he does a very good job at making you dislike him but giving it just enough
humour that you can still laugh along with the jaded boyfriend and just like Florence Pugh he
keeps the whole thing very believable. Once he's dropped that he was always going to invite her
and that she ruined the surprise, the camera holds on her wavering expression. This should be
the clich moment where she explodes with glee and says I can t believe we re going to Sweden ,
it could even be the moment she apologises for ruining it and tries to get kissy if you want
to lean on the submissive angle. But instead, there s nothing. No reaction. Dani has no idea
what to feel, no real reason to even believe he s telling the truth, nothing but doubt over
what he wants at all really. And so we don t see her final reaction. And the end result is a
complete absence of catharsis for the audience in this moment. We carry the anxiety and
unease right into the next scene, just as the relationship does because the film refused
to give us that moment to breathe. It doesn t really let up the whole way through and I m sure
it comes as no surprise after Hereditary, but the level of manipulation put on the audience in
the first 20 minutes of this film is incredible. There s a couple of things worth pointing
out here, one is this shot of Christian in the mirror. Ari Aster loves messing with
mirrors, we know that from Hereditary, and I think looking at this it s easy to see why.
It s a dynamic shot with two conversing characters that gets both of their faces in clear view for
the audience. We ll see the same thing in the next shot with five people. It s technically very good
and clearly effective. But we also have this sort of confusion to the eye, where the characters in
the mirror seem to look as if they re looking in through a window. This was especially apparent
in Hereditary where the characters are being observed, and we see the same thing here to a
degree. It creates distance to the characters, division. In this shot division between
Christian and Dani and in this shot division, or awkwardness, between the friendship group and
Christian and Dani s relationship. It s a very clever way of generating anxiety between the two
parties and it also allows for the characters to be staring out at the audience, sending some
of that anxiety our way. These characters are looking in through a window, or a screen just like
we are, and these characters are staring back. It also sets up the idea of the outsider, Christian
will end the film as the outsider and Dani the new prize of the H rga with Christian watching
on. In the other scene it s Christian and Dani s relationship that is exterior to the friendship
group and the source of the scenes conflict. And that following scene in Mark and Josh
s apartment is the last we see of America, but there s a lot to cover here. I ve seen a few
people thinking this is Christian s apartment but in the script it clearly states it s Mark and Josh
s. I think the amount of books should be the main clue that it s Josh living here, not Christian
whose academic strategy seems to be fake it til you make it. Or fake it til you get some of the
weirdest barnsex going and then sewn into a bear suit . Let s start with the obvious anxiety in the
scene. We immediately cut from Christian telling Dani she s coming, to telling his friends that she
isn t, but they need to act like she is. His exact wording being I invited her, and she accepted, but
she s not actually coming to Sweden. Which Mark and Josh seem quite confused by, particularly
Mark. And I ve seen a lot of people equally confused by this online because it s a weird
thing to say and it gives us a few options, either Christian is certain she isn t coming
because he s saying he s going to break up with her prior to then, or he s suggesting he s going
to employ some other workaround for getting her not to come. Clearly this doesn t pan out though,
and so we re left with the possibility that Christian is perhaps lying to his friends here to
avoid the confrontation or he s banking on Dani deciding not to come because she s overwhelmed
with grief. Now we know Christian is willing to be underhanded with Josh later on, we know
he s a habitual liar. So it s likely that this could be an element of trickle-truthing. He does
essentially trick them with his explanation, first he says that he invited her, then that he invited
her but she isn t coming, then that he invited her and she accepted, and lastly tells them to
act as if it was their idea. The end outcome is that Dani ends up on the plane, so it seems very
likely that Christian is just lying here. But, Dani s also going to be throwing up from grief on
that flight, she s clearly not in a good place, and she was almost not rested enough to go to the
party. During this scene she s even jumping at the microwave behind her so we can say she s likely
suffering from PTSD. And when Dani s asked about if she s coming after entering the apartment,
her reply is to say I mean I guess so , look at Christian for confirmation and then kind of pose
it out to the group. So she s not certain about it at that point. Now given that when they all say
they have no problem with it, her and Christian share a hug in the mirror, I m leaning towards
the confusion coming from Christian lying and him using this situation to get them to approve her
coming. But it is worth noting that she s not sure when she walks in and Pelle is the one reinforcing
that she is coming. Saying You know, I m very, very glad you re coming. I, I think it s very good
you re coming once they re alone on the sofa. And we go straight from that conversation, or rather
Dani s exit from it when Pelle brings up her parents, straight to the flight to Europe. So yes
I think Christian is manipulating his friends here into getting them to agree to Dani coming, but
it s also just as likely he was going to try and weasel out of it. Ultimately though, once Pelle
starts getting his hooks in, it seems certain, we are told certainly by hikm, that Dani is coming.
We ll come back to their conversation in a moment. Sticking with Christian though it's also worth
pointing out that Josh asks if he should clear away the bong and Christian seems entirely
unfazed, I ll leave judgment of that up to you, either Christian just wants to be entirely honest
with Dani or he doesn t really care what she thinks. Also shout out to Will Poulter here,
his silence when he should be affirming Dani, his forgetting the laptop after asking Christian
to look at it. It s some much needed brevity at this point and it s difficult with him and
Jack Reynor because we are supposed to find them unlikeable, but they do a good job of
finding moments to make the audience giggle. Now onto a completely different note: this scene
might set the record for most visual foreshadowing crammed into one room. I m going to list all
the ones that I could find, but I am sure there are more here. If you know of any I ve missed,
please tell me in the comments down below. So from the top make it drop like a mallet into Josh
s skull because we ve got this hammer shaped light positioned right behind his head. Very threatening
and obviously foreshadowing his grisly end at the hands of this absolute piece right here. We ve
also got this beam of light pouring in over Josh, signalling him as an illuminated, enlightened,
figure. Illumination has always been analogous with knowledge, just like darkness symbolizes
the unknown. It s why Prometheus stole fire, it s why an idea is signalled by a lightbulb
above the head, it s why the enlightenment was called the enlightenment. And we even get told
that this illumination, this search for wisdom, will be his downfall, because we ve got this
skeleton frequenting his library of books. Over to Mark and we can see the positioning of the
coats on the door in the background forming this suggestion at a jesters hat. We ll also see this
picture of the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz and this scarecrow soft toy, both foreshadowing Mark s
horrendous end stuffed full of straw. Next to that we can see a stuffed bear toy that looks like it
s been awkwardly re-sewn foreshadowing Christian s grizzly end. Now is probably a good time to
mention the pretty clear Wizard of Oz metaphor at work here. The Lion, the bear, is Christian,
lacking the courage to do what s right and break up with Dani. The Scarecrow is Mark, without a
brain and eventually stuffed with straw. And the tin-man is Josh, who lacks a heart. This isn t as
clear in the final cut as I feel Josh is a tiny bit more likeable in the film than the script but
we still see this aspect of his character where he doesn t necessarily care about the brutality of
what he s seeing as opposed to what it can earn him academically. Dani is Dorothy and ironically
Dorothy just wanted to go home, which is the exact opposite of what Dani ends up choosing. I suppose
you could say Pelle is the Wizard, tricking the group, but it doesn t necessarily extend to
him. Back to the visual references and we have characters wearing crowns, specifically Dani and
Pelle, the two people we ll see crowned at the end. We see Dani with this crown, and with this
crown. And Pelle s is really close with the same leafy green-man vibes we ll see during the ending
ritual. We can even see a softly suggested upside down crucifix shape formed by Josh and these
tickets on the wall. Now there is this general inversion and opposition to Christianity going
on in general, but actually I think this could be referencing Josh s later burial upside down,
which in turn is designed to reflect Odin hanging, which in turn was likely heavily influenced by the
story of Christ on the cross. So here we have Josh in front of an upside-down cross, foreshadowing
his later upside-down sacrifice which is tacitly linked to Christ. Do not worry if that doesn t
make sense we ll be looking at it in detail later. But perhaps the most noticeable bit
of foreshadowing, bright yellow in the centre of frame, drawing you in like Josh is
being drawn in, like the H rga draw people in, is the book The Secret Nazi Language
of the Uthark. There is a lot going on here so I m going to leave this for when it s
actually being discussed but long story short, yes the H rga are absolutely a bunch
of racists. More on that very soon. Now let s look at Pelle and Dani on the couch
together and I think the most noticeable thing immediately is the shocking difference in tone.
He s showing her what seems to be genuine care, something we haven t seen for the previous twenty
minutes. Just like Dani, we ve been starved of it, so as the audience we re more likely to fall for
Pelle s tricks too and see him as pretty benign in comparison to Christian. This is very similar
to how we see Joan being introduced in Hereditary, we go from this toxic sterility, this unpleasant
calm and tension, to Joan being very lovey-dovey church auntie that sympathises with everything. It
s a little bit more complex than that here though, because Pelle is Christian s friend and he
s being very friendly with Dani. So we re not just being manipulated into looking to Pelle
for this comfort and warmth that is starved from Dani and starved from the film, we re also
tacitly being primed to betray Christian. That s not to say though, that Pelle isn t being
creepy. This film deliberately walks a divisive tightrope, and my personal reaction was to
be extremely wary of him, and given that we know where the film is going, that the horror is
going to be happening in Sweden, where he s from, that s a reasonable assessment. And now we
re onto Pelle being creepy, a big question people have regarding this is when does Pelle
start planning all of this? And that s actually relatively easy to map. As we know Pelle and
the boys have had this trip planned for months, and every mention of that trip prior to Dani
coming has involved impregnation or mentions of Swedish women. It s safe to say his plan at
that point is to get the boys, or rather Mark and Christian and absolutely not Josh, to do
some impregnating, bringing in the new blood like we see at the end. Given that he knows Josh
s interest is actually academic I don t think he s too worried about him wanting to be involved. Now
as we know there s more to it than that, but for now we can say Pelle s basic plan was to get them
to give the H rga their new blood and disguise it as a lads holiday. Was he aware they could be in
peril? Certainly, but that doesn t mean anything was definite. Now the next question is, what about
Dani? Well he s pretty safely under the assumption that she isn t coming, hence his focus being on
Christian getting someone pregnant. But it s clear he wants her to come from this furtive glance at
her when the trip is mentioned. When he finds out in this scene that she might be coming, he stays
almost still and silent until they re left to talk and then he starts to get the hooks in. We can say
he s probably had feelings for Dani for a while, but as for when he starts having designs on
her being May Queen and potentially his future girlfriend, you can pretty much mark this exact
moment as he shows her the photo of the previous May Queen and doesn t stop staring at her from
that moment on. We won t see it on screen but in the script it mentions Pelle watching her
leave with a blank stare. So we can presume this is the moment his intentions towards the
rest of them may start turning more hostile as he starts to engineer the situation towards his
desires. And once Pelle s made this connection with Dani and the May Queen and he starts telling
her she is coming, we can see his cult recruiter brain moving to that next level of manipulation
and he tries to use her grief as a vehicle for establishing emotional nurture and exploiting her
vulnerability. Really for the rest of the film, like on the plane right here, you ll see
him covertly watching Dani, watching for opportunities to seduce her into the H rga.
And notice how when Dani says That s an interesting symbol Pelle doesn t elaborate on
its meaning, it s not even clear which symbol she s pointing to. And this is par for the course
with Pelle, he isn t interested in explaining the meaning or answering a lot of the questions we
see him get asked. In Dani s case we can presume that s because he doesn t want to scare her off.
But with the rest of the group, specifically Josh, we can say it s because he doesn t want them
knowing, or more likely because he knows it s pointless telling them. I ve seen people
asking what Pelle is drawing here and it s literally just the items on the table. I ve seen a
number of different explanations for this ranging from Ari Aster having fun at the audience s
expense, knowing they re searching for every sign they can, or that it s simply supposed to set
up his drawing ability for later when he starts handing Dani creepy fan art. To me though I think
it s supposed to show Pelle s role as an observer, we know he s sending information back to the
village and while the contents of this table are relatively mundane, it sets up that he
s taking notes, recording his environment. Just like we see him doing in the opening mural
taking notes from a tree, another reason I think we can safely assume he had some feelings for
Dani prior to her decision to come to Sweden. The scene closes with one of the slickest
transitions put to screen and it really conveys this feeling of Dani s grief not
subsiding between her getting upset in front of Pelle and the flight to Sweden. We
see a very similar trick in Hereditary where Annie s screaming carries over from the point of
her finding Charlie s body to Charlie s funeral, and there s this immediate knowledge that there
s been no lapse in the grief in the intervening time. And I love the way the sounds of the plane
begin while she s still in the living room and amplify when she pops the door open. Very simple
and very effective. This turbulence that we ll see the plane suffer from reflecting Dani s mental
state and foreshadowing the horror awaiting her. But lets go back for a moment because the
most important thing about this scene is that it s where we get our first mention of the
Midsommar festival. Which Pelle describes as sort of a crazy nine day festival [his] family s
doing, lots of pageantry, and special ceremonies and dressing up. And, I guess that s fair in a
typical horror villain double speak kind of way. Now the number one question about this movie, the
video people are going to look up after watching, the subject of this article and this article and
many other articles. Is the Midsommar film based on real traditions or real history . And all of
them, from Vanity Fair to Screen Rant, all of them have the same answer. They re going to tell
you that elements of the Midsommar celebration are absolutely real, the maypoles, the dancing, the
flowers, the frolicking, all have been traditions in Europe and other places around the world, for
a long, long time. Which is true, they have. But the other half of the answer they all give, the
question that I think everyone is really asking, is no, the activities of the murderous H rga don
t have any place in history and sacrifices like this never occurred, it s all an invention of the
film . 99% of them all draw the same conclusion that while Midsommar festivities are absolutely
a thing, there s no historical influence for the sacrifice beyond maybe wider pagan sacrifice
throughout Europe. There s videos, posts, all over the internet all affirming the same thing.
And I don t want to say that s wrong, because in a very technical sense I suppose it isn t. But,
and in this case it s a pretty sizeable but , I think they re all missing out something extremely
important, the real answer to the question we re all actually asking. Because I think, actually I
m certain, that this was all based on something. Welcome to the City of Uppsala, Sweden.
A beautiful slice of Scandinavian living where history meets modernity and both exist
together in harmony. And just on the outskirts we have the small village of Gamla Uppsala,
or Old Uppsala, the previous site before the present city s founding in 1477. And while
it may be a reserved and quiet place today, back in the 10th century it was a major cultural
centre, due to it s relatively large size for the time and a supposedly quite grand, golden temple
that was built there. And crucial to us, it was also home to a festival that would draw visitors
from every province in Sweden, even envoys that would bring offerings for the festivities from
the ruling monarchs, a heathen festival that would take place every 9 years. Heathen in this
sense meaning pagan. And you can probably guess where this is going and what they did at this
festival that took place every nine years, that s right they sacrificed a bunch of people!
The festival is even described specifically as a feast, just as we see in the film. And while there
s not an overwhelming amount of evidence for it, what we do have evidence of makes for some pretty
interesting reading. Primarily we have the 11th Century account from German medieval chronicler,
Adam of Bremen. He describes there a magnificent temple made of gold and named Usbola, according
to Adam the main idols worshipped at the temple were Odin, Thor and Frey. Now the temple most
certainly did exist, although it s currently the matter of some debate how grand it truly was
and what purpose it truly served. This footage I m playing currently is of the temple site today,
many thanks to Nordin Walks for that, I ll try my best to squeeze in a link to the full video in the
description but I am linking their channel if you want to check them out. Now some historians doubt
some of the details of Adam s account, considering the area to already have been predominantly
converted to Christianity, due to the proliferation of Christian runestones found there.
They suggest that the pagans Adam described were essentially an off-shoot branch of Christianity
that Adam may have been trying to discredit, but I want to stress that is not the commonly
held belief and other reliable historical sources corroborate Adam s account of human sacrifice at
Upsala during the festival. And even if there was an inconsistency there, the historical veracity
is not our concern here, we just care that it s a known account of history the film can
potentially be pulling from. And the longer I talk about this festival at Uppsala, hopefully
the more familiar it s going to sound because there aren t too many details to Adam s account
and they all appear in the film in some fashion. So let s start with the sacrificing, every nine
years during the festival a sacrifice would be made of 9 male offerings from 9 different living
species, making for a total of 72 sacrifices. And yes human was the first and foremost on that
list. We know some of the included animals were dogs and horses but the full list was never
provided. And in the film we have exactly that, 9 human sacrifices, also might I add, inside
a golden temple. And just like in the film the festival occurred over a nine-day period. In
the film it s changed to a 90-year festival to maintain the significance of the number 9 while
also adapting to represent this potential cyclic resurgence in ethnonationalist thinking.
The other major detail from Adam s account is where the sacrifices took place. Which is in
a small but sacred grove of trees adjoining the temple. Now there s a lot more to say as to why
the trees get involved in this and exactly how they re involved in the sacrifice, which we re
going to look at later and I promise is a lot less boring than it sounds. But the short version
for right now is, the sacrifices are hung from the trees in this grove and the general link to trees
comes from Odin and Yggdrasil, the world tree. Now the grove consists of many smaller trees and one
tree that stands out to Adam as being very large with wide-spreading branches that was green
in both winter and summer. He then leaves the cryptic suggestion what kind it is, nobody knows
. Later on he tells us this grove is sacred in the eyes of the heathen, that each and every tree
in it is believed divine because of the death or putrefaction of the victims . So essentially
because their kin are dying and decomposing there, the trees are somehow seen as housing or
representing their spirits. And as we know, that s exactly what we see in Midsommar with
the ancestral tree that Mark is so keen to urinate on. Ulf says directly that the tree is
their ancestors. Now when I got to this point in the research I was half aware and half expecting
this to not really be a major point because I was presuming every temple had an ancestral tree just
like this. But that is not the case. Don t get me wrong, it s not an entirely unique phenomena.
There has been a tradition throughout Scandanavia, in Swedish it s called V rdtr d, in Norway it
was called Tuntre. And this is essentially the act of planting a central tree in your garden,
or farmland or freehold and nurturing it over time. The act of caring for the tree was seen
as paying respect to your ancestor spirits that resided within it. So while the practice isn
t entirely unique to the festival at Uppsala, what really seems to be is this specific notion
of a tree bonding to ancestor spirits through a mass sacrifice. Now there were perhaps
many other sacrifices we don t know about, Uppsala certainly isn t the only place in history
to see people hung from trees, but let s say it s a standout case. So much so that this fragment
of a recovered tapestry that literally just shows men and animals hanging from a tree is widely
assumed to be depicting the sacrifices at Uppsala. We don t see it in the film, and I think we
can all be thankful for that, but there was a scene that involved the butchering of nine
animals, including a dog, including a horse, and draining them of their blood as part of a
fertility ceremony. There s also another cut scene as the group are travelling into Halsingland where
they come across a tree filled with exsanguinated boars. We see reference to this directly in some
of the H rga artwork where we see a depiction of deer being hung from a tree and drained of blood.
And this is potentially what happened at Uppsala, the sacrifices were hung from trees. And,
possibly drained of their blood given Adam makes reference to their blood being used to
placate the gods. Obviously it s a different style to the tapestry fragment but I think it
s very likely that was an influencing factor. So this animal sacrifice element of the temples
history was absolutely included too, it just wasn t included in the final cut of the film.
And the similarities do not stop there, just like we see with the H rga, the festival at
Uppsala wasn t the only time there might have been sacrifices at the temple. There was a small body
of water there, sometimes referred to as a well, sometimes referred to as a spring my extremely
lacking translation of the original Latin has it as source, so we can say some small naturally
occurring body of water that the temple made practical use of. And according to Adam of Bremen
at times separate to the festival they would make a sacrifice by plunging a live man into the water.
If his body was not found then they believed their wish would be granted. And that s extremely
reminiscent of what s happening here in this scene where we see the H rga almost sacrifice
a willing child. That s the only mention of sacrifice outside of the parameters of the
festival at Uppsala and it s the only other time we see the H rga aim to make a sacrifice outside
of the 9 main offerings for their summer festival. Now I think that we ve hopefully proven it but
there are some other smaller aspects of Adam s account that are worth mentioning, I don t think
these are dealbreakers or solid evidence on their own but given what we ve just established
I think they re worth discussing. First are the reports of Adam, and the agreement of locals
and historians that as well as worshipping Odin, Thor and Frey, the temple-goers also worshipped
mortal human heroes that had lived in the area in the past and had committed great deeds or were
otherwise revered. Adam says The people also worship heroes made gods, whom they endow with
immortality because of their remarkable exploits, as one reads in the Vita of Saint Ansgar they did
in the case of King Eric. So right there Adam is acknowledging that this isn t the only instance
of humans being worshipped alongside gods, but given this section is specifically about
Uppsala, we can say that this tradition at the temple wasn t the norm. And just because you may
find it interesting, in the same section Adam also acknowledges the similarity between the Norse and
Roman pantheons, likening Odin to Mars and Thor to Jupiter, so he seems to be relatively astute and
aware of the traditions. Now this is important to us because as well as worshipping their pagan
gods, these mother and father nature archetypes, the H rga also worship people. Specifically Ruben
the inbred oracle and previous oracles before him. Now there s more we ll say about Ruben and
his role in the H rga, but think honestly, is he a necessary inclusion? I don t mean does he
add anything to the film, he certainly does. But if you were writing the H rga wouldn t the logical
choice be to have them worship pagan gods OR have them revere an inbred Dalai Lama figure? I m not
saying both is a bad choice at all, but it s a unique one and it s exactly what we saw at Uppsala
where humans were worshipped alongside gods. Next we have Adam s description of a A golden
chain [that] goes round the temple. It hangs over the gable of the building and sends its glitter
far off to those who approach Now we don t have much proof for a great golden chain outside of
Adam s account, but for anyone interested we do have examples of similar chains being built around
European churches in the 8th and 9th Century so it s not out of the realm of possibility. There aren
t any chains around the H rga s golden temple, but to enter the compound you do have to come
through a golden sun gate. Now I know that s flimsy, if there was a golden fence all around the
area it would be a lot more concrete. I suppose you could try and apply more to it, that it s a
chain of secrecy or perhaps that the temple is forbidden to them when they arrive, but truthfully
everything else fits so well that I don t think we need it. So let s finish strong with a little bit
of promiscuity. The H rga are pretty forward with their ideas on sexuality, they re forthright in
explaining them, they re communally open in the act itself as we see, and even more important
than that they put lude imagery everywhere, it s hanging from sheets as artwork, it s used as
wallpaper, it s painted everywhere you look. Their community is laden with open promiscuity and that
s exactly what Adam of Bremen has to say about Uppsala, saying A Christian told me that he had
seen 72 bodies suspended promiscuously. Meaning he d seen the 9x9 sacrifices hanging in such
a way where they d been put in lude positions. He goes on to say: the incantations customarily
chanted in the ritual of a sacrifice of this kind are manifold and unseemly; therefore, it
is better to keep silent about them. And given he s linking these two things we can presume
whatever they were chanting certainly went against core Christian values. So there s an
inherent lewdness and vulgarity to both the H rga and the pagan festival at Uppsala as well.
Even the description of the surrounding area, like a stage between mountains, seems to
fit with the strip of land they filmed on. And all in all, that s every single thing
that s mentioned in Adam of Bremen s account, maybe barring the inclusion of the golden
chain, appearing in the film in some form or another. And you may wonder given how
I ve displayed quotes here, have I just cherrypicked certain parts to make it apply. And
the answer is no, this is Adam s full account, it s not very long at all and I ve mentioned every
single part of it. Every single part of it fits, or pretty much fits with the movie. And I just
want to stress this festival wasn t some small thing, this was a major reoccurring event. It s
said that no one, not even kings, were exempt from attending, although attending in this sense may
mean you could send an offering in your place. For those that had converted to Christianity there
was an opportunity to pay your way out of it, for others taking part in the sacrifice, or
sacrificing, it provided them a chance to absolve themselves of Christianity. There was a case where
a Christian king of Sweden, King Anund or Anunder refused to attend or to allow the human sacrifices
to go ahead and he was quickly deposed by his council. We don t know for 100% certain that this
was referring to sacrifice at Uppsala, but we can presume it was given that we hear about it in the
exact same source and chapter from Adam of Bremen. And so, for me at least, this all begs the
question, what is wrong with this theory? Why didn t Esquire or Vanity Fair or any of the others
think to look into this? And from what I can tell it s that they ve all been focused on whatever
they re looking for happening definitively at Midsommar. And if that s an absolute necessity
for this theory to hold water, I guess it falls down on the fact that it s not happening right
on Midsommar, but that to me doesn t matter at all because the question is and always has been,
what is the real life influence for what we see in the film , not was there pagan human sacrifice
specifically on Midsommar . However, just in case you re not on board yet, this festival didn t
take place on the summer solstice that s true but it did take place over the Spring, or Vernal,
Equinox which is pretty damn close, it s still a relevant event in the astronomic calendar. It s
also the thing you would absolutely adapt given you want to make the film about Midsommar, just
like we see parts of May Day celebrations pulled in. The only things that have changed are the
date of reoccurrence from 9 years to 90, which is purposefully done. The equinox as we ve just
covered, which you absolutely have to do if you re making the movie about Midsommar, and lastly
that the sacrifices were all male at Uppsala. Again we see this being altered to
fit with other aspects of the film, namely the balance the H rga discuss with the
hermaphroditic tendencies of nature. I also think it would be thematically confusing if the H rga
just started killing specifically men at the end. And personally I think that s enough evidence to
say the festival at Uppsala was a major influence on what we see on screen. It would just be too
complicated a coincidence, to the point where even if Ari Aster and the creators of the H rga
had never heard of the temple at Gamla Uppsala, these ideas must still have got through to
them via the ephemeral cultural understanding of early Scandinavian tradition. But I know
that s not the case because Ari Aster named one of the sources he used for researching the
movie. That being The Golden Bough: A study of Magic and Religion by Sir James George Frazer.
It s an early compendium of European witchcraft, magical groups and pagan activities. And the word
Midsummer appears nearly 200 times throughout it so there is a lot here on the history and
traditions that Ari Aster could have pulled from. And if you were flicking through those
mentions it s very likely you would see one of the seven times that the temple at Uppsala is
discussed. So not only does it fit perfectly, but we can say pretty certainly that if Ari
Aster was using this book to research Midsummer, which he was, then he would have come across
the temple at Uppsala and the festival of human sacrifice that occurred there.
And with that I rest my case, and I hope you all find it convincing. Now
it s time for part 2, The dark in the light. So we pick back up with the gang having landed
in Sweden and Mark is immediately perving on Swedish women. He s been sold on this very much
being a sex-filled getaway. He asks what is it that makes them hotter? And Josh replies The
Vikings grabbed all the best babes from the other countries and dragged them over. Now
first of all, there isn t much of a basis for this. Speaking as someone who grew up in the
North of England let me tell you that they very much did their fair share of grabbing women,
but most of that stayed over here and mixed with our genetics. There s very little evidence of
mixing back across the North Sea during this time, specifically within matrilineal DNA, so we can say
women weren t being taken back and forth a lot, or in great number. And so Josh s point is a
little confusing, because he is by all accounts a good anthropologist. And I think this is a product
of his character being toned down for the film, remember I mentioned he was lacking a heart but it
s more clear in the script? Well originally it was Christian that said this, which makes sense that
he d just go with his assumption rather than fact, and Josh then chimes in that it makes a pretty
good case for r*pe from a nationalist point of view . Which is brutal and designed to show
us that Josh s anthropological interests far outweigh his morality. That he s able to
look objectively at terrible acts out of this unquenchable cultural interest. We
still sort of get that in the final cut, but it s a little bit more guarded.
And I think the reason it s okay to have Josh say Christian s line here is that
this entire conversation, from Mark noticing the roadside ladies to their discussions about
mutant genitalia, it s all part of this puerile and obnoxious depictions of Americans on holiday.
Josh is giving the lads holiday answer here, hence why it s okay to have him saying the best
babes and playing fast and loose with the truth. This is essentially locker room talk that Dani s
not really included in and so it s driving home this idea of her not being a part of the group
and the group are brash and childish Americans that do not fit in and don t really care and
have repeatedly stereotyped Sweden every time it s being brought up. There is another reason for
this playing fast and loose with history though, and that s the foreshadowing that Pelle, our
Viking in this situation, has dragged over Dani, who as he sees it is the best babe , May Queen
material. And really that s the key doublespeak, that s why the line is still included even
though the rest of the discussion is missing. The group don t know it, but they re currently
part of that process of being dragged over. We also hear a snippet of conversation without
context, where Pelle is asking Josh if he s sensitive about Hiroshima, the Trail of Tears and
finally slavery, to which Josh says dude, what do you think? . Now on first watch this is probably
just a bit of funny banter where Pelle is ribbing Josh a bit. But there s something else going
on here. Firstly these are all terrible things, it s not a funny side-bit for your character to
be sensitive about them, the slavery reaction, sure. But when we speculate on what this may have
been said in response to I think it s pretty clear it was criticism about Nazi s. And the reason I
say that is Pelle s first response is Hiroshima, which is a similar argument to Dresden where
people will question the justification and point out that the Allies did a bunch of terrible
things too. And so what I think we can take from this is that Josh was making some form of
criticism regarding the Nazi s and Pelle is sort of saying well why does that bother you, why is
this something you re fixated on but not x,y, and z? . Now that has to remain speculation,
I can t say for certain what they were talking about off-screen, but to me it s the reasonable
answer given what context we have. But why would Josh be bringing up Nazi s and why would
Pelle be taking any kind of umbrage with that? And to answer those questions we need to say
goodbye to monetization and hello to the book The Secret Nazi Language of the Uthark
and Dani noticing it in the car. And on that note before we start this section I just
want to reaffirm this is potentially the most evil group to scour our world history,
racist murderous charlatans and cowards that should never have had their day in the
sun. And everything I m discussing I am doing so with full condemnation of them, not promotion.
Now I already mentioned this isn t a real book, but that s not to say that the Uthark isn t a
real thing. Or is it? Well it s complicated. So let s try and simplify it because no matter
how we cut it this is a pretty huge topic. So these runes you re used to seeing everywhere,
are Elder Futhark, not Uthark, Futhark. There s also Younger Futhark, and the Anglo Saxon Futhorc.
Elder Futhark originates around the 2nd Century AD to give you an idea of how old these systems are.
The name Futhark refers to the order of letters, or runes, very similar to Qwerty on keyboards. The
pronunciation of the first six characters is F, U, TH, A, R, K, hence Futhark . Now fast
forwarding to the 1920 s we have a chap by the name of Sigurd Agrell. A professor at Lund
University in Sweden. And he was a bit of an eccentric that made the claim that these rows
of runes were actually a cipher of sorts. And to understand their mystical meaning one
had to shift the characters along by one, putting the F to the back of the alphabet and
giving us Uthark . Agrell believed that the Futhark was a regular alphabet, but the Uthark
held great magical power. He put all this to paper in the book Die Sp tantike Alphabet-Mystik
und die Runenreihe or The Alphabet-mysticism of late antiquity and the sequence of the runes
that eventually released in 1932. And that s really all you need to know because this theory
was widely disregarded and had zero basis in historical fact. There wasn t a single medieval
example of practicing the kind of runic magic that Agrell was describing. So even if you
didn t understand any of what I just said, it doesn t really matter. It s bullshit and
that s what matters, that s specifically why it s being used here. But that didn t stop the
theory from garnering some support over the following years and it wouldn t be until 1952 that
opposition to the theory began being published. Now Agrell would die in 1937 before that criticism
came to light, and as his theory began to develop a small hold on the discourse it would be
picked up by a number of writers eager to present their take on runes and the history of
runic magic. One of those writers was a German man by the name of Rudolf Koch. Rudolf Koch
was a letterer, essentially a font designer, and he provided fonts for the Nazi regime. Hitler
was weirdly specific about fonts, favouring the aesthetics of the German Blackletter style, this
is because he was trying to build a specific kind of history for his new Germany, one that would
establish them as ubiquitously superior. More on that shortly. Now prior to all that Rudolf Koch
wrote The Book of Signs in 1930, essentially an encyclopaedia of all the different signs and
symbols of religious and spiritual and cultural significance from early to medieval man. And
in that book he included a chapter on the runic alphabet which included a short section on runic
magic. In it Koch makes some claims about runes being able to foretell the future and it s pretty
clear that he s building on the Uthark theory that was currently being proposed by Agrell. Now
this book wasn t particularly popular in its day, but in 1955 it would get a reprint and following
that it would see a huge surge in popularity in the UK and America, powered largely by the hippie
movement who were at that time lapping up any spiritual symbolism they could get hold of. And
that s important because it lets us track the route these false ideas took. For example the idea
of divination with letter runes, the notion that these things could be somehow used to tell the
future, doesn t appear in Scandinavian history, it wasn t something they did with letter runes.
But the idea became popular in America and pretty soon it was another part of the grand cultural
misunderstanding around runic magic. And it s very likely that this book, building on the fictious
work of Agrell was largely responsible for that. And that might seem harmless, but this was part
of a much larger problem. And like it or not, the Uthark understanding of runes had begun to
inform this pseudo understanding of runes and runic magic around the world. And there are
claims, unsubstantiated claims I should add, that the Uthark directly informed the
Nazi s ideas of esotericism and occultism, influencing both the Thule Society and the SS.
But given that the man that brought the Uthark to widespread public attention directly involved
with the signs and symbols representing the party, the link is there however you want to cut it.
There are a few people still pushing the theory, but for the most part it s considered to be
faux-esotericism with no basis in historical fact. Now what was that larger problem I mentioned? Well
it was the Nazi s appropriation and interpretation of the runic language and Scandinavian and north
Germanic history in general. You see Hitler was very keen to reconstruct this mythic aryan
past to Germany. Central to Nazi ideology was the belief that the Germanic race was superior
to all others. They believed that the roots of European culture were to be found in the Nordic
countries and that culture itself was created by the Germanic or Nordic people. And they went
to insane lengths to demonstrate this pseudo history as fact. For example historians knew
that languages such as Latin and Greek were precursors to formal written language in
Europe and naturally our languages build from them. But the Nazi s said no, that s not
true and they claimed Elder Futhark, that came around in the 2nd Century AD, as the father
language from which all others were descended. And as you may imagine, it went a lot further than
that. The Nazi s were big believers in the power of symbolism in general and as we all know, as we
see on the cover of this book, there was one in particular they were very interested in. Now it s
become extremely popular to point out that what we recognize as a swastika today was used long before
the third Reich and is actually a Sanskrit symbol. And this is true, it was a Sanskrit symbol, but
it s one of those easy, interesting facts that obscures a far more interesting truth. I mean,
why does Nazi Germany decide to adopt a Sanskrit symbol. And the answer is that this symbol,
appears everywhere. And I mean everywhere, all around the world. It s gone by many different
names, many slight changes in appearance, and honestly it would be quicker to list the things it
hasn t meant. Most interestingly to us it s been considered a solar icon, an icon for the sun, but
also an icon for Thor with the idea being it s two crossed lightning bolts. And it first appeared
not in India, but 15,000 years ago in what s now modern-day Ukraine. The truth naturally
is that it s a simple geometric symbol that different cultures likely developed independently
at first. We know all that now, but in the land before Google this was still a bit of a mystery.
And so one fine day in the 19th Century a German archaeologist by the name of Heinrich Schliemann,
searching for the lost city of Troy, began digging up pottery marked with the symbol. And being a
learned man, he immediately recognized the symbol from 5th Century pottery that had been dug up in
Germany. Schliemann decides to consult with a man named Emile Louis Burnouf, who just so happened to
be an Aryan nationalist, who proclaimed that this was evidential of a connection between Germany and
this titan of classical antiquity in Troy and this was later developed into potentially indicating
the existence of an ancient Aryan master race. It was a lynchpin symbol in constructing this false,
so called mythic Aryan history that would position Germany as this superior nation essentially
solely responsible for the invention of culture. And they most certainly didn t stop there
and the majority of this symbolism they were intent on hijacking came from Scandinavian
and North Germanic history. And so naturally, a lot of this was taken from the Futhark. And
it was so successful in terms of branding, that even if you don t know the Futhark, you
ll probably still recognize these. Perhaps most famous is the S rune or Sun rune or Sowilo rune
which I am almost certainly saying wrong. This was made infamous by Hitlers Schutzstaffel or SS
who used the rune as the SS in their logo. This was renamed in Germany as Siegrune or the Victory
rune , taken from the name of the Valkyrie Sigrun. There s also the O rune, or Othala rune, all these
runes have a load of slight variations on their name so please forgive me if I don t include the
one you re used to. This was used as a symbol of blood and soil, essentially one of the core tenets
of Aryan ethnonationalism, the blood referring to the ethnic heritage and the soil the borders, the
nation state they were in support of. It was also used as a divisional emblem within the SS and this
is maybe the one today that is most frequently used by neo-nazi groups. And if you re thinking
you ve seen it somewhere before recently, well, you have. Now I could go on and on with these,
the T-rune for example was a Nazi symbol for War and Struggle, because of the God of War Tyr. But
the truth is you re going to find links everywhere you look because the Nazi s branding room looked
like they were developing at Santa Monica Studios. The more crucial thing to us is, where did the
Nazi s get this enormous Odin-boner from? And that s a complicated answer again, truthfully
it was the only cultural heritage they could claim which is why they tried to stretch it far
beyond credulity, but to really understand where this renewed and racialised interest came from
we need to get a slightly better understanding of what was going on in Germany prior to the rise
of the Nazi s. Primarily the concepts of Aryanism and the Volkisch Movement. Now Aryanism, this idea
of a superior, ruling race of Indo-Europeans that become the genetically distinct Caucasians didn t
spring up from one person. It was actually based in a series of misinterpretations of the Hindu
Vedas that were spurred on by colonial, racist understandings in the late 18th and 19th Century.
Now in Germany, as these ideas were taking hold, something more insidious was happening, a
political and cultural movement known as Volkisch. You remember I was talking about the
reversion to nature signalling Dani s seduction by the H rga? Well this group, the Volkisch are
exactly what I was talking about. The movement was based around an odd kind of romanticised
nationalism that championed a return to a more traditional kind of Germany, a return to folklore
and the forest, the establishing of a new kind of national identity through a reconnection with
the land. It s even been described as a flat-out revolt against modernity. A focus on rural and
agrarian values. Going back to nature and getting away from the increasingly industrialized cities.
It was built on this idea of blood and soil and so nationalism was hard baked into it. And part and
parcel with that came a big focus on community, on the ideas of Germans acting together
as one body. And hopefully all of this is sounding familiar, not just with some aspects of
modern politics the film might be criticising, but also the H rga themselves this group choosing
to live a simplistic rural lifestyle, who are also pushing this idea of acting and feeling
as a collective. For the Volkisch movement, and the H rga, it s a tool of unifying group
thought towards the same goal. And as time went on the Volkisch movement became larger and there
were many smaller groups springing up within it and around it. Soon the political messaging, the
underlying tenets of Aryanism, started to become more bold and more public. This was a whole
cultural shift so again there s many examples here, but of particular interest to us is the
Wandervogel. This began as a youth movement promoting nature and again a return to Germanic
folklore but, similar to the Volkisch movement, over time it s glorification of German heritage
turned into the propagation of racist ideologies. And I think aesthetically these youths out in the
forest, this whole Volkisch movement in general, has a lot to do with the H rga we see on the
screen. It s the same trick being played, lure the youth out to the forest and tell them
about community and harmony with nature before backdooring them with shocking and racist ideology
using this mythic and falsely appropriated representation of Scandinavian mythology.
And the similarities between the H rga and the Volkisch movement do not end there. Let me
introduce you to this shitwizard right here, Guido Von List. Fascist Gandalf was a huge figure in
the Volkisch movement and he was keen to find a way to take these theories and apply them to the
masses in a way that would ensure Aryan supremacy. To that end he created his own pagan Volkish sect
known as Wotanism. Wotan being another name for Odin. It was essentially Volkish folk religion
that went even harder by rejecting Christianity and returning to Odin. Now this is intentionally
confusing, but in layman s terms Wotanism was a front. It was the folk religion for the masses,
just like the Volkish in general it was a vehicle for more dangerous ideologies. In semi-secret
Guido Von List had also developed another religion called Armanism. Which was essentially a system
of occultism centred around the wisdom of the Aryan race . The idea being that the masses could
believe in Wotanism, be happy hippies focused on their national identity, while the elites
would practice level 60 white person magic based around misappropriations of Pagan history
and very ironically Kabbalistic occultism. He desired a rigid, hierarchical society run by
Aryan overlords where non-Aryans essentially existed as a subhuman worker class. And his goal
to achieve it was essentially the creation of a cult layered in Ancient Norse mysticism which
should raise obvious parallels. Now, eventually all the people following Armanism would be weeded
out by the Nazi s, who weren t really looking for competing ideologies. But the blend of magic and
the supremacy of the Aryan s, absolutely stuck around and in many ways catalysed exactly what
we re talking about here. The pseudo-historical, pseudo-occult understanding of Scandinavia and
North Germanic history and mythology and how it s skewed into racist doctrine that persists to
this day. And crucially to us, he was knowingly subverting most of the people who would follow
him, he was essentially trying to start a cult where only some at the top would understand
the real practices of the religion and the racist underpinnings of it, extremely similar to
what we see in the H rga, whose ordinary members seem to be devout but with elders that may have
their own private agendas and understandings. Now eventually big players in the Volkisch
movement, particularly the occult aspects of it like the Thule society, would name Hitler as the
German Messiah, the Nazi party comes to power and the Volkisch gets slowly phased out and rebranded
and then The Third Reich is in full swing. But in the modern day this is still going on. This is a
photo from Sweden showing one of these groups at work in the forest, fomenting their ideas in the
youth. Just like with the Volkish, just like with the Wandervogel, just like with the H rga. Nature,
camping and a return to natural living are seen as an innocent induction tool. And even though they
really aren t up front about it, The H rga are one of these groups in their own way. As the car
journey concludes we ll get this trippy sequence where everything goes upside down, and yes it s
supposed to represent their entrance into this strange new Oz where everything is upside down,
but it s also there because they were worried that this banner would be too obvious, too on-the-nose
otherwise. Because it actually reads Stop Mass Immigration to H lsingland , pointing to these
ethnonationalist views being held by those in the area, and the only people we see from the area
are H rga so it s a fair assumption to say this represents their views. In the words of production
designer Henrik Svennson the county of H lsingland is the home of the original ubermensch: wealthy,
strong, tall, and blonde. And immigration is absolutely a discussion that was and is going on
in Sweden, naturally with far-right groups on one side of the argument. We re going to get to the
modern-day anxieties the film is tying all this into, but for now this is just more evidence
tying the beliefs of the H rga to the beliefs of the Volkish and subsequently the Nazi s.
The H rga, as we see plainly suggested here, are absolutely one of these modern day neo-nazi
groups. I m not saying they necessarily identify as such, they ve clearly got their own specific
thing going on, but they absolutely share the views on race, on ethnic purity, and the
mis-adoption of this history and mythology for their own ends. So while we can say they re a
unique creation for the film, they are a) a very close metaphor for these real-life groups b) their
hippy commune style is influenced directly by the Volkisch movement and other real life influences
we ll examine and c) they are harbouring very similar ideas and intent to the things we ve
been discussing. Take a look at this still from the end. It s not, directly Nazi, but it s
so close to it and more modern adjacent groups, the strange visored hoods, the robes, the symbol
on the wall. We ll look at this properly later but my point is simply, under the surface they
re a lot more Nazi than they re letting on. We should also probably look at how the
characters discuss the book. Dani asks Josh about it and he refers her to Pelle who says
We re taught the runic alphabet in my village, so Josh just carries that around to annoy me. And
from that we can say that Pelle s clearly aware of suggested links between runic languages and the
nazis. What he does not do, is explain it to Dani, favouring a vague or cryptic response in order
to not give the game away. But does Josh know Uthark is a bit esoteric, a bit of a con, not
academically supported? Or in this film are we just using Uthark as a stand in for Futhark with
this little easter egg thrown in. And it s almost certainly the first answer, Josh must be aware
that the Uthark is an unsupported fringe theory because later when he s identifying runes he ll
acknowledge the younger and elder futhark. So he knows the Uthark is a bit of a con and he
understands the historical links between the nazis and the appropriation of the runic letters,
and we can presume that s what Pelle is talking about when he says Josh carries it around to
annoy him. This is going to come up later on, what Josh knows. But for now it s important to
note that while these hidden details are here for us to enjoy, the film is just slipping
them in there. Something very specific. To the first-time viewer the takeaway is simply
the potential link between runic languages, Scandinavian mythology and the Nazis. This
specific example is being used because it demonstrates that the H rga don t have a history
and that they trade in lies, and it has that tie to neo-ethnonationalist groups. It shows us
that they re making it up like many people have suggested Sigurd Agrell was, like the Nazi s were
as they attempted to claim history for their own. It s also worth mentioning how Dani notices the
book. Now in context she looks from the book to Josh and asks why are you reading that ? Meaning,
why do you have an interest in Nazi s? But there s something about how she notices the cover, how
she lingers on it, that we re going to see come up again and again. Dani seems, or will seem
as we move forward, to have some element of recognition with everything she s being exposed
to. And I think while we re supposed to feel like she s making a link between the swastika, josh
s skin colour and josh s interest in the topic, if you watch very closely, there s something
else happening behind her eyes. A familiarity with the runes. A re-awakening of sorts that we
ll see a lot more clearly later on. Following that Dani asks Josh about his thesis and
when he tells her it s about Midsommar, Dani says it sounds very similar to what Christian
was planning on doing. And Christian is terse in his response, essentially trying to get her
to stop talking by making her feel as though she s pressuring him or overstepping. And that s
very likely to be what you ll take away from it, because Christian doesn t seem to have any clue
what he wants or any genuine academic passion. But given what we know he s going to pull on Josh
later on, it would seem this is actually evidence that he s already been toying with the idea of
just copying Josh. And if that s the case then his actual reason for kind of bullying Dani out of the
line of questioning is that he doesn t want Josh to find out, so he s using passive aggressive
doublespeak to try and navigate between them. And lastly Dani says to Pelle, see that
Pelle, you ve managed to brainwash all of your friends and this is obvious foreshadowing
into their partial induction into the H rga cult, cults obviously being pretty famous
for brainwashing, and Pelle s lies and manipulation in order for that to happen. That
s pretty straightforward, but Pelle s response is far more telling. Josh was already brainwashed
when I found him . There s a lot going on there, firstly the language of when I found him . Pelle
was the visitor from a foreign land, presumably the outsider to the group, and yet he s the one
finding Josh, and finding for what exactly? It s a tad ominous and also maybe slightly disrespectful,
making Josh sound like some street urchin. Or the concept of an anthropological study, just like
Josh is doing to the H rga. And as we go on you ll see Pelle being a lot more snarky towards
Josh, I mean he really doesn t like Josh, and the reasons for that are two fold. Firstly the
colour of his skin, it s pretty safe to say no one understands the H rga outside of their elders
as well as Pelle does, he doesn t exploit the H rga necessarily but he absolutely uses their
ruleset to engineer the best outcome for himself, so we can say he understands their wishes and
likely espouses them himself. Secondly is Josh s overly inquisitive nature and academic thirst,
specifically his interest in anthropology. And that is the brainwashing Pelle is talking about.
He sees Josh as having been brainwashed by his academic pursuits, which is fair, we re going to
see Josh entirely avoid discussing the attestup purely because he wants to see if it s real, so
that he can publish work on it. Josh will even put himself at great risk and take pretty questionable
actions in pursuit of this. So Pelle kind of has a point, and I think this is why he singles Josh
out here rather than commenting on Christian or Mark. He knows Josh s main desire, main drive,
stands in the way of him being able to manipulate Josh like the other two, and we can see this as
him chipping away at that by trying to poke fun at him. Later we ll see him use this power he has
over Josh in authorizing his study of the H rga to keep him in line. As we come to find out, Pelle
is good at understanding people, he understands the cult he s a part of, and so he s probably
accurate in describing Josh as being brainwashed. With the journey at an end we see the Group
pull up to this preliminary meeting point, you can see a maypole right on the crest of the
hill. You can also see a lot more people than we really ever get introduced to and this has led to
a fair few questions online as to who these people are and if more people are dying off-screen.
Now obviously we have Simon and Connie who are visitors that have been brought by Ingemar but
who s this, or this? And the very simple answer is that these are other H rga that have been on
the pilgrimage like Pelle and Ingemar. They are not possible new bloods like Mark, Christian
and Dani. Pelle tells us as much saying these are all younger people from my village, they
are also returning from their trips outside. And even before they ve managed to walk over
to meet the first set of H rga, we can see the group already not fitting in. Mark is bothered by
walking through plants and the presence of bugs, and Josh is shouting at him to just fucking walk
. And right from the moment we get out of the car, really from the plane, we ve been getting
these a-synchronous and ominous horns, needling at the viewer as they build the anxiety.
And so when you hear Ingemar shouting at Pelle, even though it s friendly and pretty
recognisable to anyone that watched Pewdiepie, it immediately seems like a
threat. Really we re being conditioned to feel alongside Dani through the whole
film, and we know right now she s pretty wracked with anxiety so this new and loud
shouting is going to feel aggressive. Now Ingemar is actually shouting Holy Shit, Pelle!
, which we re supposed to understand is Ingemar being happy to see Pelle, maybe it s been a long
time since they ve seen each other. And that s true, we see them warmly embrace, comment on
weight gain and so on. But there s something else happening in this scene, and we know that Ingemar
knows that Pelle was going to be here. In fact the last thing Ingemar is, is surprised by any of
this. Because what s actually happening here is that Pelle and Ingemar are comparing offerings,
comparing conquests, comparing the babes they have dragged back. And, as with everything between
them, it seems Pelle has won. Now body language, placement, eye-contact are all extremely well
managed during this scene. And I m going to break it down for you because it s going to
show us quite a bit about Pelle and Ingemar. Firstly notice Pelle beckoning the group,
seemingly directing Dani over behind him as Connie and Simon walk up behind Ingemar. Their
interaction is very friendly, but their commenting on each others weight points to a bit of a
friendly, or not so friendly rivalry between the two. And this whole scene is like a weird slavery
presentation where they re comparing what they ve managed to procure. Clearly Ingemar is impressed
at Pelle s haul, hence the holy shit Pelle introduction. But I want to stress that it s very
likely Ingemar already knew who Pelle was bringing given his reporting back to the H rga, he almost
certainly knows about Dani, and if so he s not impressed by the number of them, he s impressed
by the beauty of Pelle s May Queen to be. Now when this happens we have two stages of characters
being introduced to frame. Firstly we have Dani alone in the background, with Pelle in front
of her, and Simon and Connie walking, closely intertwined. So maybe a bit of foreshadowing
that Pelle and Dani are going to be the happy couple before too long, maybe a reflection of
Dani s isolation in her relationship compared to Connie. But more crucially we get Christian
introduced into shot at a distance from Dani with Pelle and Ingemar happily reuniting between
the two. We ve got two happy loving couples close together and the toxic couple standing
separately. And notice how through the start of this scene Dani is going to have her back to
frame and be standing relatively central, so that we again get this impression we re seeing, and
more importantly feeling, from her point of view. Pelle introduces the group to Ingemar who
is not paying attention to their names, he immediately starts greeting Christian before
hearing them, and yet still picks up all their names perfectly. And watch when he tries to
remember them in turn, he misses Dani out, moving from Christian to Josh to Mark and then
coming back to Dani after pretending to forget her name. This is absolutely a manipulation,
he s having fun with Pelle and making it seem as though her arrival there isn t anything of
note. You ll see Pelle give him a cheeky look right after and Ingemar will even reinforce that
he just learned their names two seconds ago, yet he didn t have any issues getting them entirely
right. You can also feel a bit of deflation when Connie and Mark are introduced in comparison to
the main group. It s very subtle but there s just less excitement about it, Ingemar almost wants
to get it out of the way and Pelle doesn t seem nearly as enthused about meeting them. While they
will be used for sacrifices, they are not the new blood the H rga is seeking. Firstly because they
re ethnically different to the H rga and secondly because Connie is clearly in love with Simon.
She s not going to be turned onto a H rga lover, nor would the H rga allow that to happen. In
short, Pelle is very good at this game, and Ingemar is very bad. Ingemar has gained weight,
Pelle has stayed in shape, Pelle has brought the H rga gifts, Ingemar has brought them, at best,
unwilling sacrifices. That being said, Ingemar is a bit of an incel and does seem to still have
designs on Connie. There is a definite glance of this ones mine to Pelle when he introduces her.
Next we see Ingemar offer the group mushrooms, and I say offer the group but if you watch his
focus it s really Dani he s pushing them on. Now as we know, drugs can be used to create
dependency, altered states of mind are useful for getting people indoctrinated, and in general
plying your followers with substances like this is pretty textbook cult-like behaviour. It s put
to us like a crazy summertime holiday experience, but that is very much not what s happening. And it
s not just Ingemar s body language that we can get this from, we also see Pelle stealing a subtle
glance at Dani, trying to measure her reaction. Again, he s watching her the whole way through
with subtle glances like this. When Dani is apprehensive about the mushrooms, he s paying very
close attention to what she s saying to Christian. And this may be look like the one time
that Christian does the right thing, making sure Dani feels okay in taking them.
His friends are happy to stand there making her feel awkward until she relents, Pelle and
Ingemar literally invade her personal space to push whatever format of mushroom on her she
can most easily consume and throughout the movie the H rga will only ever reassure people into
taking them, they ll never present the option of just not doing it, or waiting until she s
comfortable, like Christian does here. However, Christian is a snake, and there s a clear song
and dance to what he s doing here. He s drawing attention to Dani s reluctance and then enforcing
that on the group, asking them to hold off too. And he s doing all this so that Dani relents and
does what he wants. Just like we saw at Mark and Josh s apartment he s quite happy screwing over
his friends to get the outcome he wants from Dani. Now while this is happening in the foreground,
there s a lot happening hidden in the background too. Simon and Connie begin to walk away
and we can see Ingmar watching Connie as she does. And that s not all, and this
is really weird when you notice it, Josh starts walking away at this point too and
if you pay very close attention you ll see that he s noticed this figure in the background
dressed all in white. The figure comes to a stop and then we see them start to mirror Josh s
movement, as Josh leans his head more to the side, so does the figure, he goes back vertical, so
does the figure, he raises an arm in a half wave, and so does the figure. And that s pretty creepy,
but what s going on here is we re seeing Josh s anthropological curiosity encounter this practice
of emotional and behavioural mirroring we see the H rga doing much more clearly later on. And
broadly this can be described as an effort to create unity and harmony between them. Emotional
empathy and connectivity. But fans of Derren Brown will know this is actually a pretty routine form
of conditioning where in mirroring someone else s actions for long enough you can get them to
unconsciously begin mirroring yours. You can try this at home, if your friend puts their hand on a
table, you put your hand on a table, they scratch their head you scratch your head, after a while of
them not realizing this is happening it s likely they ll start unconsciously mirroring you. So
really, from the moment they get out of the car, certainly prior to is as well, the group are
being manipulated, seduced, indoctrinated, whatever you want to call it, the point is
that the H rga are very good at what they do. And for the H rga it goes a step beyond physical
mirroring. They collectively practice emotional mirroring too, you ll remember this from key
scenes like the H rga reacting to the attestup and the final sacrifice, and Dani crying in
the dorm with the H rga women. Essentially it s a complete one-for-one empathy where they
feel, or attempt to feel, exactly what the subject party is feeling in that moment. That
could be pain, joy, terror, whatever it is, if it s a strong emotion they do their best
to feel it as a group. And there is actually a term for this, proposed by Emile Durkheim,
known as collective effervescence . Which is a feeling of belonging and assimilation produced
by collective ritual action , a state of intense shared emotional activation and sense of unison
. So essentially people living in close harmony, engaging in collective actions, can experience
a sense of shared emotion, feeling in unison. And that is exactly what we see the H rga doing
and clearly something we can tie into real world cults and cult thinking because they seem to fit
the exact bill of what s being described. Small close-knit communities frequently sharing in group
rituals, might I add with an interest in enforcing that everyone feels the same way, everyone
is on the same spiritual and emotional page. Now I want to pause for a moment to point out how
open everything is from the moment we step into the H rgan meadow. Everything up until this point
has been cramped, a lot of it has been dingy, and it s mostly been interiors. It s full
of mental trauma, difficult relationships, external pressures like college exams, and
so on and so on. Urban life, or Dani s life prior to meeting the H rga, however you choose to
interpret it, is not shown in a positive light, like at all. And in contrast, from the moment we
see the H rga on a phone screen, certainly from stepping out into this meadow, everything is open,
green, blue, yellow, natural beauty, seemingly a hippified carefree environment where people
are openly doing mushrooms. It s meant to seem tempting, it s meant to be beautiful and maybe you
could argue that s Ari Aster s point here, that there is something more simple and beautiful to be
found by returning to nature. But as we know that s the exact method of indoctrination the Volkish
and the Wandervogel employed, cults have used it, neo-facist groups today use it. And given the
depiction of the H rga I think we can say pretty confidently this is designed to manipulate us as
it does Dani. Think back to the phone screen, the first bit of brightness in the whole film and Dani
saying oh wow as she sees it. There s something disarming about it, all this natural beauty,
all the happy faces and hippy frocks. It does work. And so as well as Dani being manipulated,
it s worth noting all the meta tricks the film is pulling to manipulate us alongside her, to
ensure we re feeling the same things she feel. So let s focus on brightness for a moment,
because it s perhaps the most crucial aspect of the film we haven t discussed yet. Remember
at the start I said Midsommar was less bound to horror movie norms than Hereditary? Well this is
the big one, it s that nearly all of the horror, the terror in this film happens in daylight. Or
at least, light, because a lot of these scenes are occurring in the evening or at night, but
given that this is supposed to be in Sweden, we re getting this extended solar cycle where
it doesn t really ever get dark. This is due to the midnight sun one is liable to see the closer
they get to the arctic circle. Now the concept of daylight horror isn t new, we see it in The Birds,
It Follows, Jaws, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, but it is still relatively
underutilized and certainly harder to pull off because darkness is probably the most used crutch
in horror. But if you re looking for where this inspiration may have come from directly, the
answer, as with so much of this film, is almost certainly The Wicker Man. Officer Howie is running
round the bright sunny island for the majority of the film and it is completely terrifying. The
Wicker Man does have brief sections at night, but as with Midsommar most of it happens in
the day. And there s also this extra layer of weirdness to that environment. In Midsommar it s
the midnight sun, so that rather than simply being daylight horror, it s round the clock horror. The
location has this extra layer of the surreal to it. And in The Wicker Man a huge focus is put
on why this island in the north of Scotland has palm trees and tropical conditions, that extra
level of weirdness to what you recognise as the natural state. Just in case you re curious there
actually is an island off the coast of Scotland that does enjoy warm weather and palm trees, but
that s a product of the gulf stream not Paganism. Now if there s one thing, the one thing you
ll remember about the look of this movie, it s the daylight, the brightness of everything. And a
lot of work has gone into creating this look. The colours are slightly desaturated, and the shots
are over exposed, giving this bleeding effect to the sunlight and borderline unnatural highlighting
to everything with a strong emphasis on the whites on screen and overall brightness. It s perfect
for creating this dreamy-drugged feeling to the movie. And again, it s another meta-trick being
played on the audience to get us in that slightly hallucinatory, suggestible state that the H rga
want Dani in. But it goes a little bit deeper than that because this idea of horror happening in the
daylight can also be related back to cults. We may imagine cults as being secretive, clandestine
even. And certainly life within the cult, what they believe and practice can be. But the same
can t be said of recruitment. Most of the cults we know of are pretty open to newcomers, it s got
to be the main desire of most cults, to grow in number. To go back to my disclaimer at the start
Mormonism isn t a cult in any legal sense, but it s been broadly criticised as one. The same can be
said tenfold for Scientology, another recognised church in a solely legal sense. The point is that
what they believe is guarded, they are open in their operation, open in their recruitment. And we
can say the exact same thing for the more fringe and criminal cults we ve encountered too. They
may not share their beliefs or practices openly, but they absolutely operate in the open, in broad
daylight. And I think that s what makes the Wicker Man feel so terrifying to me. It s the idea that
a whole community could be walking round in broad daylight, not just harbouring but openly sharing
and acknowledging these insane and dangerous beliefs like if we sacrifice this detective we
ll have a better apple harvest or we can skin this vaping American just like in our children s
game . These things should be taboo, horrifying, things any rational person would avoid or at the
very least be deeply ashamed of. But they aren t, they share these communal beliefs in broad
daylight, seemingly unafraid of reprisal, rebellion or law enforcement. That s what
always stuck with me about The Wicker Man, it s what makes the end so haunting, is everyone
standing by, not just letting it happen, but gleeful and assured in what they re
doing. I saw the film in a cinema recently with a relatively drunk film festival audience
and everyone laughed at the line Don t you see that killing me is not going to bring back your
damn apples? And that s fair, it s supposed to be a ludicrous notion. But make no mistake, in
the film it is also supposed to be harrowing. Officer Howie begs and pleads with Christopher Lee
to tell his people that killing him won t change anything. That it has no bearing on their apple
harvest. And Christopher Lee s Lord Summerisle replies with the absolutely bonechilling
delivery of I know it will. It s terrifying precisely because they believe it. Because they
re all willing to acknowledge it in the daylight. Back to Dani in the meadow just starting to come
up on the mushrooms. This starts with a lot of anxiety, particularly from Mark who is freaking
out about the midnight sun. And this is another theme throughout the film, confusion between
location, and time of day. We ve already had Mark confused about where H lsingland even is
and we ll see this continue now we re in the land of almost perpetual daylight. And there s
a few reasons for this, I guess the primary one being to aid this sense of being in a strange
land, in a fairy tale, in Oz. It s a little bit mysterious, a little bit unnatural. Beyond
that though it adds to this sense of confusion, isolation and ultimately vulnerability of the
group. They aren t sure where they are exactly, they aren t sure what the time of day
is. When Dani wakes up from her trip we ll hear her ask is it tomorrow , which is a
purposefully paradoxical proposition designed to highlight this confusion. And again we see
that meta-trick being pulled on the audience too, as we re just as confused as to whether the
scenes we re looking at are night or day, and it heightens this dreamlike feeling where
we re unclear on how much time is passing. Pelle chimes in with can you feel that? The
energy coming up from the Earth? Now maybe he believes this, it s certainly par for the course
with mushrooms, but it is also right in line with everything I ve been saying about how nature
is used in cultish indoctrination. He s trying to build a mythic energy to the H rga, that they
re closer to nature, that this place, living here is somehow closer to how we were intended to
live. The tacit implication being that where Dani or random victim of real life cult have been
living is bad for them for whatever reason. There are obvious health and psychological benefits to
being out getting fresh air and sunshine and being away from pollution, and it s easy to see how
that basic psychological and physical lift can be hijacked and turned into, life here makes you feel
better, life here is how you re supposed to live. We get this random H rga walking by, one of
the ones we see least on screen but his name is Valentin, we ll see him better later on talking to
Christian. And Christian and Mark freak out again about his appearance with Mark saying I don t want
new people right now . And Pelle replies with No, new people are good Mark , so even in his
altered state he s trying to still indoctrinate, still prime the group for what they re
going through. And so we can probably say that for right now Pelle and the H rga
are absolutely planning on including Mark, either by recruitment or more likely just as
mating stock, either way new blood as the H rga would put it. We also see Josh do a little half
wave at the H rga, very similar to what we just saw him doing with the H rga in the distance.
We can t say for sure but given this is the same meadow it s very probable that the H rga in
the distance was Valentin. And so there s already some creepy surveillance going on. That may be the
reason we have this half way point of the meadow, with its own Maypole. You could perhaps
think of this as a vetting area where new candidates are met and monitored, plied
with hallucinogens and so on. I m not saying there s a high chance they would
be turned away, but it seems like it s an extra level of locational security before
you get to see the proper H rga compound. And as we re hearing Pelle discuss the energy
rising from the Earth, we get this soft pull in towards Dani, this slight bottling of sound to
make the other characters seem more background as Dani begins taking long heavy breaths over
the top of it. Again we re being drilled into feeling from Dani s point of view, the same trick
being played on her is being played on us as we start to feel a natural calm that hasn t been
present throughout the movie. Pelle says look, the trees too, they re breathing and this really
gives the game away because this is an extremely common product of hallucinogens, specifically
the type we re seeing them take here. And maybe there is legitimacy to that, it s something you
would almost certainly experience, but Dani could be in central park and would likely feel the
same thing and I think the way he s putting it across is intended to feel like there s something
magical here. It s a really common occurrence, this sensation of being not just in tune with
nature, but the ability to sense a heaving, breathing, undulating motion to it. And that s
crucial to us because it s through this breathing, something the H rga are repeatedly encouraging
Dani to do that we see visual language of her growing indoctrination. As this is happening we
see the grass growing out of Dani s hand and it s tempting to make it something spiritual, something
pre-destined and supernatural, but that s very much a trick being played on Dani. It s tempting
to just see it as foreshadowing of her becoming this flower maiden, quasi-supernatural figure, and
in a way I suppose it is, but it s more crucial to understand that this represents the beginning of
her indoctrination, of her coming under the cults thinking, she s buying into this myth that Pelle s
selling about energy coming up from the earth and believing she s having some magical or spiritual
experience. It s indoctrination and representative of what people in their honeymoon period with a
cult may feel and believe, and as with many cults it comes after a group ingesting of hallucinogens.
Dani s hallucinations are important for another reason though because it shows the audience that
the screen is going to be messed with, altered, in accordance with our characters perspectives. In
Hereditary the answers are clear, it s all really happening, even the outright dream sequences where
Peter and Annie communicate are happening in some form, and most crucially the demonic magic at work
is not a product of insanity, it s a product of demons being real. Here the exact opposite
is true, there may be a form of collective mental illness to the H rga and we know Dani, the
character who s perspective we re viewing from, isn t mentally sound either. More crucially she
s continually being plied with hallucinogens. And so it s important that we see early on that
fantastical elements are going to be shown to us on screen as if they re happening, because then
we know later that things we see that may not make sense, are happening in Dani s addled mind
and are not the product of the supernatural. That s not to say there s not something semi-spiritual
occurring, but what we can say for sure are people s faces melting, flowers changing shape, faces in
trees and so on, are a product of hallucination. Now if we were to ask a first-time viewer, what
happens next? Then they would probably say, Dani starts thinking about her recently
deceased family, walks away to get some space, and then sees her sister in the bathroom
mirror. And that is correct. Mark mentions that the group are like his family and Dani
registers it and her eyes snap open and she s suddenly uncomfortable. I don t think
there s much disputing that. It s so clear on screen and in the script it s absolutely
the word family that triggers Dani. However, and it s a pretty juicy however, I think there s
something else going on here too. It takes Dani about 4 seconds to react after Mark says family
for the first time. She doesn t spin round, she doesn t flinch at the word family. There s
a noticeable delay. But prior to that the group of female H rgan voices have begun to sing. It
s extremely faint at first and it only becomes properly audible as Dani snaps to attention and
when we see Dani snap forward she ll be looking directly at the group. She ll then walk directly
over to them and only change her course when they stop singing and turn round laughing at her. As if
this H rga lullaby were something drawing her in, something like a siren song, something that she
recognises on an unconscious level. A comfort she was pulling towards as her grief started to build.
And that s not just foreshadowing her ending decision of the grief and betrayal she s suffered
pushing her towards the H rga, it s another clue that maybe there s something in Dani s ancestry,
her genetic memory, that might be pulling her in here. Notice Christian offers to come with her but
she declines him, she doesn t even have the words for why she just mumbles at him. She s leaving him
behind as she gravitates towards this new family. As she walks on from the group we see two
more H rga practicing physical mirroring, likely as a form of bonding, and they make this
soft temple shape. Ingemar spots Dani having a bad time and like any good cult recruiter
he does his best to try and control and calm her. Seeing his face melting Dani escapes to the
outhouse building and we get this terrifying shot of Terri in the mirror. We can also see this
photograph by the side of the mirror. And I suppose feasibly this could be anywhere up to the
1980s, we can t tell for sure. But it certainly looks and feels to me like somewhere between the
40 s and 60 s. Now that s not definite, but it s something we need to keep in mind for when we
look at how long the H rga have been around. Now in the film this scene is pretty
straightforward, Dani is being haunted by the memory of her family and sees Terri in
the mirror. It s kicking off this film-long hallucination of Dani seeing her sister, her
whole family, here among the H rga. Which is certainly a manifestation of Dani s trauma,
and potentially evident of a link between Dani s ancestry and this land. Not necessarily the H
rga, but Sweden potentially. And interestingly, in the original script we don t see Terri in the
mirror, the scene is very similar otherwise but instead we get Dani s skin turning translucent
and showing organic gears moving underneath. Following that we see 10 eyes open on her face
simultaneously. And this is pretty clear imagery, the organic cogs are a continuation of the
feeling like there s this natural goddess, or more natural state under the skin, that this
is somehow where she needs to be, the beauty in nature rather than her life back in the city and
so on. But the ten eyes shooting open represent that this moment of awakening, or reawakening in
Dani, is starting now. And that could potentially be evidence that there s something within Dani,
some lost knowledge or generational trauma, that is stirring back to life now she s here. The scene
ends with Dani running through the forest with this sort of rushing camerawork that reminds me of
Evil Dead and American Werewolf in London. In the darkness following we see some strobes that are
reminiscent of flashing emergency vehicle sirens, a motif we ll see several times throughout to
call back to the deaths of the Ardors. And then we get this shot of Terri and Dani s parents
watching television. Her parents are asleep and Terri is awake and to me this is somewhat
visually confirming that they weren t willing, that Terri is awake and alert to what
happened but they aren t. However you could see it more as Terri is aware and alert
to Dani s demons and what she s about to do, which actually fits better with what we ll see
later. We also see Terri look towards camera, so really she s looking towards Dani who s POV
we re seeing from which I think corroborates the theory. She s aware of what Dani s going through
and she s watching out for her. We briefly cut back to Dani waking up then cut back to Terri
staring at camera even more intently. And this is entirely subjective but to me it feels like
Terri urging Dani to do the same thing, to defeat the blackness in her life as Terri thought
she was doing. A mentally ill guardian angel. After this we ll see Dani waking up and asking
if its tomorrow followed by the short trip into the H rga compound. Dani will ask where they are
going and Pelle, very abstractly says, what we came for . Now obviously they are going to the
H rga compound which is why they re on the trip, but he s also trying to instil this sense of
grandeur and destiny within Dani. We then get these very idyllic shots of them walking through
the forest and we get these very magical sounding pipes playing over the top, quite similar
to what we had over the opening mural. Again giving everything this serene and idyllic
quality. We get a pretty funny conversation where the characters rib Mark for his fear of
tics. This is included mainly due to Ari Aster being terrified of tics in real life but also
again to reinforce this idea of the Americans, specifically Mark, being outsiders, are out of
place and somewhat at odds with their environment. As the group approach the H rga compound we see
the floor of the woodland is laden with yellow flowers, specifically St John s Wort. Let s start
with the basics, St John s day is on June 24th and it s the Christian celebration of the birth
of St John the Baptist. Midsummer occurs on the summer solstice so its date varies slightly
year on year, but it s pretty much within a couple days of St John s, sometimes falling on
the exact same day. And so it s become popular to say well actually Midsummer is just St John s
Day . But really pagan celebrations of Midsummer existed prior to the Christianization of Europe,
and as we see with other festivities it was more that the Christian church aligned this date of
St John s Day to coincide with the Midsummer festivities in order to more comfortably phase
out or adapt the existing pagan traditions, in aid of the Christian conversion of Europe. It
s a product of the church wanting the transition to be as smooth as possible. And taking away
the yearly celebrations people looked forward to wasn t the best way to do that. So instead,
they rebranded them, they appropriated them into their own design. So the Midsummer we see today
is mostly of Christian influence, but there are layovers from the earlier pagan cultures still
present. For example the lighting of bonfires in early pagan cultures was a celebration of the sun,
which gets turned into the Christians celebrating the light of Christ. Perhaps a more important
one for us is the maypole, which was again used by pre-Christian pagans in Europe as a symbol of
fertility and virility. Maypoles weren t confined to Midsummer celebrations, as the name may suggest
they were most common to May day celebrations. But they did feature there and very specifically they
re prominent in Swedish midsummer celebrations, so their appearance here is extremely apt. Now
back to the flower St John s Wort and we see the exact same thing. It was used by pre-Christian
pagan cultures during Midsummer celebrations, it had other more practical uses too, but it was
used during Midsummer essentially to ward off evil spirts and other such protection rituals. This isn
t surprising given that the flower blooms around that time of year. When the Christian conversion
occurs this falls victim to the same rebranding, it s named St John s Wort and its use in the
celebrations is continued. Many medieval cultures would encourage the picking of it on Midsummer
s eve for example, believing that it would ward off witches and evil spirits. There s a great
many reasons why this flower has been tied to Midsummer celebrations, another big one being
that it resembles the sun. But as for why they re featured in the film, that s really it, they
have a longstanding association with Midsummer celebrations and specifically the sun, and we see
them adorning the ground just outside the sungate. However, a lot of the discourse about these
flowers in the movie has stemmed from Yellow meaning death, which as we ve covered, it does in
its own specific way, but that s moved to a lot of people online saying the flower also signifies
death. But if we look broadly at what does St John s Wort represent? or what is it associated
with? then the three most popular answers are going to be the sun, midsummer and warding off
evil spirits, primarily on midsummer s eve. But, interestingly it is associated with death, but
also with birth and with marriage. And again that could be because a lot of flowers are associated
with all three of those, because they are, but it does mean that this flower represents birth
as much as it does death and really the whole lifecycle when we include marriage, which actually
fits perfectly with the H rga s fundamental belief of cyclic rebirth. And another thing I mentioned
yellow is used for is drawing people in, by nature, by the film and specifically by the
H rga and that s exactly what we see here in the leadup to the compound, beautiful yellow flowers
and a bright yellow sun gate inviting you in. As for the sun gate itself, there s not too much
we haven t covered here but it does tie a few things together. The sun was obviously very
important to pagan cultures, to Midsommar celebrations in general, it s clearly part of the
life and death cycle the H rga are reverent to and subsequently plays a crucial role in their
beliefs. But while the sun is a lifegiver, while it represents fertility and birth and the
blooming of life, it is something the H rga are using to draw you in, it is something they
re contorting into a more malevolent symbol. Something like we see in the opening mural.
We ll hear Siv mention later on that this is the hottest and brightest summer on record and as
we know it s also the summer they plan to commit mass sacrifice. So again we can t just view the
sun as this lifegiver, because in the movie and to the H rga it is also a bringer of death.
And that might sound a little confusing but it s very similar to The Wicker Man, what we see
in Pagan cultures. They worship the sun and the nurture and life it provides, but that worship is
heavily centred around human sacrifice in the name of giving back to the sun, providing it with life
in return. So what is a cheery symbol for the cult becomes a terrifying one from the point of view
of those being sacrificed. The cult are gleeful in their worship, but outside reactions
to that worship are anything but gleeful, and so we have this contorting of what the imagery
represents. But here, at the gate, the H rga that is facing out in to the world, are very much
using it as a tool to draw people in, to give this impression of a peaceful and pleasant place.
And something else we re being introduced to is this rickety, homemade and quirky feeling to the
architecture. Now there s a couple of influences at work in the H rga compound but perhaps
the main one is that this feels reminiscent of a cult commune and the slapdash, put-together
buildings that spring up without a great deal of forethought, and often feature weird or outlandish
artwork and strange design choices that somehow incorporate their beliefs. This is something Mark
recognizes when he says so we re stopping in Waco before we go to Pelle s village . Clearly he
thinks it looks like a cult as soon as he sees it. It's safe to say Dani s reaction is different
to Marks though, she s literally lost for words at how beautiful it all is. And we get
this incredible panning shot of the whole H rga compound directly from her point of view,
as Pelle introduces them as the tranquil and majestic H rga over the top. Which is certainly
the impression you get from the scene. As the camera pans we see they re even being met by three
pipe players that have been responsible for the beautiful and calming music we ve been hearing.
It s a heavenly, idyllic scene, but given that we ve already had this association of Pelle being a
pied piper leading them to the H rga, the choice to include these pipers here is almost certainly
part of the same thing. The H rga are luring in the group, and once they have them where they
want them it s going to be anything but idyllic. We then see the gang get handed some snacks
on sticks. These are referred to as Smultron in Sweden. They re essentially smaller
wild strawberries that grow during the summer and are traditionally strung on grass
reeds. We meet a few more of the H rga here, from left to right we have Inga, Karin and Dagny.
I think Dagny, which Pelle might pronounce Dazni, is very much supposed to be a mirror for Dani
in the script, their names are very similar, in the script she s also blonde, and they have
relatively similar facial features. I just think it s informing this choice of Pelle being drawn to
her, that this is his twin of sorts and Dani will become his partner of sorts. Karin we see a fair
bit of throughout, the tall blonde guy I m not actually sure of his name, I think he s uncredited
but please correct me if anyone knows. Inga is the girl who lures Mark away and her final scenes
have become a bit of a source of speculation and mystery so we re going to be looking at her
very closely towards the end. She s played by the wonderful and talented Julia Ragnarrson.
Pelle tells the group that Dagny was born on the exact same day as him, but he also quite
confusingly describes her as his sister, not his twin. This is of course an element of the H rga
being one big family in a communal and spiritual sense. As with the other H rga introductions Dagny
is sneaking furtive glances at Dani, again she s either pre-informed of Dani s arrival or otherwise
excited by the quality of Pelle s dragged back babe. It s very probably both. She certainly seems
more concerned with Dani than any of the group. When she welcomes them to the H rga, Dani thanks
her in Swedish. Unlike the rest of the group Dani is making an effort to fit in and be culturally
observant. And when she does so we see Pelle and Dagny share a very knowing look with each other
in recognition of Dani being a good fit. It s safe to say Dagny s approving of Dani and walks
away smiling making fixed eye contact with her. We then move over to Father Odd sharing a
long embrace with Pelle. If you re wondering, they don t say anything interesting
to each other in Swedish, it s just basic greetings
and welcoming Pelle back. As with Ingemar and Dagny we see Odd essentially
only be interested in Dani as he s greeting the group. He says some combination of hello and
welcome to Josh, Mark and Christian and then dives right in for the welcome home with Dani,
giving her a hug that he didn t give the others and saying we are so very happy to have you
which has pretty obvious double meaning. Now this welcome home is a hugely cryptic sentence
that can, and should be read three different ways, or rather at three different levels,
simultaneously. So from most to least obvious, Number one, this is a subtle tool of
manipulation, he s trying to subconsciously incept Dani with the idea that the H rga is home. Pretty
straightforward. Number two is that he s making a not so subtle comment on her genetics, i.e. she
s back in the spiritual homeland of blonde white women, something the H rga are pretty keen on.
And thirdly, the idea that he might be right, he might be telling the truth. We have repeated
hints towards Dani s Swedish heritage and this idea of something awakening within Dani upon her
arrival here. Now I want to stress that this could just mean she has ancestry here, she s connected
to the land in some abstract way, the Volkish concept of blood and soil as we see hinted at, but
it does not necessarily mean she s the descendant of H rgan runaways, and we have to be wary that
making Dani feel as if she s returning to her home is exactly what the H rga are aiming to do.
I think there very much is some kind of genetic memory or generational trauma linking Dani here. I
don t think it s supernatural, perhaps spiritual, and it certainly is left in a way where it could
all be a trick, but for me I just think there s too many hints for it to be coincidental. We re
going to look at this properly in a short while, but for now, could this meaning be implicit in
Odd s Welcome Home . Yes, absolutely, especially if we consider home to be Sweden, perhaps even
just Europe, as well as simply the H rga commune. Dani compliments Odd on his frock, and I actually
find his it s quite girly response to be extremely charming, even knowing he s pure evil it s very
disarming. Now he says they wear them in respect of Ymir and the hermaphroditic aspects of nature.
This is important for a couple of reasons, the first one being that this confirms to us they re
not just making up their own mythology, they are at least basing it in the Norse pantheon. Ymir is
the birthing figure of the Jotnar, or the Jotunn, or the Frost Giants, the Frost Giants give birth
to Odin. And if that sounds familiar it s because we see very similar things in other pantheons.
In Ancient Greek mythology Gaia and Ouranos give birth to the Titans, the Titans give birth to the
gods. Now Gaia and Ymir are not direct parallels, there s some pretty key differences between the
two. Gaia is a primordial being more directly linked to nature and the cycles of the living
world that is traditionally feminine. Ymir is seen more as a creator figure or rather figure of
creation given that Odin and Co literally carve the world, the cosmos and the oceans out of his
flesh and blood. And while Ymir is traditionally described as a he , he has undoubtedly
hermaphroditic qualities given that he reproduces asexually to create his brethren. And really this
forms the basis for the H rga understanding of nature as hermaphroditic, a balance between
masculine and feminine energy, the May queen and the green man, the attestup couple, fertility
and virility. Ymir is also closely linked to the cosmic cow Audhumla that I mentioned during
the opening mural that also plays a big role in the Norse creation myth. Ymir is one of these
primordial figures licked free from the rime rock. Josh tries to chip by comparing Odd s practices
to something parallel in Indian culture and Odd clearly doesn t like this. I think primarily
because it s a rude way of confronting someone s spiritual beliefs by saying oh yeah these
other guys that believe something entirely separate also do that . But also this is a
recurring theme with Josh where his curiosity is either flat out ignored like here, or just
fobbed off with something vague. And really we can kind of gauge the H rga s pre-determination
of the group based on Odd s reactions to them. He s dismissive of Josh, because they have no
use for him. He s clearly very keen on Dani, explaining the frock to her and being extra
welcoming, because the H rga clearly want her to join them. And for Christian and Mark they
re in this murky middleground where they re definitely useful but probably not worth keeping
unless they get with the program very quickly. And as Odd is walking away he ll confirm these
desires for Christian. Rather than signalling something to Dani he looks Christian in the
eyes a little bit slyly and tells him to enjoy while gesturing all around him at the H rgan
commune. He s telling Christian specifically to enjoy and indulge the fruits of the H rga,
which as we ll come to find out means Maja. Odd followed up greeting Dani with Pelle has an
immaculate sense for people so we can see he clearly agrees with Pelle s pre-assessment of the
group and this makes for some eerie foreshadowing once you know Odd is probably quite clear on
the plan already when he s saying all this. After Odd walks away we ll hear Mark
comment on how red his face is and for the first time we can notice a hint of
anger in Pelle s response. It really goes for every single actor in this movie but this is
an incredible performance from Vilhelm Blomgren, who walks such a fine line between
loving and in love and downright evil, he just has so many plates in the air during
every scene and he handles it beautifully. From here we follow the H rga procession
towards the stage for the commencement of Siv s speech and the opening ceremony,
and our group are doing everything possible to stand out. Again colour is used to signal
their otherness to the H rga, but also Marks vaping and Josh standing there photographing the
otherwise quite intimate ceremony. Siv is another H rga elder and clearly fills a leadership
role. And from the red adorning her outfit, something relatively unique to her, we
can tell that she s in charge of anything fertility related, this festival is absolutely
related to the fertility of nature for example but more obviously we ll see her in charge
of organising Christian mating with Maja. Now for the most part this speech is just
welcoming everyone and kicking off the festivities. But this is also where we find out
that the festival takes place every 90 years. And I ve already covered this in passing but I
just want to nail down why we have this gap of 90 years. So first we re basing it on the festival
that took place at Uppsala every 9 years. 9 is the sacred number in Norse Mythology, it s literally
everywhere and any multiplication/division, if it has a relationship with the number 9 we re
including it. So 9 to 90 is a logical leap for a fictitious Nordic sacrifice. But why does it need
to be stretched so far, why couldn t it just be nine? And that s entirely to do with real world
politics. In the broadest sense it s a feeling of something in the water over the last decade,
an emboldening of fringe voices, either ones that are outright supporting ethnonationalism or ones
that are using rhetoric to disguise those views. And given we saw that during the early decades
of the last century and political opinions have this cultural ebb and flow due to mostly being
systems of binary opposition there s this feeling, this anxiety the film is exploring, about these
trends in thinking being cyclical. About it all coming back round and repeating itself. But we
can be more specific, at the time the film is being made we were seeing a lot of right-wing
populists coming to power around the world, some worse than others. I m going to put a quote
about exactly this on screen from Ari Aster and we can see that for him this is a problem
in America, this is a problem in Europe, in India too. It s something happening globally.
The hottest summer on record as the film puts it. It s certainly happening in Sweden. To quote
Robert Spadoni from his essay on Midsommar, in 2019, Sweden is experiencing an increase in
right-wing, populist, anti-immigrant feeling. And then at the other end of the spectrum, 90
years prior to that we have the first electoral successes of the Nazi party and the founding
of Sweden s first fascist political party. So this 90 years is very purposefully bridging
the gap between those two cultural surges in ethnonationalism, and keeping it canonical with
Norse mythology by making it a multiple of 9. While we re on the subject of dates, in the
script Siv says that this is their biggest party in almost a century. Now this isn t included
in the film, it s certainly left ambiguous how old the H rga are in the final cut, and Siv could
just be lying, but it does raise the question, How old are the H rga really? . Now we can t get a
perfect answer here, but we can form a range from clues. So let s start at the top with the youngest
the H rga could possibly be. Siv is claiming here that they re at least between 90 and 100 years
old and I m actually inclined to believe her. Don t get me wrong, I think the H rga leadership
are racist charlatans, proven liars, but given all the evidence I genuinely don t think this is
the first special Midsommar feast the H rga have enjoyed. Let s start with Ari Aster saying The
last ritual of the film is what happens every 90 years. And he s careful with his wording and has
been happy dropping hints in interviews with stuff like this. He s very clearly saying this happens,
as in has happened before and is again now. So I m leaning towards at least 90 years. I know there
s been a few theories recently suggesting that the roughly 30 May Queen photographs are evidence they
ve been going for only 30 years. This can t be true for a number of reasons, but first I should
point out that this scene is a direct visual reference to the exact same thing, a wall full of
May queen photos our main character is inspecting, in The Wicker Man, so hundreds of photographs may
have killed that. And the H rga aren t luddites as we see them, but this is the H rga in 2018/2019,
there s no saying when they got a camera, if they had one every year, if some photos have
been removed, if there are more photos elsewhere and so on. It s just not enough to go on.
And beyond that we know Pelle was born into the H rga, and he s 26. It seems almost certain
other older members were born into the H rga too. In the script there s a scene where the group
watch a short documentary on the H rga love ritual and it s described as looking as though
it was filmed in the late 60 s to early 70 s, so we know they re at least that old. If we look
at the extensive volumes of the Rubi Radr we can see they have likely had many generations of
incest prophets. And given the Hapsburgian level of inbreeding here this guy probably has the life
expectancy of a pug, so one generation probably isn t a lot. But still we only need there to have
been three of these guys living to more than ten years old and the 30 year theory is out of the
window. And Ruben s clearly around ten years old already and in the H rga s own words they have
many, many hundreds of volumes of the Rubi Radr. Now we have no idea how many volumes Ruben might
have written in his lifetime. They re scribble books that the H rga elders, in their own words,
interpret . So obviously you could make many, many hundreds of scribble books in a very short
timeframe, but I don t think that s the kind of lie the H rga are telling. I think for the willing
followers that would likely be an odd stretch in credulity. They have to be the product of this
supposedly spiritual work. I think any way we cut it it s likely that many, many hundreds of volumes
spans more than 30 years, at least 60-90 we can say safely. I d be willing to accept 5-50 volumes
per incest prophet but ultimately we don t know and they are extremely easy to fake given they re
fake anyway. We also have this photo from earlier, and some of the photos on the May queen wall
looking distinctly older than the 1990s, again I think we can comfortably date some of
these to somewhere between the 40s and the 70s. So I think it s fair to say that given all of that it
s a good bet the H rga are at least 90 years old. Now as for how old they could potentially be,
we hear the myth specific to the H rga later on, where the black one has cursed the H rga to dance.
The only chronological context we get for that in the movie is that it happened long ago , but I
think long ago is at least a few centuries. Now as we ll look at H rga is a real place with
real people, obviously very far removed from the secretive racist commune we see on screen,
and this folklore with the dancing is real too, a real part of the town s folklore anyway. And the
first record of that story comes from 1785. So it s quite possible the H rga we see on screen are
supposed to be at least that old. And that gives us a range of possibly from 1785 to roughly 1929.
I d be willing to accept anything in that range, but when we pull in all the other foundational
work here, specifically how reminiscent and tacitly connected the H rga are with the Volkish
movement, I lean towards them already being in existence, or coming into existence,
in the latter half of the 19th century, as ideas like Aryanism and Wotanism were on
the rise. I think thematically there s a lot of allusions to the rise of fascism in Sweden,
so it s tempting to just say they sprang up then and they re lying about any further history
. But just to throw a spanner in the works, I did find one mention during an interview
that Martin Kalqvist, creator of H rgan lore, quote created an extremely detailed universe where
the H rga had a history going back hundreds of years. Now it s difficult, because that may or may
not be what we get in the final cut, but it does seem to confirm the H rga as centuries old. And I
think where I come down on that is, it could very well be that they do have a lineage going all
the way back to the creation of that folk song, but even still, I think the group we see today are
very much the result of the H rga being hijacked or blended by the Volkish or Wotanism movements
during their day in the sun, and carrying those ideals forth in private into the 21st Century.
Back to Siv s speech and obviously a toast is a very normal thing to do but this is yet
another example of the H rga encouraging group intoxication. It s not quite pushing
mushrooms on Dani as soon as she gets out of the car but it is another example that
proves they re doing it consistently. After that we get a terrifying cutaway to Ruben
doing some prophetic finger painting and then this mini fire ritual with the attestup couple,
Dan and Ylva. We see Siv hand them both a torch and say This high my fire. No higher, no hotter.
This is pretty clearly in reference to their age, to the fact that it s time for the flame of their
life to be extinguished. As we ll see in a second fire is used as a repeated symbol to represent
the communal energy of the H rga, so we can see these flames as a direct representation
of Dan and Ylva. Siv then screams Spirits, back to the dead! which as we discussed
was a pretty major theme during Midsommar, this banishment and protection from evil spirits,
often specifically using the St John s Wort. Next comes the group s first meal with the H
rga. We see meat being sacrificed to the fire, as you may expect that is something quite
common to early pagan cultures and did happen in Scandinavia. Again it s this idea of a
reciprocal relationship with nature and displaying thanks for its bounty. Pelle makes the claim that
the fire has never gone out and it s a communal responsibility to keep it going. He s saying
this specifically to Dani and when Josh asks him to repeat the information he says he ll tell him
later. Pelle needs Dani to know as it will be part of her H rga responsibilities, but he also knows
that for Josh there isn t going to be much of a later. Now as for if Pelle s telling the truth, it
s not certain, but I think so. There s a number of examples in real life of fires that have burned
for centuries, it s a practice in Zoroastrianism, it was practiced in ancient Rome, so it can
happen. And interestingly this was a practice of a real life cult too, the Aum Shinrikyo,
a controversial movement in Japan responsible for a 1995 sarin attack maintained a continuously
burning flame inside their compound. Here though, for the H rga it s a persistent reminder of their
co-dependency. A perpetual flame requires the community to care for it, in many ways you can see
it reflect their society as a whole. If they stop caring, if they don t work together then the flame
will go out. And that co-dependency is exactly what Dani is looking for, it s why she chooses to
embrace the H rga, because all she really needs is someone that cares enough to tend her flame.
Soon we ll see Christian unable to do just that as he repeatedly fails to light her lone birthday
candle. So I lean towards the fire being legit, the H rga are murderous and barbaric, but I think
the communal care is authentic for the most part. We then get this deeply underappreciated shot
of the H rga seated in the shape of an R rune. One H rgan is missing from the group and as we
wait and watch from above we can see the shadow of the maypole is pointing towards the empty
seat like an arrow. The H rga have this strict focus on community and so while we re waiting for
the last one to be seated, this is a great way of drawing emphasis to that. As for what the R rune
means, it s order and structure, which is pretty fitting for this formally arranged picnic. And if
you re a rune expert at home and you re thinking, what the Futhark, the raido rune doesn t mean
that! Well firstly please try to calm down and secondly you re right, but this isn t technically
a Raido rune as we know it, at least I don t think so. We re going to circle back round to
what s going on with the runes in a moment. As the group sits in still silence we see Mark
failing to observe the custom and having to be corrected by Josh and again this is just serving
to emphasize how out of place and perhaps even disrespectful our group are being. We then have
the H rga elder singing his thanks to the crops, which turns into this unified hum between
all the H rga. And really this is serving to blend the two spheres of pagan practices and
forced, cult-like unity into a weird mash-up. Following the singing we get this funny exchange
between Josh, Pelle and Christian. Pelle gives Christian quite a well thought out response to
his question and then semi-fobs off Josh when he asks for a translation. Christian then thanks
Pelle for the translation and Josh s reaction is hilarious but also shows us he s starting to
become suspicious of Christian s motives, I think he might be a little bit suspicious of the H
rga too, just not in the way that he should be. And from there we cut to Maja, who I think gets
a bit of a bad wrap. She s young, she clearly believes in the H rga, and I think it s become
quite du jour to suggest Christian is the victim who is drugged and subsequently unable to consent,
but we should remember that she is too. We ll look at that closely because it s a murky situation,
but first I think we should ask the question, how old is Maja? Because Christian is 25. In the
script it says she is 16 and that fits with what Pelle says later, so I think right from the
get go Christian is on pretty shaky ground. We see Maja psyching herself up in the mirror
and doing this very distinct in-out breath. The H rga have this focus on breathing
as part of their mirroring techniques, as part of this representation of harmony
and balance that Pelle is talking about, and so we ll see them doing this a lot. It
s actually a part of their language system known as the H rgan Affekt. This comprises body
movements, these strange greetings and breathing techniques and their own runic alphabet, which is
what s leading to this confusion with the raidho rune. It s a symbolic and performative language so
it doesn t replace traditional Swedish for them, instead it s something supplementary that helps
them form an internal mode of communication. This is absolutely something cults do, they ll often
have invented language, gestures, terminology and symbols as a way of establishing group
identity and keeping certain aspects private. On the door we ll see a glyph comprised of the
same repeated rune shape, and we ll see a few of these combined glyphs throughout. In this instance
the repeated rune means taboo and warning, which is pretty fitting considering it s carved into a
toilet door and we re currently being warned about a character that does some pretty taboo stuff. As
Maja heads back outside we see the younger H rga playing skin the fool. This is a Swedish folk
game which to my understanding is different to what we see on screen, traditionally it involves
one person being assigned the role of fool and being given lots of silly tasks to do. What we
see on screen seems more like a H rgan spin on it with a bit of the mirroring brought in, where the
people following repeat the silly noise or action the person at the front, presumably the fool is
making. One of which is a repeated breath sound similar to what Maja was just doing in the mirror.
And it probably goes without saying but this game of Skin the Fool is of course foreshadowing for
Mark, who will be skinned and dressed as a fool. Cutting back to the group and we see
Ingemar the Incel silently ragemaxxing at Connie and Simon s relationship, something
that Dani clearly picks up on. There s a definite contrast between the two relationships
here, Connie and Simon are all over each other, Simon s bringing her a drink, whereas Christian
is quite content watching the H rga girls dance, something Dani also picks up on. And so I think
she probably feels quite sorry for Ingemar, given they both are experiencing different
kinds of unrequited love. As the procession goes by Maja kicks Christian to encourage him to
join, which he happily does. It doesn t forgive anything that happens later, but just keep
in mind he is showing an interest in Maja. Christian asks Pelle if anyone can join,
and Pelle s reply is Oh you re an American, just jam yourself in there. There s a lot
we can take from that, first is the not so subtle description of Americans as outsiders and
the somewhat indelicate behaviour they ve been displaying. Second is that this is exactly what
Pelle wants, time alone with Dani while Christian is pursuing Maja, and thirdly this even less
subtle hint that he should pursue Maja sexually. With Christian and Josh out of the picture
Pelle immediately starts making moves because he is a complete lizard. They re barely out of
frame before he hands her a portrait drawing of herself and says happy birthday, something he
knows Christian has forgotten. And he ll only tell Christian about it once he s already
given her this present. Cementing himself as more caring in Dani s eyes while
still keeping Christian on side. And he s immediately hinting at, or maybe trying to
build, a relationship with Dani that is apart, or secret from Christian. First he
suggests it may not be appropriate, which she downplays. He s playing the victim
here because he knows that Dani is terrified of offending people so he s manipulating that to
get her to validate his somewhat creepy gift. He then says just between us , meaning keep it secret
from Christian. So he s absolutely twisting her into a situation that feels like the soft launch
to an affair, even if she doesn t realise it yet. We ll see Dani making excuses for Christian
forgetting her birthday and very quickly jumping to it being her fault for not reminding
him, we ll also see Pelle pretending he didn t know Christian had forgot so make no mistake
he may love Dani, but he is absolutely willing to lie to her. Interestingly in the next scene
we ll hear Dani say they ve been together for four years and two weeks. And given that
at the party Mark said they were leaving two weeks from that date, there s a very good
chance that Christian trying to sneak out to a party and Dani finding out he was going to
Sweden all happened on their anniversary. Given that Christian seems confused about this when
it s brought up it would seem as though he may not even realised he missed it. So Christian s
0 for 2 on yearly boyfriend responsibilities. Let s go back to that picture for a moment as it
s something I ve been waiting to discuss. Firstly I should mention that Dani is wearing a flower
crown, foreshadowing her winning the May Queen and also pointing to the fact that maybe Pelle knows
that s going to happen. But more interestingly we have these runes in the bottom right of the
drawing that also appear later on Dani s dress. Henrik Svensson describes this pairing of runes
as Dani s name in the H rgan language. And given that it s nowhere close to the spelling of Dani
we can presume this is a figurative application not a literal translation. So we can say these
runes represent Dani, no doubt about it. And these are not Elder Futhark, they are the H rgan
Affekt. The Affekts are made up of 16 runes, 8 of them are described as stable or balanced
, 4 of them are described as unstable and the last 4 are described as prohibited . Dani s runes
come from the last two categories. The backward R means crisis or death and the hourglass means
helplessness. Now this is pretty spot on for describing Dani, but I think it s a little
bit more than that, I think this is the H rga shorthand for how best to manipulate this
person. That s what it s really telling the H rga that see it, it might be why it features
on Pelle s notes about her, she s helpless because she s in crisis due to the death of her
family, that s their route in to manipulate her. Now you might be wondering given the
prevalence of runes in this film, what do the other H rgan Affekts mean. How do
I know what they mean? And for Dani s runes, we know because Henrik Svennson told us that
in an interview. But as for the other fourteen, no one can really say and so it hasn t been
a topic of discussion. The H rga just have their own hidden interpretation of runes. But
when I say can, I really mean could, because I actually contacted Henrik Svensson, and as an
absolute Hail Mary I asked if he had any key, or index to what the characters meant. And luckily
for us, Henrik Svensson is the effing man and he sent me the original sketches and meanings
for the H rgan Affekt Runes. The emotional sheet music at the core of H rga society. So for
what I think is the first time ever on Youtube, here they are. Now I want to be able to share this
with the community, and I presume Henrik is fine with me doing so. But the internet is a wild place
and there s things like EXIF data to consider that I just don t want to be responsible for. So I
took the liberty of designing this image with the collated symbols and meanings in conjunction with
Kirby from Midsommary which is a great fan tool for the movie, it s something I used a lot while
researching this video. Really just as a thank you for the community, it s been invaluable seeing
all the questions people have, all the sleuthing. Just thank you for all the work over the last
five years and anyone that s helped on adjacent subs when I ve needed. I just want to say thank
you so much to Henrik Svensson once again, he really didn t need to do this but I m incredibly
grateful that he did. Also thank you to Kirby, she was actually sent this separately from another
person who worked on the film as well so we d both kind of got it in conjunction and realised that we
had the same things. I do also want to provide the caveat that these are not the only runes we see in
the film, and we see runes that are deliberately labelled as Elder Futhark, so please do keep
that in mind when applying this to the film. That s actually what we see in the very next scene
with the rune stone which Josh misidentifies as the younger Futhark. This is really just alluding
to a more legitimate pagan past that the H rga have hijacked, or applied their own interpretation
to if you want to be more charitable about it. And as the tour of the H rgan Commune continues we
get an absolute workshop in cringe as Ingemar makes it abundantly clear to everyone that he
was into Connie. This is quite a funny moment but it s worth noting that this right here is
essentially the pathos for Ingemar being the one to kill Simon and/or Connie, probably both. He
wanted Connie to be his trophy like Dani is for Pelle but instead he loses out to Simon. And it
s pretty safe to say even if Connie was besotted with Ingemar that the H rga wouldn t think she s
a good match for their all white paradise. That is to say Ingemar chose poorly, he failed where Pelle
succeeded. We can see Pelle smirking smugly as the awkwardness plays out, hinting again
at this subtle rivalry between the two. And the awkwardness is interrupted by Christian
asking about the temple. It s a little bit of foreshadowing given Christian is going to be
burning to death in it later on, but it would seem there s more going on in this shot than meets the
eye. Take a good long look at it. Now we re going to have to jump a little bit ahead for a moment
for this to make sense. And if you re watching on Patreon, this should be pretty clear, if you re
on Youtube I m very sorry that I obviously have to censor this. This scene, and actually this
one later on are structured in a very specific way so as to visually resemble the post attestup
tableau later on. We ve got these blue tarpaulins at either side, which really don t need to
be here, they ve been purposefully included, which represent the laid out attestup couple in
their blue robes. In the middle we ve got Terri in her yellow t-shirt. It seems in both shots
there may be stand ins for her feet using white robed figures. And that s pretty clear imagery
but the icing on the cake is this treeline here, which we see very closely mirrored in this shape
on the rocks later. So what does it all mean? You could look at it very literally and say, the H
rga have arranged this to represent the attestup, but that doesn t make a lot of sense given that
Terri, the mirror of the temple, only exists in Dani s hallucination and they don t control the
shape of the rocks or the trees. I think it s definitely got this Asterian sense of pre-destiny
and repeat patterns of trauma being woven into our lives at every level, sort of like a fractal.
But potentially it s something more than that, suggesting that these violent acts, these rituals,
what Terri does, what Dani does, are all part of the same cycle. Perhaps a part of the land s
history. A link between these violent rituals and the land itself. I think this is a major
plus towards Dani s H rga awakening legitimately having something to do with her having a link
to the land. And these rocks in question are noticeably blue, just like the blue rime rocks
the sacred cow licked Buri and Ymir free from. So they re being linked to the creation of the
world, not just a specific place in H lsingland, it s something deeper and more spiritual than
that. More general. That this violent past, our collective genetic memory, is playing out
through the H rga and their barbaric practices, playing out through Terri and her confused
decision to destroy her family, awakening in Dani too, almost certainly playing a role in
her decision at the end. I think Midsommar s art director Nille Svensson put it very aptly when
he said for the H rgas, history and future are the same. Their culture is cyclical so events that
happen now have happened before, and will happen again. And I think that s how we should broadly
understand it. There s no definite, concrete links, it s more a sense that these patterns of
violence and trauma and pain are repeating through us at every level, that there s some unseen cosmic
synergy ensuring our behaviour repeats itself. While we re on the subject of the H rgan
buildings there s a few things I should mention, first you may have seen this temple recently make
an appearance in Cult of the Lamb. References to this film are very common in recent media and I
think that speaks to how striking the aesthetics are here. You may also be curious about the
architecture of the H rgan commune quirky as it is. These buildings are based very closely on
the halsingardar, that is the farm buildings of H lsingland, and I think looking at some of them
the inspiration is pretty clear. That being said it s definitely mashed up with these slapdash,
irregularly constructed buildings you often find in cult compounds. So the design of the H rgan
commune is kind of a bridge between those two aesthetics, what s traditional with the land
and the more unique and hodge-podge cult vibe. But there s something else going on here that
we never get full scope of in the film. The H rgan settlement is actually built in the shape
of the Othal rune, or the H rga version at least. In the H rgan Affekt this means cultivation of
art, soul and craft , but we also probably shouldn t ignore that this rune is very closely tied with
neo-nazi groups and the blood and soil motto. We re also introduced to the bear here, we ve
already gone into great detail on the bear, and we will again later in how
it relates to the H rga belief, so for now I just want to make sure you
re aware of the bear in a cage advertising campaign for this movie. Interestingly I
d say even this advert has some layover aesthetics from the Volkish and Wandervogel
which had a resurgence across the pond in the late 40 s and 50 s as this polished americana
vibe. I think if we had seen the H rga s love spell education tape from the deleted scene,
it would have looked a lot like this too. We then see Connie asking about the love spell
tapestry, which I m sure you re aware I cannot show you all of. But if you ve seen the film you
know this is pretty straightforward. We see a H rga girl falling in love with a boy, picking
flowers backwards and placing them under their pillow. We then see the H rga girl having dreams
about falling in love with the boy, presumably brought on by the flowers. And then things take
a definite nosedive as she gives herself a trim and bakes the excess hair into a meal, and tops
the drink off with menstrual blood. We then see the H rga boy consuming the meal and subsequently
becoming hypnotized under the power of the love spell, falling in love with the girl, seemingly
marrying her and getting her pregnant. And the marriage thing is interesting as there doesn
t seem to be much evidence of formal long term commitments within the H rga. We call the attestup
couple a couple but there s no real evidence they are. We can also see the girl getting pregnant
here as an indication that primarily due to the power of foreshadowing, that Christian likely
does get Maja pregnant during the ritual. One other thing before we move away from the
tapestry, this plays out backwards. We see it appear in a chronological manner, but on
the actual tapestry this reads backwards if we go left to right. And I think this can
be viewed the same way as the camera flipping upside down as the group entered H lsingland.
On the one hand it does add to this weird, abstract place where things are a
bit upside down, a bit backwards, events are flowing somewhat like a dream and
so on, and on the other more meta hand it helps make things a little less straightforward for
the audience, it delivers the foreshadowing in a way where you may not take it all in on first
viewing so you re not immediately clear on what s actually happening. That s another reason
you get this blend of quite shocking imagery it kind of stops you in your tracks the first
time you see it and prevents you from getting a firm grip on what s being shown as our minds
have a tendency to focus on the dirty bits. After that we see the group enter the H rga
dormitory for the first time and be rightfully amazed by the artwork covering the space. Everyone
except Mark that is who is quite concerned by the rampant phallic imagery adorning his new sleeping
space. As with the mural at the start we can see the look is also influenced by the kurbits or
"kurbitsm lning" aesthetic, but more specifically the Halsinge mural style native to H lsingland,
with the instruction from Ari Aster to add a lot of blood and sex. There s actually a specific
museum house in Stockholm decked out in the Halsinge style that they used for inspiration.
And this set design and the look of the H rga aesthetic was the result of years of work, from
Henrik Svensson, Nille Svenson and Ragnar Perrson who was the artist responsible for actually
painting these final murals. And when discussing these murals Nille Svensson made reference to
these types of explainer videos we re doing right now and how they intentionally made the film for a
quote alert audience . And as the run time of this video suggests, they really didn t disappoint, we
can see so much of the movie represented on these walls. The dance around the Maypole, the crowning
of Dani, the bear on fire, Christian s mating with Maja, the blood eagle, the list goes on. And
if you see something that you don t recognise, like these sacrificed animals I mentioned
earlier, or this ritual, these are things that at some point were planned on being included
but for whatever reason didn t make the final cut. This scene also provides us the breakdown
of how the H rga s age brackets work. As H rga age they are assigned certain runes along
with benchmark moments, thanks to Mr Svensson we can now match these up. Pelle describes these
age brackets as aligning with the seasons, so we can include those too. Spring is the H
rgan childhood up to 18 During that time the H rga would be assigned these three runes as you
can see on screen. At 18 the H rgans enter summer, the period where they will partake in a
pilgrimage. At 36 they ll be assigned this rune, which as we ve seen is extremely important
to the H rga. We could consider this point becoming the fully realized H rga
citizen. 36 54 is autumn, or fall, where Pelle describes them as being of working
age. Which in this instance likely means their main duties are to serve the commune however
they can. At 54 they re awarded this rune that represents peace and tranquillity and marks the
start of their life s winter. During this time they ll fulfil the role of mentor, teaching and
guiding the younger H rga and likely fulfilling some privileged role. Age 72 marks their death
date and so there isn t an assigned rune here, instead we have the act of disintegration,
handing back the runes they had earned in life. In blurred foreground whispers we hear Pelle
absolutely lying to Christian, telling him that Dani hasn t mentioned his birthday and
making it seem like he was giving him the heads up. So now we have both parties, Dani and
Pelle, lying and keeping secrets from Christian, and so, however minimally, this bond of
secrecy has been established between them. The music once again takes on this very magic
sensibility as we see Dani noticing the wall of May Queens. Alluding to this sense of pre-destiny,
her finding her calling, her happily ever after given the context of this being her fairytale.
I don t want to dwell on this too much as I ve already covered the Wicker Man referencing
here, but I do want to point out that this sense of grandeur that is built around the May
Queen is overhyped purposefully by the film and subsequently in further discussion of it. It s
something that happens every year and usually doesn t come with the responsibilities of choosing
a sacrifice. We ll talk more about the May queen when it happens but for now just consider the
difference in veneration between the photos of the May queens here, and say, the Rubi Radr. Yes
it s a tradition and makes for a nice photowall, but we should keep what that role actually
means and how it s being used in perspective. Pelle simply describes it as a dance
competition where the winner gets crowned, he very much downplays it, but I think
this is the most accurate description of it we can give. It just feels like
something more when we actually get to it. In walks Inga to deliver a reference that has
baffled fans for a long time as she mentions that the kids are going to watch Austin Powers if
they want to join. She then sends Mark some very clear signals about the south house, which is the
most suggestive direction a house can be situated at. And Mark s pretty excited by this, to the
point of wanting to bathe her. Now, this Austin Powers referencing throws people off I guess just
because it comes out of left field and so people have looked for any link they can between the
films. And that doesn t make things easier because there s quite a few potentials. We ve got Will
Ferrel falling off a cliff and breaking his legs, which is very reminiscent of Dan s fate during
the Attestup. We ve got this quote about free love and mind-altering substances that definitely
reflects the hippy commune lifestyle, we ve got a pretty memorable reference to Swedish made
phallic apparatus and lastly we have Mike Myers playing the lead and Ari Aster does seemingly
like cramming in references to Halloween, as we saw in Hereditary and as we ll see here later
on. I suppose if I had to pick one of those I d go Will Ferrel or Michael Myers, but truthfully
I think it s missing the point somewhat. The real takeaway here should be that this weird left
field reference is meant to jolt the audience, it s meant to feel a bit out of place, because
it reminds us that the H rga aren t living in a vacuum. That they exist among us, that they
re not luddites completely cut off from regular culture. I suppose you could look at it the
other way, the film might be a bit dated in 2018, but for me I think you could pick something a bit
more egregious if that s what you were going for. We then see Christian pull Dani outside to
try and rectify his failings and if you re wondering where he looney tunesed this slice of
cake from it was actually also from Pelle. If you watch very carefully you can see him signal
Christian towards it before going to talk to Dani about the May queens. It s important to watch the
contrast between the caring and affectionate group of H rga women all cradling a baby together
and Dani s crushing reality of an uncaring partner that forget both her birthday and their
anniversary. And his bland slice of cake with a yellow candle in it, yellow because Dani is in
the summer of her life as Pelle just put it, looks very uninspired next to Pelle s drawing of
her. Christian s inability to get the candle lit is a pretty apparent metaphor for his failings
in their relationship, his inability to show Dani even the most basic levels of care. And
Dani very much doesn t make an issue out of it, but for the first time there is a glimmer
of her standing her ground, she acknowledges she should be upset. And even as Christian is
singing happy birthday to her she s still being distracted by the far more emotionally connected
H rga. She s having her head turned by them, both literally and figuratively. She s sensing the
appeal, starting to wake up to something she sees as more caring than Christian. And if you want
to go a level deeper, you can see the actions with the candle as representative of their arc
as a whole. Christian failing to bring the light, the warmth into Dani s life, her seeing the H
rga and starting to be pulled away, Christian then looking away as he has his head turned by H
rga women, specifically Maja who s right there, and then Dani finally blowing out the candle as
she sees his interest fading and decides to blow out the flame. To top it all off she blows
the candle out with a similar in/out breath to the H rgan affekt, signalling this shift in
her allegiances. And it s worth mentioning how important fire is throughout the movie, we see
one fire representing the strength of the H rga community, ever burning and constantly cared
for, and another here in contrast representing Dani and Christian s failing relationship. We
also see the flames representing Dan and Ylva. And this is all tied into the power of the sun,
the power of fire in pagan cultures and how it represents the life giving aspects, all these
different threads are very cleverly unified in this one motif. A motif that at the end will
be used to cleanse Christian from Dani s life. Lastly, if you watch very closely you can see the
candle essentially go out before Dani blows it, you could read that as meaning she won t
get her birthday wish of a happily ever after with Christian, but to me I think it s a
sign of their relationship dwindling to nothing even before Dani decides to snuff it out.
We cut to bedtime and the younger H rga are getting ready for their communal sleeping
arrangements, which is pretty disorienting given it s still bright daylight outside. And
we see Dani notice this woman placing a pair of scissors under the pillow of the crib. Now this is
a bit of a trend at this point, Pelle s mentioned the children putting runes under their pillow,
the tapestry shows the picked flowers that go under the pillow. And in both of those instances
it s shown to affect their dreams. On the tapestry we see the girl dreaming of the target of her
spell and Pelle says the children dream about the runes powers. So we know from the clues we
have already that stuff going under pillows is believed to effect dreams, and later we ll hear
that this babies mother is on pilgrimage and the baby is struggling to detach from her. I think
Dani has actually just asked about the meaning of the scissors prior to us cutting in to that scene.
We ll hear the baby crying throughout the night, so in all likelihood these scissors are being
put here in the hopes that, that it will sever the child s emotional connection to its birth
mother. But given we do hear the baby crying, I think we can safely it doesn t work. And
given that no H rga are waking up to tend to the crying the whole detachment from the
mother thing isn t necessarily working out roses. And I know it s probable that Dani
s simply noticing this because it s strange and dangerous, two things that shouldn
t be combined, a crib and sharp objects, but it s also another example of Dani noticing,
awakening, to these customs. I should also point out that in the script the cribs are made of
iron to protect from what Pelle describes as invisibles , really evil spirits. The scissors
could be an aspect of that also, but I think it s more likely to allude to the babies detaching
or emotionally untethering from their mothers. And there s just enough time for a bit more
foreshadowing before bed with Pelle mentioning tomorrow s attestup. And I know they say
attestupan in the film but I feel like attestup has become the culturally acknowledged term
just like blood eagle has. If you haven t seen Norsemen by the way, it s got a great attestup
scene. Now Josh knows what an attestupan is, and Pelle looks absolute daggers at him
as he says this, knowing he might give the game away. Josh doesn t let on what it
is, but that s not out of care for Pelle s wishes. It s some combination of him starting to
realise Christian intends to hijack his idea and his morbid academic curiosity not wanting to cause
any concern so he can get to see it for himself. He does look momentarily concerned when he hears
the word, but not anywhere close to protesting, because this unquestioned thirst
for knowledge is his fatal flaw. As Dani struggles to sleep we ll see her looking
at this mural of a H rga being pretty gleeful in their own sacrifice and an overhead sun that s
seemingly happy with it too, again giving us this eerie rendition of the sun where it is somewhat
hungry for human sacrifice. This being the hottest summer on record we have all the clues to see what
s coming. We ll also see Jarl sneak out with a H rga girl for some fun in the midnight sun, and
really I think this is here just to reinforce the more open sexuality of the H rga and to provide
the youthful mirror to what s about to come. The next scene begins with this panning
shot of H rga morning and we see Dani observing a group mimicking an elder
that s leading them in the affekt movements. They re not just learning
to mirror and feel with each other, it is also another form of communication
to them. We then move to the banquet. As the group line up to eat we get this wacky
camera movement, I absolutely love this shot and how it so clearly follows what Mark s saying
about the girls walking stupid. And this sequence uses some very clever tricks with the audio.
From the camera s point of view we re quite far removed from the group, but the audio we
hear sounds as if we re right up next to them, and even though they re not shouting, it perfectly
sells this idea of them being loud and out of place among the otherwise silent H rga.
It probably won t surprise you to find out that the flower picking is a real midsummer
tradition, even down to placing them under your pillow to aid in magically wooing your lover
or dreaming about the person you will marry. Interestingly this was often combined
with having to jump over seven gates, or fences, and this is actually how the May
queen competition ends in the script. Now this was quite common. The doing it walking backwards
less so, but there is precedent for that too, so it is part of the tradition albeit not as
ubiquitous. And the reason for doing it was a belief that doing things backwards somehow
improved the efficacy of the magic. Another key detail was doing the flower picking
in silence, which we ll see these girls observing. Now Dani picks the flowers for
Christian, but she misses out the key step of putting them under her pillow, so it s safe to
say her love spell doesn t work either. However, it is more evidence that Dani is proving herself
to be a respectful participant in H rga customs. As Dan and Ylva arrive and take their seats we
can see their robes have single runes featuring prominently. If we go to our H rgan Affekt decoder
we can see Dan s rune stands for healing and cure and Ylva s for boldness and victory. And
let me get this out of the way up front, Ylva looks a lot like Dani. What we re seeing
here is the perfect endgame for the H rga journey, model H rga citizens. Just like we ll see Pelle
and Dani championed for being at the end. We don t know if these two are romantically involved,
but they re presented like a couple and I think there s absolutely intended mirroring between them
and Dani and Pelle. So much so that I think they can be viewed as a projection, a repeat pattern,
of what the rest of Dani s life is going to look like. We can think of Ylva like future Dani,
or past Dani, in this grand repeating cycle. I think this is visually alluded to in the stare
her and Dani share before she jumps. That maybe one day 50 years from now Dani will be stood up
on that rock looking down at some young girl she sees herself in. Again this idea that it s all
happened before and somehow will happen again, which ties in perfectly with this belief of
reincarnation through nature. We ll even hear Siv tell the group that the next female baby to be
born will take Ylva s name, so we ve very much got this sense of everything fitting into a repeating
pre-destined pattern. But destiny is perhaps too supernatural, I think fitting into a repeating
natural cycle is a more H rga way of putting it. Back to the banquet and I love how the picking
up of cutlery flows out from them all the way down the table, it really gives this impression
of a group acting in harmony, and one thing I haven t mentioned yet is that another inspiration
for the H rga was the social behaviour of bees, and here we can sort of see that hive mind in
action as the order to pick up cutlery moves down the chain. We also see Inga staring at
Mark, and notice he tends to punctuate these moments with his bright red vape, red alluding to
fertility, impregnation and so on. It s kind of the perfect visual metaphor for his character, and
this isn t a criticism of people vaping, we ve had a whole century of people smoking in movies. But
this vape is perfectly emblematic of Mark s role, and in general the American group s inability, or
lack of attempt to fit in. The vapour gets in the way of shots, gets in peoples faces, he pulls
it out at inopportune moments where he should be standing quietly. And really that s Mark
all over, he s only here for Swedish women and he doesn t really care about fitting in because
that would require thinking about other people. We also get a quick cut of Maja carving her runic
love rock that she ll put under Christian s bed. Dan and Ylva then begin to chant and sing,
some of this is sort of gibberish speaking in tongues mixed in with elements of the H rga
Affekt like the breathing, the rest is in Old Norse so if anyone can translate it fully please
let me know, but from what I can gather it s not fully coherent, in this script it s described as a
wordless choral song so I don t think there s too much being said, we re just supposed to understand
it as them taking part in a H rga end of life ritual, somewhere between eulogizing and beginning
this act they refer to as disintegration, where they give themselves back to nature. And I
think it s okay to laugh here, this is supposed to be a little bit silly, it s lathered in this
cult weirdness and as with a lot of the things we see the H rga doing it is deliberately strange.
Mark is as respectful as ever, musing on what would happen if he were to digitally stimulate
the singing man. Again it s just supposed to contrast between the reverent H rgan community
and the puerile and intrusive depiction of the group. Dani on the other hand is focused, either
she s recognising the parallels between her and the woman, which is highly unlikely at this
point, or she s having a jolt of awakening, she s starting to sense what s coming. Ever
since she heard the word Attestupan mentioned she s had a very clear and very keen interest and
I think here, and certainly in the coming scenes, she is becoming alert to these things before
they happen. She could just be better at reading people, like Pelle, she could just actually care
enough to pay attention unlike Mark and Christian, but I think there s so much emphasis drawn towards
it that this is perhaps something more than that. We see the couple get lifted on their
thrones and carried out by an all blue group, this is somewhere between funeral and wedding
procession. It s very confused imagery and the perfect lynchpin to this twisting of life
and death, summer and winter as the elderly couple go to meet their end, carried through
the sun by men adorned with flower garlands. And then comes the turn, because if you weren t
clear on what film you were watching up until now, the attestup is going to lay that out pretty
clearly for you. We re going to look at this whole sequence in one section because
this is absolutely the watershed moment, a lot of things converging at once, a huge
part of the film that sticks with people, and something that audiences in 2018 absolutely
did not see coming. Let s start with the reality of an Attestup or Attestupan or Attestupa. This
word, or name, was actually given to a number of cliffs or precipices around Sweden, the name
translates roughly to clan precipice . And it came into parlance in the 17th Century based on a
reference from a 2nd Century Icelandic saga known as Gautreks Saga. In that there s a comedic
scene with a miserly family that essentially throw themselves off a nearby precipice due to it
being preferable to the cost of hosting others. However this decision is obviously ridiculous,
it s comedy, and so the motive transformed into old people doing it when they re impoverished or
once they ve become a burden on their tribe or immediate family. Now this specific practice doesn
t appear anywhere else in Scandinavian history, but from the 17th to 19th Century Swedish
Historians blew the theory up and went around attaching the name to every set of cliffs they
could find. Come the 19th Century people start questioning the theory, and before long it s outed
as myth. But as with a lot other things here it had still managed to get it s claws in and become
a part of the cultural export of Norse mythology. And you may be noticing a theme here that the
beliefs of the H rga seem to be based mostly on things that have been proven false, Wotanism,
their ideas on Runes and the Uthark language, the nazi hijacking of Scandinavian mythos, the
attestupan, to a lesser extent the blood eagle and the list goes on. They re hijacking
traditions to provide legitimacy to their terrible ideas and their traditions
aren t even accurate. They re charlatans, and whether the H rga have been around for
one century or three, the group we see today are very much promoting a set of lies.
And I think the main clue here should be, it s very difficult to get someone, especially
a group of people regularly, to just throw themselves to their death willingly. This is what
s played out in the Norsemen scene I mentioned, the elders simply don t want to jump. But
that s also what makes it terrifying here, is the devout belief these H rgans have in
being willing, in standing by and bearing witness to it. Don t get me wrong this woman is
clearly terrified, but she s still going to go through with it. And so on the flipside it s
important to remember that while these beliefs are based on lies, clearly the majority of
H rga are firm believers in it. Because you would have to be to jump. Look at Ulf s face
here, this man is convinced it s a blessing. And this panning shot of the H rga stood waiting
for the jump is one of my favourites. It s just so much of what makes the film great rolled into one,
we ve got the devout H rga versus the confused outsiders, everything s white and overexposed
to the point of feeling afterlife adjacent and our outside characters stick out in their dark
colours. It s sombre, majestic maybe and the best example of this clash, between H rga belief seeing
it as beautiful and the outsiders seeing it as outright horror. And I love this shot which comes
right after too as we see this young H rgan look right into the camera as if to say, you are not
ready for what s coming . And chances are when you first saw this, you probably weren t because this
is a ridiculous and brutal scene to have halfway through your film. Ari Aster has mentioned wanting
to put as much head trauma as possible into his films and this is definitely the one that makes
me the most squeamish. This fourth wall break is quite jarring, it s a lot like the camera quickly
adjusting to see what Mark is talking about in that it s a little bit off with the rest of the
film. And I was pretty sure this was a reference to something because of that, because it s so
purposefully out of place to nod to the audience like that. But ultimately I had no idea so I have
to thank my subscriber @BennyFord for this one, who pointed out this is very likely an homage to
the film Funny Games, wherein we see the character give a similar smile to camera in acknowledgement
that the violence the audience came to see is about to begin. I ve put Benny s full comment
up on screen in case we have any Funny Games fans in the house. I also want to thank Benny
for giving us the wonderful term Aster-Egg, which if I m honest I would have stolen throughout
this if I hadn t already finished the script. Moving on and we see Josh gets his first sight of
the Rubi Radr as Siv is delivering her speech and keep in mind Josh has a decent idea of what
s coming, but his drive in this moment is to once again try and secure a viewing of the book
for his research. We get to look inside of it, enough to tell our brains that this is likely
nonsense and we should be very worried about what s about to happen, but we ll look at the Rubi
Radr properly later when Josh seals his fate. I ve already mentioned that these blue cliffs are
certainly alluding to death, alluding specifically to old age and death as we know from the colour
blue, and also that they likely visually allude to the rime-blue rocks featured in the Norse creation
saga, that are licked away by the Cosmic Cow. I think that s probably why we hear this ominous,
and quite cow like horn sound. We can see our main group stood away from the H rga, and normally
we would read that as them being outsiders, of them not sharing the same thinking as the
senicidal H rgans. However, Connie and Simon are outsiders too and they re slap bang in the
middle of everyone. So what I actually think is happening here is that Pelle is a much better
recruiter than Ingemar, he has a great sense for people and he knows this is going to be a point
of trauma, so he makes sure to stand his offerings away from the group, while Ingemar fails to.
And interestingly it s not that Simon and Connie have witnessed this that seems to
seal their death, that s obviously part of it but Ari Aster suggested that it s more
their protestation to the ceremony, that they ve been rude during what is quite a sacred
moment for the H rga. Our main group react too, but don t loudly object, and a lot of that is
because Pelle has strategically kept them away. We ll come back to Connie and Simon in a moment
but first I want to look at these rune stones. We see the elder couple have their hands cut,
very similar to what Dani saw in the mural of gleeful sacrifice, and then they smear their
bloody handprints on them. And what they re essentially doing here is signing their own
gravestone. This isn t some ancient rock, I presume it s been brought here given we can
see many other gravestones with similar bloody hand markings in the background. And this lets
us know the Attestup is happening relatively frequently. Now as for what these markings mean,
I think in general we can assume that these are runes that defined their character. Like how
we see Dani represented through these two. I also think this is part of the H rgan
disintegration where they give back the runes they ve earned in life. We know it s
written in the H rgan Affekt because this rune, the one that Dan has on his robe, doesn
t appear in the Elder Futhark. From top to bottom we have cultivation of art,
soul and craft, boldness and victory, the gift of speech and communication, healing
and cure and finally happiness and achievement. As for Ylva s stone, it s a little trickier.
The other graves are very much background, while this is a lot more focused on. Given that
the H rgan Affekt isn t something the film lets you in on, this is a lot of focus to be putting
on a previously untranslatable code. There s also these symbols in the corners that don t appear
in H rgan Affekt but do in the Futhark. However I should point out that Dan s runes also have
these extra decorative elements that don t fit in. So it could be that these elements are the
same and are intended more decoratively. But it has become quite well documented at this point
that this is Futhark and alludes to the ritual of attestup itself. So let s look at that
first. These symbols at the top mean gift, this is an inverted life rune so death, the middle
row alludes to journey and sacrifice. The last row necessity and fate. And that seems to fit
pretty perfectly, a gift, a necessary sacrifice that you are bound to through fate. But if we
ignore these corner elements and see them as just embellishment and instead translate this in
H rgan Affekt then we get a different answer. From the top it s taboo or warning, then a repeat of
order and structure, then boldness and victory, the rune we see defining Ylva on her dress, and
then lastly, maybe as a dark joke, we have both feet on the ground . And honestly this seems to
apply just as well, and fits much better with the idea that these grave markings are essentially
a description of the persons character. Onto the meat of the matter and we
see Dani starting to get very nervous, to the point where she s clearly on the verge of
suffering a panic attack. She s already trying to control her breathing while Christian and Josh
are still staring up semi-bemused, and naturally Pelle is staring straight at her. Now maybe Dani
is just ahead of the game and getting worried that this is going to be triggering because of
what happened to her family. But like I say, Christian and Josh don t seem certain it s about
to happen, I don t think Christian has a clue what s about to happen. And we re so close in with
Dani here, even more so than usual, especially on her eyes. So while you can just read it as a grief
fuelled panic attack, I think it s something more, I think this is the real kickstart to her
awakening. And I think in the language of the film that panic attacks are a modern, clinical view of
what s actually happening to her in these moments, which is this thing inside of her waking up. And
I want to stress that this isn t some magical bond the H rga have with her. They can and are trying
to con her into feeling that way but I don t think this is that. I think a better way of putting
it is spiritually presented generational trauma, the idea of perhaps ritual violence in her past,
in her genetic memory, waking back up in the face of her extreme grief. If you think that s
just part of the trick the H rga are pulling, then I can t tell you you re wrong. But
personally I think too much of the evidence we get is interior to Dani or separated from the
H rga by being things we saw back in America. The H rga didn t trick Dani into hanging Scandinavian
art or wearing Scandinavian reminiscent clothing and sharing their interior design aesthetics. They
didn t ensure she was raised in Utah, they didn t make Terri do anything and yet we re very much
seeing that act linked with the attestup. Not only through Dani hallucinating it but through this
repeat representation of it in the environment. They don t cause Dani to have a panic attack
here before anything starts happening, well, you could argue they do, but they definitely
don t make her pre-empt the ritual of throwing the child in the water. For me, there s too much
evidence for it to be nothing, and that s not the exhaustive list. But we shouldn t understand it
as the H rga effectively using magical means to lure her here. It s not that. We have to be able
to reconcile that there s a few different things at work here. First and foremost that the H rga is
a dangerous cult that are trying to recruit Dani, their eagerness likely driven by a preference
for Nordic DNA and recognizing that she fits the perfect phenotype for what they re looking
for. Secondly that there is an element of fairy tale serendipity, everything lining up in just
the right way. This is Dani s fairytale and we do have this confirmed idea of pre-destiny and
cosmic circularity. So when we see things like artwork on her wall predicting the future, or her
realising something very bad is about to happen, we should view that as an element of her fairy
tale. And generational trauma is a huge theme in Ari Aster s work, in Hereditary he puts a
paranormal spin on that, here he puts a very soft spiritual spin on it. In an interview he agreed
that the film is about unprocessed trauma and I think this idea of generational trauma, something
deep within Dani, is absolutely a part of that. And this is definitely mental illness the Ardors
are suffering from, but a further question the film is raising through the H rga discussion of
the clouded and unclouded mind, is that perhaps the mental illness stems from the new world, the
technology and the stresses and prescriptions and this genetic memory of Danis is screaming out to
be free of it, and returning to something simpler, more naturalistic, and more violent. That s
why, potentially, we get this horrendous act from Terri, why Dani seems to know these acts of
violence are coming, why she ultimately commits a violent act of sacrifice herself. Because there
s something deep within her waking back up to it. Now it s absolutely something you can decide for
yourself, the film isn t going to come down on it one way or another, we re left guessing. But
personally I like the theory that this isn t solely a meta trick on the audience to convince us
Dani is something she isn t. There s just too much that wouldn t make sense. The H rga are absolutely
tricking us alongside Dani in a lot of respects, they do want to convince her of this, but I
think another huge vein to that is this idea that the Ardor daughters mental illness
is in some way a response to ancestral trauma that occurred in the past either in
Sweden or by being separated from Sweden, or even just from a more natural and ancient
lifestyle, and we re now very softly spiritually and psychologically seeing that play out through
Dani as all these elements converge on her. No matter where you fall on Dani s ancestry and
what s going on here, it s clear that she shares this moment of bonding and recognition with Ylva
as she s about to jump. Now as I said you can and probably should view this as a projection of
Dani s future, but I think again it fits into this idea of the cyclic rhythm of nature that the
H rga worshipped. Here she is ending her journey, here Dani is starting hers. And the other way of
looking at this panic attack Dani is having is, unwittingly she s doing the right thing, exactly
what the H rga are all doing, mimicking what Ylva, who we can see breathing heavily, is feeling in
that moment. So just like with blowing out the candle, Dani is subconsciously picking up these
H rgan affekts and unconsciously mimicking them, just like the H rga do intentionally.
When the old woman seems to go very still, suddenly Dani stops panicking. So not
only are they reflective of each other, they re also literally reflecting each other.
Now again, is this Dani being indoctrinated into H rgan customs without realising, or
is it some small part of her waking up, this genetic memory or prior knowledge. That s
ultimately up to you, but I d say there s a lot of evidence pointing towards it and the only real
thing working against it is that the H rga lie a lot. But they re never directly suggesting that
Dani is linked to them beyond the welcome home comment which could just be basic manipulation
and foreshadowing Dani not leaving. So I think it s very likely there s something going on
internal to Dani, and at its most basic we can just associate it with her wildness waking up,
her rebellion against Christian, and that being linked to this natural place, this returning
to her roots and a more honest way of being. Now on to the jump and it s pretty brutal
obviously, Dani seems to enter a state of shock but again, I think there s something more to it.
It looks like shock and feels like shock, unlike Josh and Christian who are still having a violent
reaction, or Simon and Connie who are screaming at the H rga, Dani is just still. But, unlike someone
in shock, she seems to be very aware that Simon and Connie shouting is a bad idea, and after that
she understands before the others that the second jumper is coming. Now I know it s pretty obvious
given the whole banquet and funeral procession that Dan is going to jump too. It s not proof
of prophetic abilities in any sense. But to me it still speaks to Dani seemingly having some
understanding and clarity as to what s coming next. I think her reaction here is something she
doesn t fully understand but it s the same thing powering her decision by the end. She s starting
to realise, starting to be indoctrinated and by the time it gets to the second jump she looks
like she s experiencing a weird kind of calm, she doesn t even really react to the second impact.
Now this can and should be seen as her being overloaded by trauma and grief and just shutting
down, but on that second watch you see she s a lot less startled than her counterparts. She
seems to be quietly observing the customs, paying very close attention, as if it s somehow
familiar. She s not shocked by the suddenly screaming H rga even though she was previously
jumping at microwaves, she s following the hammer on its way through the crowd, every single part
of this ritual or ordeal she seems to be aware of just before or just as it s happening, and that
s something we ll see even more clearly later on. Even the first hammer blow barely makes her
flinch, it s extremely muted, just like the sound here. It could be shock, but to me she
s too aware of what s happening. I prefer the idea that it s a form of messed up awakening.
And the second, really brutal hammer slam does get a bigger reaction from her but that s what
kickstarts this moment of awakening. That s why we go in so close on her eyes, why I keep using
that word awakening in particular. I ve seen a lot of theories that Dani s eyes change
colour at various points during the film, I ve looked pretty closely and I haven t been
able to find a point where there seems to be a purposeful shift and from what I can tell this has
largely been explained by differences in lighting between scenes. But I would be very surprised
if this close up shot of Dani wasn t graded or touched up with CG in such a way that it brought
out the yellow tones. And if that is the case, I think given that we know yellow is being twisted
emblem for death, youth and sacrifice to the sun and everything else H rga related, again I think
we can read it as this buried part of her DNA surging back into being and ultimately another
indicator of her blossoming indoctrination. The rest of the scene is taken up with Simon
quite rightfully freaking out on the H rga, as I mentioned, this is really what consigns
them to death. From the H rgan perspective they re being extremely rude during a very sacred
moment. So you could argue that this is as bad, or at least around the same level as Mark peeing
on an ancestral tree. But as we see there s no screaming and threats, instead Siv is trying
to calm the situation and get the outsiders to understand. Which I think gives us a subtle clue
as to what extent the H rga believe all of this. Ulf for example, absolutely jumps to murder over
Mark s tree abuse because he so devoutly believes this stuff. Siv on the other hand is more intent
on keeping the peace and calming them down and justifying their reasoning. So I think we can say
she s more cognisant of keeping the H rga secret rather than outwardly displaying extremist
behaviour. And Ingemar will come at it more personally, eventually killing in all likelihood
both Simon and Connie when he realizes they re leaving and he has no chance with Connie. So I d
argue there s a mix of reactions, but really it s up to you if you Simon and Connies deaths are a
matter of principle rooted in extreme beliefs, or if it s done to cover the H rga s tracks and keep
their society secret. I think it s a mix of both, but Siv was seemingly willing to overlook
the rudeness, they could not overlook them leaving. And on that note when Siv drives the
point of her explanation home she doesn t say it to Simon or Connie, she turns and says it to
Dani, so we can presume that this explanation is really part of Dani s H rga tutorial. Siv mentions
that this practice has been going on for a long, long time. It s unclear if she means attestup in
general or the tradition within the H rga, and we certainly can t trust her, but given the
amount of attestup grave markers we see I think it s probably a small plus to the
H rga being over a century old at least. Oh, and just because I forgot to mention
it and I know it s a question people have, if you re skipping here wondering why the H rga
all start screaming, it s a mirroring response to Dan s pain, just like we see at the end during
Dani s crying scene and then again during the burning of the temple. If Dan had simply died on
impact, this reaction would not have happened. The next three scenes are all dealing with
the fallout of the attestup. We have Dani s delayed but visceral reaction, this outpouring
of emotion and everything she s been holding in. We have Christian and Josh both seeing
it as an opportunity for personal gain, and we have Pelle who uses it to get his claws
further into Dani. Let s start with Dani s isolation right after. She s walking back with
Christian, clearly very upset and being closely monitored by the H rga. She vocalizes that she s
upset to Christian and he essentially tells her to go take a walk and runs off to catch up with
Josh. And at this point it s clearly a pattern, we see her repeatedly alone and isolated every
time she s really upset, it s both indicative of and symbolizing her wider isolation from any
kind of love and nurture. She s a recent orphan in a one-sided relationship, and this is built to
purposefully contrast her final break at the end, where finally she ll be crying and
upset but held by a loving group, having finally found the co-dependency and care
she d been so desperately lacking. I think her screaming here is definitely designed to mirror
her griefstruck wailing earlier and it s pretty safe to assume seeing this has brought out
everything she d been trying to keep down. The next scene with Josh and Christian is
amazing, William Jackson Harper and Jack Reynor are both absolutely selling it, but
subtextually there s not too much going on here we actually need to look at. Although we
can see clearly that the murals foreshadow or otherwise prophesize Dani becoming the May queen
and Christian procreating with Maja, I think this black kurbits style coming out from them is meant
to symbolize the expulsion or banishment of the black one. There is also Josh foreshadowing
his own grisly half-burial with the phrase, this isn t just some glorified hobby that I m
casually dipping my feet into. Obviously later we ll see him upside down with his foot sticking out,
precisely because of his passion for his studies. Other than that the point of the scene really is
to make Christian completely irredeemable so we have this resentment building towards him at and
this potential for a moment of catharsis at the end. He s not just a bad boyfriend, he s an all
round bad person too. It also incentivizes Josh to go that extra mile and do something crazy
like try and sneak photos of the Rubi Radr. But I suppose this scene does raise a couple of
questions, namely is Josh justified in his anger? Is he being an asshole too? And I think the answer
to both of those is yes. He is justified in being angry at Christian hijacking his work, but given
they have witnessed this stuff together and are friends, it would be out of the ordinary for
two people to decide to work in conjunction, but certainly possible especially
if it concerns a groundbreaking piece of research. That s unthinkable to
Josh however because he s brainwashed, he s desperate for the academic clout that would
bring him and he quite rightfully sees Christian as being inauthentic in the same passion.
So he is being a bit of an asshole too, actually he s being a lot of an asshole just
not to Christian. He runs back to make notes on what he s seen and momentarily acts as though
it was tough to watch, but he can barely contain his excitement and when Christian actually asks
him how he s doing he says he s fine and clearly means it. Christian s in the exact same boat,
neither of them truly care about the people they just saw die. And even though this scene
takes place in the shadow of that happening all both of them are thinking about is how it
can benefit them. So they re both assholes, Josh is an asshole who can t see past his own
academic career and Christian is a selfish asshole willing to betray his friends. Mark is just an
asshole who s annoyed he missed the attestup. And following this the game is most certainly
afoot with both immediately racing to get as much information as they can on the H rga. Christian
just so happens to walk up and question Maja, something the observing H rga seem happy with. And
as much as it s become popular to see Christian solely as a victim at the end, it s pretty clear
he has an interest in Maja. He can t stop staring at her, he asks her these questions rather
than any of the elder H rga right next to her, and he was pretty quick to follow her during skin
the fool. Christian most definitely wants a bit of Maja, who again is 16 to Christian s 25. I also
just want to point out that as one H rga leaves their role of tree dressing, another comes up
and fills her place in the activity seamlessly, building on this idea of the H rga being
bee-like and having this sort of hive mentality. Josh is equally enervated to get ahead,
approaching Pelle and attempting to get H rga permission for his research. Josh suggests that
he would use aliases and Pelle points out that he wouldn t be able to get it peer reviewed,
so really he s caught out Josh in a lie, he had no intention of using aliases.
And conversely Josh also catches Pelle in the lie of saying he hadn t spoken to
Christian about this. And it s here that Pelle just backs down and says he ll ask the
elders. But truthfully I think at this point, or about to be this point once Pelle has spoken
to them, they ve decided Josh isn t going home. Connie and Simon have sealed their fate
already and so it s likely Pelle leaves here and gets permission for Josh and Christian
s research because it s been decided they ll never get to follow through on it. Maybe
it was always going to go down that way, but I think from this moment we see the H rga
speed up in dealing with the outsiders. Josh clearly understood he was being fobbed off and
so it might have been essential that they keep him sweet by telling him he could do it. But
knowing what we do about Josh it s unlikely he d have ever backed down on it either way because
the H rga simply represent too big a prize to him. Pelle doesn t go straight to the elders, instead
he checks on Dani, who is packing and getting ready to leave. And it s fair to say that Pelle
is sweating bullets during this scene, not only because he s working overtime to manipulate Dani,
but also because he likely knows her request to have someone drive her to the train station would
have similar consequences to what happens with Connie and Simon. He s clearly in love with Dani,
but her leaving would only go one way. Now as soon as Pelle engages with Dani she has an emotional
outburst, stating repeatedly I don t know why I m here . But she s just bulldozed by Pelle into
making it about grief. She protests as loudly as we ve seen her protest to anyone, saying she is
not talking about her family. She s very clear that she s feeling something else and she doesn
t seem to be able to properly verbalise what it is. And on first viewing we can presume she
s depressed, in the midst of grief and having an awful time with Christian, she doesn t know
why she s here, as in she doesn t know why she s been invited on the trip given that she doesn
t feel at all wanted. Dani doesn t feel like she belongs anywhere, she doesn t feel close to the H
rga, her friends, her family or Christian at this point. And we should understand it like that but
I think there s something more here, essentially what we ve been discussing. Dani s just gone
through this awakening, or transformation, she s having a bunch of conflicting emotions and
she s very confused about what she s feeling, culminating in this jumbled protest of she doesn
t know why she s here . Beyond that though it also might be referencing that she s not sure
what the H rga s motives are, something she grows increasingly suspicious of over the next few
scenes. It s an extremely complex set of emotions. Right now she s in conflict between the pull of
the H rga, the pull of the trauma, the terror of her new situation, her failing relationship with
Christian and it s coming out as I don t know why I m here . There s even a little bit of that
fairytale serendipity and pre-destiny to it, as if there should be some grander reason why
anyone might be anywhere. This confusion won t leave Dani until the end, where we finally see
her getting a form of resolution, acknowledged for the audience through her lunatic grin.
From here we see Pelle use Dani s grief to further his romantic interest. He s borderline telling
her how he feels, suggesting it was her most of all that he was excited was coming. And he goes
from trying to connect with her through the loss of his parents right onto telling her Christian
is no good for her, and he ll jump from that to telling her she deserves a family, which is a
pretty messed up thing to say to a recent orphan and a very messed up thing to do overall. He may
love her, but he s absolutely using her grief, and her loneliness to manipulate her into
rejecting Christian, falling for him and joining the H rga. And the key thing that seems
to get through here is this notion of being held, it s the moment Dani snaps round and starts
really listening to what he s been saying, because even though she can t verbalise it right
now, that is what she s missing, and even though Pelle is being a complete lizard he has correctly
identified it. This lack of a sense of belonging, the isolation that she feels, the need to be
held. I think that s what makes him so chilling, he is willing to lie and manipulate,
but he also does love Dani and offer some of the things Christian doesn t. Given
what we know about Dani and how this goes, we can say almost certainly that she s traded
out one toxic partner for another, and this one is a lot more concerning. And this use of held
and home is purposefully mirrored by Pelle in his description of the H rga, his home who he
feels held by, and Christian, and how he doesn t feel like home for Dani, how she doesn t feel
held. So he is softly setting up this decision of Christian v The H rga and conditioning
Dani to see one as clearly preferable. He even tries using substances to buoy her
along, likely nothing illicit here, just some herbal remedy with calming effects, but this is
exactly what we see the H rga doing throughout, trying to alter the groups mental state to
make them more vulnerable and more easily manipulated. Obviously this sack isn t going to
make her trip, but it s more evidence of how they operate. And in the script Dani does try it and by
the end of the scene she s asking Pelle for more, she s on her way to being indoctrinated. And it
s worth wondering why he just had something to calm people down in his pocket. I don t think
necessarily because he knew he d be alone with Dani, but again it s likely he was taking steps to
prepare for the group having a bad reaction to the attestup. The scene ends with the two holding
hands and Dani warning Pelle that Christian could walk in, she s not outright rejecting it,
more just pointing out they could be caught. So again she s engaged in this pseudo-affair
like behaviour where she s keeping secrets from Christian with Pelle, and they re starting
to quickly take a romantic turn. I do want to point out that at several points throughout this
she does reject his touch or what he s saying, and in every case he ignores what she s saying
or feeling and continues, he is not a good guy, it s just by the end she s starting to fall for
it. Not that the scene will give us that catharsis though and again we cut away from Dani without
being given a full resolution as to what happens with Pelle here. I think we can safely assume
that Pelle s words had the desired effect though. There is one part there that I kind of skipped
over, is what Pelle is telling Dani about his parents true? He s definitely using it to
manipulate her, but is he telling the truth? And I ve seen a lot of people speculate about
this, were his parents killed by the H rga and they took him in, is he just making it up.
And this tends to go hand in hand with the did the H rga kill Dani s parents theory. But I
think it s very clear from what Pelle is saying, describing them as his birth-parents because
all of the older H rga are his communal parents, saying technically he was an orphan meaning
he already had a support structure in place, I think we can say pretty safely he was born into
the H rga by H rga parents. They do not have an assassin driving all of their recruitment. And as
for, did his parents burn up in the same ritual as we see at the end, absolutely not. That s
every 90 years, his parents couldn t be older than 72 and we know Pelle is in his 20 s, we also
know it s the younger H rga doing the majority, if not all, of the procreating. So there
s just no way it s the same ritual. But, could it be that the H rga have some other
ritual, some other necessary sacrifice, some divined reason to burn a couple of their members
up? Absolutely. We can t rule out that it was just some freak accident in a poorly constructed wooden
building, we can t rule out that he s lying. But given the hugely important role fire plays in H
rga and pagan customs in general, and how it does pretty much go hand in hand with sun sacrifice,
it seems a fair assumption to say something dark may have happened to Pelle s birth-parents as
part of a H rga sacrifice or ceremony or other thing we don t know about. You can speculate,
maybe they didn t want to detach from Pelle and sought to abscond with him and the H rga
figured it out and burned them, but ultimately anything beyond it was probably the H rga that
burned them is only going to be speculation. And we move from Pelle talking about his parents
being burned in a fire to seeing Dan and Ylva getting burned in a fire. So to me at least that
s soft confirmation that their deaths were H rga related and Pelle is just being diplomatic
with the truth. It might seem like this is saying they took the attestup also but again,
for them to have been attestup age when Pelle was very young would mean they were in their 60
s when he was conceived. It s not fully out of the realm of possibility, but it is extremely
unlikely and entirely out of line with what we know about H rga procreation. I think Dan and
Ylva in the fire is almost certainly mirroring Dani and Pelle too, here they are at the start of
their lives together and then right after we see the brutal and clear end to the journey they
ll take. Caved in and being burned in a fire. Now I have seen people ask are the H rga
going to eat Dan and Ylva , given that we see them on the fire like this, and the
answer is categorically no. They re being cremated in the communal fire and we see
their ashes being cleared from under the pit and spread at the broken root of the
ancestral tree. This is likely the final stage of the H rga disintegration process
wherein you re fully returned to nature. The next sequence begins with this beautiful shot
of Dani faded into the fire, this is a pretty common trope for the halfway point of your movie
where a character is being put through a crucible, a test of sorts, generally something they
ll either die from, and be burned up by, or survive and succeed through, forged in flame
if you will. Here though it s especially poignant given that this particular fire represents the
H rgan communal spirit, the fire that s being lit within Dani to join them and finally feel
held. Christian catches up with Dani who is, again, alone and upset. She recognizes that he s
only really affecting being sad and his that was really, REALLY, shocking is obviously inauthentic.
And, as with every time Dani raises a valid point, Christian turns it around to attack her,
insinuating her concern is the product of a closed and potentially bigoted mind. Clearly her concerns
are valid, but he s only thinking about how this situation could benefit him. And primarily out of
a desire to gaslight her and get what he wants, Christian begins defending the H rga to Dani,
pointing out the parallel with putting old people in nursing homes, another point that seemingly
resonates with Dani. Without knowing it he s doing their work for them in indoctrinating Dani.
And I don t think Christian is brainwashed by the H rga, I think he s too selfish for that and just
sees them as something he can exploit, but he is also relatively stupid and immoral, and so he
is highly susceptible to their manipulations. Again we re robbed of any kind of catharsis
in hearing what Dani may say in response as another H rga procession comes by and Dani
and Christian are invited to the drowning ceremony. This is probably my funniest moment from
Florence Pugh as she just deadpan drops the Why, what s happening now? . And with that whiplash
of foreshadowing we get the hard cut to this scene. And it s certainly supposed to feel like oh
god we re right back into the weirdness here and also maybe visually alluding to another time we
might see a bunch of white people on a riverbank holding torches. I don t know how purposeful
that is, but it s certainly on brand here. I already mentioned that I think there may be
elements of this drowning ritual that borrow from the pagan rituals at Uppsala where someone
was cast into the water in the hopes their body would stay sunk. But in general water rituals
were relatively common around Midsummer or St Johns Day, things like bathing in special
lakes or springs to cleanse the spirit and purify the body and so on. So we can see this as
a mashup of different rituals, but I think there s something else going on here so let s look at
what actually happens in a bit closer detail. We begin with Irma leading the crowd in
making this communal doppler sound. It s another act of mirroring and unity which seem to
be relatively commonplace in their traditions. Irma begins praising the great goddess, what
we can essentially see as the feminine aspects of the hermaphroditic Ymir, again we can
consider this short hand for a sort of Gaia or mother nature figure. And it becomes clear
pretty early on, mainly from the guy entering stage left claiming to hear a rumbling sound,
that this is all pageantry and pantomime. It s well rehearsed and something they do annually.
The crowd are all nodding and participating at exactly the right moments. Unlike the big 90-year
ceremony, this is something they all have a lot of experience with. The H rga throw in the trinket
laden tree we saw them preparing earlier but as part of this performance they decide they must
give more to ensure their deity is satisfied. In fact they describe her as potentially being still
hungry and given the context that almost certainly means hungry for sacrifice, just like we see
with the films rendition of the sun. And I know this is pantomime but I think that speaks to human
sacrifice happening more frequently than every 90 years, and possibly at points as a part of this
ceremony. And I just think it s interesting in general that we have this confirmation of
the malevolent sun, of nature being quite literally being demanding of human life, hungry
for it. At the very least it speaks to sacrifice being central to H rga belief because the
sun and nature are central to their belief. And once again, during this well practiced ritual,
Dani seems to understand something is coming, she s looking over her shoulder as if she can
sense the next step coming. Now this could just be hyperawareness due to trauma, she s looking
out for that next thing that s going to hurt her or shock her senses, it s always played very down
the line like that where there could be a prosaic explanation. But as I ve said I just think it
s too much to all be nothing, and as we ll see Dani goes from sensing something is coming, to
unknowingly but accurately participating in it ahead of time. The little boy steps forward
and offers himself up to go in the river, he s already wearing the drowning vest and he
s reciting a practiced part of the pantomime. We see the male H rga compliment the boy s bravery
and the boy again recites his reply, asking what s brave in going home. So that s obviously speaking
to this H rgan belief of return, and possibly even reincarnation, through disintegration into
nature, and you can see how they re using this ritual to reinforce that belief. This boy
doesn t fear death, so neither should you. But it goes deeper than that still, with how they
re constructing their concept of bravery . We see Ulf and another male H rga clamp the boy s feet,
hoist him up with a rock on his stomach, and begin swinging as if to throw him into the lake. Now
they don t go through with it because the child is ultimately deemed brave and devout enough that he
should not be sacrificed. And I think the tendency here is to think that this was always just a
pantomime, that the boy was doing the equivalent of a school nativity play. But I don t think that
s the case, I think this is a test, a weeding out process that is a pretty effective tool for
identifying cult members that aren t willing to play their role, to participate even when it
means their own sacrifice. Now don t get me wrong, I think we re seeing the traditional outcome
here, what is supposed to happen, but if the boy had been scared as he was being swung over the
river, if he had cried and asked for it to stop, I think there s a very good chance they would have
thrown him in. Now can I prove that? Not really, no. But we do know at least that the drowning vest
is a legitimate drowning vest, we see it later on the body of Connie, still intact after her being
in the water, presumably having been sacrificed in this exact manner. We ll also see later that the
H rga have no issues getting rid of members that may not fit in or play their role perfectly. So
it s not definite, but ask yourself: given what you know about the H rga, if this young child
had suddenly become terrified and wanted out, do you think they would have let him go for his
exceptional bravery? I really don t think so, and that seems too well constructed in terms of
outcome, in rooting out the non-believers early, for it to be an accident or something
the H rga wouldn t follow through on. Now as it turns out Dani is the one who yells
for it to stop, which as we know didn t turn out great for Connie and Simon, but as luck, or maybe
something else would have it, Dani has perfectly predicted the next step of the pantomime and as
soon as she steps forward the others in the crowd join in with her protestations. And everything
up to this point has been relatively subtle, but this goes a step further and sees Dani
correctly predicting the ceremony rather than just expecting it. And obviously on
the face of it, this is a lucky accident and the thing that any moral bystander would
hopefully do. But underneath that it s clear that something else is going on here. And even
though this is an expected part of the ceremony, we can also see the crowd following Dani
in protest as another example of the H rgan mirroring. Just like we see them practicing in
groups, just like we ve seen Dani unconsciously start doing. Except this time rather than the
H rga leading her, she s leading the H rga. For the first time we re seeing a reciprocal
relationship and at the very least I think that speaks to her indoctrination accelerating
from this moment in the dorm with Pelle. Now Dani is clearly horrified by what s happened,
as we ll see in the next scene she wants to leave and acknowledges what she s seeing are pagan
rituals. So as much as she may be confused by the outcome here, and her role in it, it is important
to remember that at least some of this look is her getting ready to gtfo. And beyond that, the
look of pride that Siv gives Dani at the end, and the look of shock Dani has upon realising what
s just happened can absolutely be read as this false interpretation that s really indoctrination.
Dani being tricked into thinking she s a perfect fit for the H rga, as if she s nativing better
than the natives could like Jake Sully and Dances With Wolves and The Last Tom Cruise. But
again there s this hint, call it genetic memory, generational trauma, ancestral strands of DNA,
however you want to code it, that Dani has some level of alertness to these things that are
happening, familiarity with things she shouldn t have familiarity with and these repeated
allusions to a natural awakening. For you that might be simply a representation of a naturalistic
femininity bubbling to the surface and rejecting Christian. It might be something more complex
and scientifically, or pseudoscientifically driven like the theories I just listed. It could
simply be the manipulations of the H rga. This is mostly subjective and I don t want to keep going
back and forth on the same concept so let s stop here for a moment and try and answer this fully.
I m going to put a list of all the evidence we ve discussed on screen, things that I think confirm
that something is going on under the surface and allow you to draw your own conclusions. No matter
which you side with I think we can all agree it s undeniable that the film wants us to recognise
something is going on with Dani in this regard. Be it manipulation, fairy tale serendipity or
something more ancient within Dani, the film is showing us that Dani is being pulled in. But just
so you don t think I m weaselling out: I actually think it s all three factors. There s no doubt
the cult are manipulating Dani, and the audience, just like we saw with the Volkish movement they re
trying to construct a mythic past for themselves and in turn for Dani. There is 100% fairytale
serendipity and the idea of pre-destiny at work, as we ve looked at Ari Aster has said as much in
interviews, as have other members of production. And lastly the idea of something ancient within
Dani, yes I think that s there too. Even just small practical stuff like where the family
lives, the history there, Dani s aesthetic being very Scandinavian, her d cor, artwork, even
wallpaper. But big stuff too, like the connecting of Terri s act with the attestup, something we
re about to look at next, to me it s all there as soft confirmation that there s something in the
past pulling Dani back here. I think generational trauma of some sort, clearly both her and Terri
have this buried potential for violence and we see it play out in these tacit connections
to rituals and ritual violence. It could be more benign than that, simply that she has some
blend of Nordic genetics and proclivities, but if you want something wackier then assassin s creed
style ancestor memories in the DNA is another way of describing it. I side with generational trauma
because it s very on brand with Ari Aster s work. And all of it, the whole film, is underpinned
with this idea of cycles and circularity, seasons, life and death, even breathing, that just fits so
well with this idea that in a grander sense Dani is returning home, that she is fulfilling her part
in this unseen cycle, and acknowledging those that came before her as they acknowledge her continuing
their path. So for me, the answer is all three, but I ll stress again this isn t something the
movie will ever truly divulge either way, so if you have a preference then run with it, if not do
as the film intends and revel in the abstraction. And before we leave the drowning
ceremony, quick cut to Christian and the boys each being disrespectful in their
own right. Christian is finding it funny, Mark is visibly frustrated and Josh is
taking entirely the wrong kind of pictures. After the ceremony we see Dani and Christian alone
and this is a really important scene because it s the last time we ll get to see them discuss their
relationship. In fact for a major portion of the third act, neither of them are going to say
anything at all. So everything between them from this point on we have to infer. Before we
look at that though I want to discuss something I haven t mentioned yet, and that is Midsommar
s status as a breakup movie. It s a horror film, but a lot of the horror comes directly from Dani s
relationship, her ending decision is the result of indoctrination and likely mental illness, but it
s also very much a symbol of her rebellion against and emancipation from Christian. Even though it s
on the way out right from the start of the movie, that moment is the breakup, the final split of
Dani and Christian, it just so happens to take the form of pagan sacrifice. And very simply
this is why a lot of people see the ending as a you go girl moment, because the enemy that s
built for Dani, the closest thing the film has to a direct antagonist at this point is Christian.
This is the grand subversion that s happening to the audience. Now let s be clear, by the end Dani
is, probably not legally but by some definitions an accessory to murder, she s mentally destroyed,
she s traded out one system of control for a much, much worse one and Christian may have been
a terrible person, but he most certainly didn t deserve his fate. I don t think the film
necessarily wants you to side with Dani in that, it s very divisive in how an audience will
respond to the ending, but it does at least provide a very compelling conflict there for you
to decide between. You ultimately may not agree with Dani s decision, but you can t deny the film
provides an argument for it, a pathos for Dani to reach that point. And this is really reminiscent
of Quentin Tarantino s comments on Joker, that the entire film is a subversion of the audience to get
them to want Joker to do the bad thing at the end, to want him to pull that trigger. We can
see a very similar thing happening here, we re being subverted into siding with Dani, as we
have been all the way through. And while Christian cheating with Maja certainly puts a nail in the
coffin, this is the moment where we really see how little Dani means to Christian. In breakup terms,
this conversation is the point of no return. And the desire to make a breakup move was
another major driving force behind the film, in Ari Aster s words the goal was ultimately
to make a big, operatic movie that feels the way breakups actually feel: catastrophic, like
the world is ending. He ties it to the notion of sacrifice we see at the core of the H rga,
and the sacrifices of self we make in order to keep unhealthy relationships alive. And as
with both Hereditary and Beau is Afraid this is informed by Ari Aster s personal trauma, in this
case that isn t the subject of any speculation, he was pretty open about writing this just
following quite a traumatic breakup. And I think that s why, unlike Hereditary, there is real
beauty here. In Hereditary there is a darkness, an ugliness to everything, it s feels very much
like grief. Stale and quiet and as if nothing will ever be better again. But Midsommar feels
different, it has ugliness and brutality, but it contrasts the violence with beauty and a sense of
majesty. To riff on how Ari Aster described it, I d say it s about finding something positive while
your life feels like it s ending. And if you think about it that s a bit like breakups, we don t deal
with the trauma in the same way as with death, we know the solution is to go out, re-immerse
ourselves in the world and ultimately find the joy in it once again. And to me that s what it feels
like Ari Aster is writing here, in his own way. This break up is ugly, nasty and takes enormous
sacrifice, but it ends, and Dani is left with this moment of joy, freedom and emancipation. Now
we know that s problematic as all hell given the events of the movie, but in terms of the wider
relationship metaphor at work I think there is some positive that can be pulled out of it. Dani
isn t real, so what this ending moment really represents is the catharsis of finally being free
from the poison in your life. And so even though it absolutely isn t a happy ending, it s why it
feels happy. Because for her in that moment it is a success, she is free of Christian. In Dani
s fairy tale, this is her happily ever after. Onto the argument itself and Dani has just figured
out she s in a horror movie, she s adamant she s leaving and Christian has no intention of
doing that. And she s actually adamant, even when Christian disagrees we see her force the
issue for the first time. And keep in mind she s not saying let s go so we can talk about us , she
s saying let s go because I m legitimately worried for our safety . And as is clear Christian really
isn t taking that seriously. To make matters worse Christian s reasoning is that he s decided he s
doing his thesis on the H rga, something he freely admits he decided today. So he s valuing a spur
of the moment decision for an academic career he doesn t really care about, over the safety of his
terrified partner. And in classic Christian style he immediately tries making her feel bad about it,
saying you know how much of a nightmare this has been for me . He can only ever think of himself
and so when Dani tries to point out to him how unlikely their situation is and how much potential
danger they are in, he can only come back with how massive this would be for his academic career.
Which again he doesn t seem to care about. And then comes the real heartbreak moment, for me it
s the saddest point in the film. Dani doubles down and says she s leaving anyway. And unfortunately
for Dani, her worst fears are realised, she stands up to Christian and puts her
foot down and he essentially says fine, go . She finally put it to the test rather than
cowering away from it and as soon as she does he proves he only cares about himself. Dani asks
him very plainly do you not love me anymore and I think we can see this as the moment
where it gets laid bare. Christian can barely answer and when he does it quickly turns into a
shouting match. It s clear their relationship is on the way out from here, but Christian refuses
to say it and ultimately it takes Dani seeing him with Maja for her to finally rip off the band-aid.
And I don t know how any human being could turn down Florence Pugh s I m about to cry face and
live with themselves, but somehow Christian goes ultra-kelvin and does it anyway. Keep in mind that
he came on this holiday looking for Swedish women and saying outright that Dani wasn t coming.
Given that he now has the perfect idea for his thesis and there are Swedish women interested in
him, it s going to be pretty unlikely he decides to put Dani first, in all likelihood this is
probably something he only sees benefitting him. As for the shouting match, Christian accuses
Dani of trying to trap him by giving him the bouquet of flowers, something Dani doesn t
even remember at first. It s completely out of left-field and very petty given the stakes.
Christian is either trying to distract from Dani s question by throwing whatever he can think
of back at her, or he really is this level of bitter towards her which is probably worse.
Now there s more we can say, these flowers are picked as part of a ritual that supposedly ends
in marriage, Christian did specifically ask if she picked them backwards, so maybe that s why
he feels trapped by it. We know Dani is clingy, but I don t think she was picking the flowers
in the hope the love spell actually worked. But Christian seems more concerned with it being a
slight on him not getting her anything for her birthday and that likely isn t the case either.
Really she was just doing her best to fit in. But it is worth pointing out that Dani isn t
entirely innocent either. I think Christian s sarcastic comment about her not having a conniving
bone in her body probably has some truth to it. We can see that just from how different her tone
is talking to Christian compared to talking to her friend about Christian. And according
to Florence Pugh they re both complicated and bad and annoying . We re obviously biased by
seeing from her point of view but by the end of the film it becomes pretty hard to deny she s
at least as bad, if not far worse than Christian. There is a key difference though, and it s that
the negativity that Christian puts in is largely driven by selfish and often childish reasoning.
Dani s behaviour is driven entirely by fear, fear of being alone in the wake of losing
her entire family. I don t know if that makes it more excusable, but it at least
provides pathos that we can empathise with. Christian storms off and we get this amazing
shot, possibly my favourite shot in the entire film and it s incredibly overlooked. It s
total genius so well built up. Dani says, You re going to leave me like this, Christian?
She s stood in a very purposeful pose, pretty bang on with something we saw Gabriel Byrne doing
in Hereditary that s softly alluding to Christ on the cross, or stigmata, or even here perhaps the
happy sacrifice of the bleeding mural. However we look at it exposing the wrists alludes to making a
sacrifice and honestly I think we should see it as a mix between the two, the Christian sacrifice
on the cross and the more direct pagan sacrifice we see in the murals, because that s what s at
stake here on a theistic level. And Dani s in front of a tree, which as we know is important
to the H rga and Norse Mythology in general due to this connection with Yggdrasil, the world
tree. And she s being abandoned by Christian, a Christian. So really what we re seeing here is
Dani, once again alone, being kind of spread for sacrifice in front of this pagan tree imagery
asking are you going to leave me like this, Christian? Are you going to let this Christian
maiden be dragged back to this Viking, pagan culture. Are you going to fight for her
like a brave Christian man? Even though it s so subtly done it s a little bit damsel in
distress, a little bit Ann Darrow or other blonde women being tied up in front of King Kong.
Are you, the supposedly good Christian man going to abandon her to the pagan tribe like this. I
absolutely love this shot because all of that is so tightly woven into a sentence that feels
entirely at home in the argument they re having and the imagery is barely existent but just
enough that it s there as soon as you see it. I d honestly say this like the direct equivalent
to All I get is that fucking face on your face. It s just so well woven into an argument that
people won t notice it on the first run unless they re paying very close attention. And it s
just perfectly executed, I absolutely love it. The next scene is Dani s dream sequence, and
the first part is really straightforward. She sees her friends leaving, gets up to go outside,
we get this weird blink of blue light which most Hereditary fans probably jumped at. Just like we
ve seen before it s a quick blink of reflected emergency vehicle sirens that Dani s been seeing,
clearly alluding to her family s death. The rest of the group drive off without her while Will
Poulter does this face out of the back window as Dani screams why? . This is pretty obvious at this
point, Dani s terrified of being alone and this dream is a manifestation of that, her supposed
friends abandoning her. And as she screams why we see this black smoke pour out of her mouth,
now this can be seen as representing the black one this enemy the H rga have, that Christian
stands in for, that Terri was potentially seeing. But on a more literal level we can see it matches
up with the fumes from the car exhaust, so we can say safely this is a reference to Terri, further
tying what Terri did to this concept of The Black One. And so we can see Dani s question of why
being shortform for why did you leave me , why did you do this addressed simultaneously
to Terri and her friends in the dream. And then stage two of the dream kicks in and
things get slightly more complicated. We get these overlapping shots of the attestup
and Dani s family, ending in this shot, the centre of the whole movie really
where all the imagery comes together, the thing we ve seen repeated everywhere, clearly
tying what Terri did, to the attestup. Perhaps as an act of attestup itself, some strange
version of it Terri had bastardized from instinct. We even get these shots of the
attestup damage happening in reverse, the bodies coming back to normal and so we get
the feeling of this being a cycle, of it happening again and again just like the H rga believe.
And clearly it s positioning what we just saw at the attestup as part of the same cycle as what
happened to Dani s family. It s easy to miss but we see Terri s eyes shoot open at the end, again
symbolizing a kind of awakening, very similar to what Dani is going through, and given this is
from Dani s POV she s looking right towards her. Now to go back to the linking of Dani s family and
the act of attestup, this does raise the question, did Dani s parents volunteer for what happened?
Did they attestup themselves? Were they perhaps sick like Terri was, had they cultishly given
way to her thinking? Because given the attestup is seemingly voluntary this imagery right
here would appear to allude to just that. And it s tempting to jump at that, but I think
it could be a mistake to view this scene as a perfect mirror to what happened at the Ardor
household. A real quick example of that is that in the attestup there is no Terri, no young
person that goes along with the sacrifice. Dani s just sort of planted her in the scene because
that s her trauma and she s mapping it onto this situation. And so if it s not a perfect mirror
then we can t just take it and definitively say this is evidence that they did it voluntarily.
There is some evidence we have potentially for and against, let s get the obvious out of the
way: the placement of the tubes under the door as opposed to how Terri has it in her mouth would
seem to suggest that this was something Terri did without telling them. It s not definitive,
but this distinction is really what implies it was done secretively. On the other hand we
have Terri s vague statement that Mom and Dad are coming too . It s absolutely not definitive
but it s slightly more likely here that they re coming suggests something consensual. I think
this sequence at the end of Dani s dream we can probably count as evidence for it as well
but again nothing conclusive. But this imagery, that we see from the opening shots of the Ardor
household, to the attestup, to covertly layered into the location design, is everything. It s this
H rgan bastardization of the life-cycle with the old and young being sacrificed together. Yellow
and blue in conjunction, the twisting of this yellow summery sun and lifegiving, blossoming
of youth into something more malevolent. I don t think it s evidential that they attestuped
themselves but I do think it s proof that Terri s act was somehow linked to the attestup, some
unconscious rendition of it. And more evidence for this comes from the date of Terri s email,
which is either one, or two days after the winter solstice. The Attestup and other sacrifices
take place around midsummer which is the summer solstice, so I think there is definitely
some further mirroring between the two there and perhaps an influencing factor, something cosmic
pulling Terri to commit these terrible acts. Now Terri makes mention of this blackness,
and the smoke that kills her also shares imagery with the black one, we see that link
made in this same dream. So maybe in Terri s twisted vision or instinct, not something she
s aware of, Dani s parents are killed to enact this attestup-adjacent ritual and in doing
it to herself she s purging the black one, this evil entity that s consuming her, filling
her up like the smoke, just like the H rga purge Christian to represent the same thing. Again this
isn t anything conscious that Terri is doing, it isn t anything the H rga have put into motion,
it s just cycles repeating over generations, and perhaps something within Terri telling
her this was what she needed to do. So what does that mean for the Ardors? Well,
ultimately you don t get to know. Dani is never going to say outright what happened, nor
will anyone else. It s very possible Dani never gets to know either. She s left wondering
just like we are. So unfortunately it s going to come down to your headcanon, what you believe
happened. For me though I think the linking imagery is difficult to ignore, and I think
Dani s parents choosing it does fit with the themes and meaning of the film in a way that the
H rga assassinating them just wouldn t. This is about people being led to do crazy things out
of belief, of cults and cult thinking. So at the very least I ll say it s a theory that
only adds to what we re getting on screen, but for me there isn t enough evidence either
way so I d err on the side of Terri acting alone. But before we move on I just want to draw your
attention to this Q&A with Ari Aster where the interviewer begins with The deaths of
Dany s parents remain unexplained and Ari Aster does not correct him. But he has said
that Pelle had nothing to do with it as we know, so he is happy to issue corrections on the
subject. And I think what s being left unsaid here is really what I m getting at now, that
Terri very likely did what she did as some kind of subconscious reenactment of an attestup or
other violent sacrifice from her ancestral past and we re seeing cycles repeating in ways that
will somehow inevitably manifest themselves. It doesn t answer if Dani s parents were willing
participants, in fact it acknowledges that this is left unexplained, but in doing so it at
least lets us know this mystery is present. And the next day begins with Josh waking up early
to Maja sliding her carving under Christian s bed, something he immediately shows to Pelle who
identifies it as a love rune. If Josh is concerned for Christian he does absolutely
nothing about it and he s likely far more concerned with securing information and hiding
it from Christian than sharing anything with him. But I think it speaks to Josh s character
that he doesn t really care about Dani either. No one even acknowledges her existence during
the discussion of Maja having designs on Christian. We ve seen her approach Josh for
sleeping pills, she s clearly not doing well, and as much as Josh isn t honest with Christian
here he s still seemingly happy keeping his infidelity secret from Dani while not being
at all concerned with how she s doing. Pelle tells Josh that the elders have agreed to his
thesis research and I think we can see this as both sides playing each other. Josh absolutely
isn t going to hide names and locations if it prevents his peer review and the elders have no
intention of letting Josh or Christian survive. In the background of this scene we see some H rga
doing mock sacrifice of a wooden horse, or goat, and then burying it in several locations.
This is a mock offering to the earth, much like what we ll see Dani burying at the end.
The H rga are big on burying or giving back parts of their bounty to nature in the hopes for
an even more plentiful harvest next year, it s why we see them burning the meat too. They
take, they give back, because everything is part of the grand cycle to them. Now the reason I
say goat or horse is because in the script it s a wooden goat, I think it looks more like a goat
given it has these horn things at the front. In all likelihood it s a goat, but I d be remiss if
I didn t mention the existence of Dala horses, essentially a bit of Swedish national imagery,
a motif, stemming from early pagan rites. Wooden horses were found in Viking graves for
example. It s a common tourist buy, a little wooden Dala horse, so naturally it s linked to
notions of national pride and has been used at times for political means. So it s got this link
between pagan rites, witch trials in more recent centuries and then applications in contemporary
and often conservative politics, which is a pretty specific space that the film also exists in. So
in all likelihood it is a goat, but outside chance they re tying in that imagery of the Dala horse.
Pelle informs Christian of Maja s apparent infatuation with him, also her age which is 16
in the script but actually could be only 15 still given that all Pelle says is she got her pants
license last year . And Christian doesn t seem to bat an eye at this, nor does he protest that
he s in a relationship with Dani. I think we can say unequivocally that Christian is down for it
so long as he can get away with it and ultimately he ll do it even when he can t get away with it.
We don t get to hear his full thoughts though as the conversation is interrupted by Ulf losing his
shit at Mark for urinating on the ancestral tree. As we know Ulf is angry to the point of
being murderous over this, which is fair, as he sees it it s quite literally his ancestors,
but it s interesting that Ulf is so angry at Mark s disgusting dick as he puts it, something
that could also betray his possible unhappiness towards Mark and Inga fraternizing. As Ulf
wails in the background Christian is finding this truly hilarious, and I think that speaks
to him not being in anyway indoctrinated by the H rga. At this point Dani is mimicking them
frequently but Christian is routinely showed to feel the exact opposite, he can t feel as part of
a collective because he only thinks about himself. Inga comes over to play peacemaker, and
given that she s been very softly flirting with Mark we re primed to see this as
a furthering of their relationship, she s come in to defend him and ultimately she
s the one who says everything is going to be okay. But if you watch her closely she s clearly
annoyed by Christian laughing and I think maybe the bigger takeaway should be that perhaps she s
the person who can smooth it over with Father Ulf, as she calls him. Really it s not evidence of a
deeper relationship with Mark, but at least some kind of close bond with Ulf. And all the H rga
are close, but Pelle isn t outright saying it will be okay and he ll talk to Ulf, so we can
presume Inga knows Ulf at least better than Pelle does. Mark whips out the red vape, which
he does pretty much everytime he sees Inga. We can also see Inga is wearing red clothes, we know
that red s a link to fertility and procreation, so the film, and the H rga, are, or likely
were, setting them up for some breeding. We see Dani and Christian make up, despite
resolving nothing. Dani apologizes to Christian who does not apologise back. And we re most
definitely not supposed to feel good about this, this isn t them deciding to do better, it s
the elasticity of their toxic relationship swinging back the other way. His response
of are you feeling better is essentially him saying this was all a product of her not
feeling good, which is another way of saying the argument was her fault. This scene
cuts with a highly underrated transition, mainly because I think it s too subtle for its
own good. We essentially get two shots of the sun in the sky, with ominous music and a hard
cut between, which is easy to let slip by you, because other than the audio cues there s very
little change on screen. But from those audio cues we can understand it s a twist on the old horror
movie clich of seeing a bright sun in the sky and then hardcutting to a full moon. You may also have
seen it where it cuts from a cool morning sun into the bright overhead midday sun. It s just a pretty
common filmmaking tool in general to show this passage of time by hard cutting between celestial
objects essentially. And here we get that cut, but because of Sweden s position on the globe,
because of this midnight sun, you just can t tell the difference. The sounds we re hearing,
the quick switch, our familiarity with media, all tell us there s a jump occurring here, but we
can t tell by how long, when we started, when we are now, and it s designed to do that, designed to
be confusing. It s having fun with this dreamlike, hallucinatory Oz it s building where the days melt
into one another. Getting us into those altered H rgan mind states so we re more susceptible, more
vulnerable and more accepting of the new reality. From there we cut to Connie, who s also realised
she s in a horror movie but isn t in a toxic relationship that s forcing her to stay. And as
she s getting ready to gtfo Odd comes trundling up to tell her Simon got a ride to the train station
without her. And even though there s been lies up to this point, this is the first time we see the
H rga unequivocally doing it and are aware of it at the time. And really it marks a shift in their
behaviour, pun very much intended because it comes right after Mark peeing on the tree. It s safe
to say they ve had enough of the outsiders and now they plan to start murdering them. And this
violent antagonism towards outsiders is absolutely supposed to be allegorical of real-world
nationalist opinions against immigration. Now perhaps the H rga always intended to kill the
group off, it certainly seems likely, but we can say after Mark and the tree, and Connie and Simon
s outburst at the attestup, that the group have transgressed enough that the H rga intend to start
acting on it. By this point Simon is on his way to being blood eagled, Connie is up next, and then
Mark and Josh will both die in quick succession. So ultimately it doesn t matter if Connie believes
Odd or not, she certainly doesn t seem to, they just need to keep the charade up long enough
to get what they want from Dani and Christian. Connie storms off screen and that s the last time
we ll see her alive. Mark will later mention that he saw her sprinting, and if we look at the
amount of luggage she s carrying it s clear that if she was sprinting then it was important
enough to drop all this and leave it behind. So Mark likely saw her in the process of being
abducted and killed, and just didn t care enough to give it a second thought. It s pretty clear
what happened to Connie and Simon off-screen, Simon was dragged off and blood eagled, and Connie
was likely looking for him, walked in on it, we hear her scream and then she sets off running,
Mark sees her momentarily before she is grabbed up by the H rga, fitted with the drowning vest,
and thrown in the lake. In the script Christian helps her look for Simon and they go searching
by the river, where she then goes missing, so there isn t really any doubt over where she
drowned. Now maybe she doesn t actually see Simon in the final version, it s just that
this isn t really an I am drowning scream, more like an I ve just seen something shocking
scream and in the script Connie does see Simon being dragged off by the H rga, so I think she
does see him here too, I m just not sure if it s before or after the blood-eagling. Judging by the
sounds of things though, I d lean towards after. As for who killed them, I think it s almost
certainly Ingemar, potentially with some help from Ulf. Ingemar clearly cannot stand Simon, who he
sees as taking Connie away from him, and he isn t about to let Connie, his conquest in Viking terms,
just leave. So from Ingemar s point of view it s a case of if I can t have her no one can but from
the H rga view this helps keep their secrets safe, and provides them two sacrifices they would never
have allowed into the bloodlines anyway given their ethnicity. As for how we know it s Ingemar,
and maybe Ulf, it s because this is why they are sacrificed at the end, essentially because
they ve wanted to carry out these killings, Ingemar out of jealousy of Connie and Simon and
Ulf out of rage, because of Mark s disrespect, and maybe something more. We ll look at that in
more detail at the end but for now that s what the outside offerings means during that final speech,
they ve brought unwilling sacrifices and they also have to give their lives to balance that out.
Dani is clearly not happy with the explanation that Simon just decided to leave on his own
either and she goes to talk to Christian. In the background we see Ulf, still visibly upset.
Christian asks if he s going to be okay and Valentin replies He s a very sensitive guy. It s
a big week for him . And this does mean that Ulf is extremely devout and this week is the biggest
date in the H rga calendar so he s particularly on edge, but also potentially gives us a nod that
this may well be that Ulf is learning here that he will be sacrificed too. Dani interrupts to
tell Christian about Simon leaving and he seems to almost care for two sentences before going
right back into asking Valentin about incest. And we can see Dani get staggered by this, even
now shocked by how selfish Christian can be and how blind to potential threats he is. He even
trails off from what Valentin says as he notices Josh entering the chapel with the elder, something
that seemingly stuns Dani even more. She s waking up to how unremittingly self-centred Christian is.
And before we move on, Valentin s reply about the incest is The bloodlines are very well preserved.
And functionally this fills in a few plotholes, it foreshadows what the H rga want from Christian and
explains why everyone in the commune isn t walking around looking like Ruben. But I think much more
telling than that is the choice of wording. The bloodlines being well-preserved is very much
within the lexicon of Nazism and eugenics. This is probably the biggest confirmation we
have that the H rga would never approve Josh, Simon or Connie for any kind of procreating.
They re extremely big on keeping their genetics pure as they see them, even Christian and Maja,
two redheads, are put together, so we can safely assume for the entirely white, anti-immigration
H rga this absolutely extends to ethnicity. Dani wanders off on her own again, presumably
just at a loss from Christian s bullshit, and we can see that despite refusing the
little sack of calming herbs earlier, she is now walking round with it. Not just a
symbol of her deepening indoctrination into the H rga, but also potentially indicative that
her and Pelle have had further interactions away from the camera. Ulrika invites her into
the kitchen, specifically with the phrasing join us . It s only H rgan women in the kitchen,
and she s quick to get Dani in a white apron, so the double meaning is pretty clear here. Join
us in the kitchen but also join us in the H rga. Dani questions Ulrika about Simon and she provides
the same lie about him having gone to the train station. We can t say with 100% certainty that
she knows she s lying right now, she may have been told this, but given that they re all complicit
at the end it s unlikely she s being truthful. I know I ve already waxed lyrical about the
set design, but I can t leave out the rolling pins. I mean the design of the kitchen
alone is phenomenal, but these rolling pins have become a bit of a darling to the fans,
emblazoned as they are with a pattern built from the H rgan Affekt language. You can see it a bit
clearer here in this image of the prints design. Inside the kitchen and Dani asks what they re
making, Ulrika replies with Meat Tarts , which as we know are the vessel Maja is going to use
to get Christian to ingest her hair as part of the love spell, along with the drinking of her
blood. And maybe you were thinking at least this part wasn t based on anything real but no,
sadly the world isn t that kind. This absolutely was something young Swedish maidens would do,
baking their hair into a pie and feeding it to the man they desired as part of a love spell.
That information comes from Ebbe Schon, an expert on Swedish Folklore that advised on the
film. It s not specifically a Midsommar thing, nor do we really know how widespread it was,
but according to the advisor of the film it is accurate. And as for the blood in the drink,
this is absolutely something that occurred too, also as part of a love spell. This was
probably slightly more frequent than the hair in pies but still it s unclear as to
exactly how widespread these practices were. We can see there s mixed feelings about Dani
amongst the H rga, Maja is clearly quite resentful of her given that she represents an obstacle to
Christian, maybe a little bit threatened too, but from outside we see Siv observing Dani, who
seems to be quietly positive about the way things are going, although perhaps slightly contradicted
by the sledgehammer they re about to take to this young girls life. Maybe Siv is just as cold as
the rest of them but I think being the elder, the only female elder, and the one in charge
of fertility and breeding I think she maybe does have some quiet reservations about how
Dani is going to be treated. Dani s time in the kitchen will come to a close as she
hears Connie s scream a little bit later, but let s move over to Josh getting
a closeup look at the Rubi Radr. And the scene gives us a lot of useful
exposition on some of the deeper functions of the H rga. Starting with an explanation of the written
H rgan affekt. Josh asks what it means, expecting a translation, but the elder explains that they re
meant to be understood one by one, symbolically, rather than forming a coherent passage. And
with that comes the admission that the runes are simply interpreted by the elders. Which is
a pretty fancy way of saying they re making it up. The same goes for the blank pages and the
hundreds upon hundreds of volumes, this isn t some sacred and unique text, it s them making it
up as they go along. That s not to say the H rga don t treat the books as holy, but I think we
can safely assume given the elders willingness to lie about one being missing at least some of
the elders certainly see them for what they are. If you re wondering Rubi Radr means Ruby Row, row
is a reference to runic languages where the runic alphabet is sorted into rows. Ruby I think here
is maybe supposed to allude to blood, and the conjunction of the two being a vague allusion
to a bloody language, there being some violence there in some format or another. And on a more
meta level I think we can say this is alluding to many different cult or extremist manifestos
and supposed holy books. The real takeaway here should be that they re following gibberish and
using it to justify whatever they want to preach. Josh is surprised to find out that the most recent
volume, or perhaps volumes, of the Rubi Radr are being written by Ruben, who he describes as
disabled but is more accurately cartoonishly inbred. We ve touched on Ruben already and we
will again, but I just want to point out an inconsistency I ve seen people pointing towards.
Ruben is profoundly inbred. Inbreeding like this takes determined effort and in most senses defies
realism. It would require a lot of generations, so much so that we might expect to see a kind
of separate lineage knocking around the commune. Granted Ruben s parents could have already died,
but the impression we get here is that Rubens are purposefully created through these singular
acts of incest. And again for something this profound it takes generations and then some,
so the only semi-realistic possibility that I can even think of, and I m sorry in advance
for even putting this in your head, is that the only way to guarantee another Ruben, without
having a whole lineage of Ruben s running around, would be to have Ruben do the procreating with a
normal H rga later in his life. And later we ll see Ruben being shown a violent killing and then
also the sex ceremony with Christian and Maja. Now I presume this is so he s witness to the entire
cycle of life and death and they re thinking this will somehow channel or enrich his prophecies.
But, he could actually be being forced to bear witness to the Christian and Maja thing as a sort
of training for when it comes time to guarantee another Ruben gets born. I wish that was the most
disturbing incest theory out of the way but sadly there is still a doozy left to go. And I d like
to move on quickly but first just consider why the incest plotline is even in the film. On the
face of it, it doesn t seem to really go anywhere, Ruben doesn t really do anything in the
film. So primarily the answer to that is, it conveys to us that the H rga believe the
interpreted finger paintings of an inbred child. But during this scene we hear the elder describe
Ruben as unclouded by normal cognition. And what this means in the doublespeak of the film, is
that because he s not really mentally present, he doesn t have the stresses, worries,
cultural framework and so on that people suffer under in everyday modern life. And
just like we see with Terri s clouded eye, the cloud of black smoke coming from Dani,
the literal cloud filling the Ardor home, clouded vision becomes representative of potential
mental illness. Not necessarily even like Terri, just the stresses of modernity. By the H
rgan elders definition they re clouded too, although likely not in the same way Danni
and Terri are, likely not as much as the prescribed and cramped vision of American life
we get. Now the H rga believe to be unclouded is to be more spiritually free, closer to
the heavens, and that s why we ll see Ruben in this literal cloud seat at the end. But
we must realise that the reality of Ruben is terrible and downright cruel. The H rga like
to make it seem profound, but their prophets are a horrendous experiment that are repeatedly
bred to only deceive those loyal to the H rga. Now I think by this point Josh understands that
a lot of what the H rga are pushing is bs. But to a young, calculated anthropologist who has
studied many different cultures and the passage and evolution of ideas and beliefs between
them, all of them are kind of bs. He doesn t believe what the Aztecs believe just because he
s heard of them and the H rga don t become less interesting because they have their own mythology,
quite the opposite. But maybe what Josh is in the process of figuring out here is that this
is actually bullshit, that this is a cult of lies. And if he had a photograph of some
finger painted scripture, he wouldn t just have an amazing thesis, he d also have a way of
making Christian s look redundant and foolish, given that Christian will be talking about
authentic beliefs, as he puts it this level of tradition . In the next scene we ll see Josh ask
Christian if he learned anything about the Rubi Radr and it s treated as if Josh was extending
an olive branch with Christian deciding to be stand-offish and Josh immediately withdrawing it.
But, if Josh was trying to find out if Christian was aware it was just inbred fingerpainting,
then he s essentially just got his answer. And as the scene comes to an end we see Josh get
told something pretty horrific, this admission of purposeful inbreeding, and his response is
to ask the elder if he can take a photo of it. The Rubi Radr that is, not the inbreeding, which
again just goes to show how morally disconnected and self-absorbed Josh is. He should be horrified,
but he s just academically interested. The elder replies absolutely not, so we can maybe presume
they re aware this is something that should not get out, that anyone with even a little bit of
knowledge on this could see it s charlatanism. And perhaps that is why Josh is willing
to risk it and go take photographs, because he knows if he s got them his
future is secured and he s beaten Christian. The scene ends also with Connie s scream from
Josh s perspective, and following that we get a quick sequence of Mark trying to flirt with
Inga at a distance before we hear it for a final time. It s repeated like this firstly as a meta
trick to show the audience that these separate chronologies are lining up, but also to inform us
that whatever s happening really isn t far away. Next we ll see mealtime and Christian
getting served his special pie, and we can see his drink is noticeably darker than
all the others, we all know why at this point, and we can see Maja watching on, making sure her
love spell goes according to plan. This scene marks a bit of a shift in tone, things
have become a bit more openly hostile, not just between Dani and Christian but also
Christian and Josh and Mark and Ulf. And there s a languid, dream-like stasis to everything,
everyone s kind of slow, kind of grumpy, a bit of a lotus eaters/Cersei s island type vibe
where the unending sun and hallucinogens and lack of enjoyable food have begun to take their toll.
The conversation begins with the absence of Mark and Connie, something the H rga are quick to
reassure the group on. Dani is seemingly the only one not buying it, or maybe more accurately
the only one that cares at all. Christian is verbally unfazed and after Dani is once again
shocked by how uncaring he can be she says I could see you possibly doing that. And maybe she
s just thinking out loud, maybe she s purposefully rebelling against him more publicly, really she
just seems like she doesn t care anymore and it s coming out whether she wants it to or not. But
what s more important is that something like that, in this instance, means leaving
her behind. Abandoning her. Dani s biggest fear and ultimately the thing that
motivates her to choose the H rga over him. From there we see Ulf staring daggers into Mark,
who asks if Ulf is going to kill him, which yes, yes he definitely is. We see Josh and Christian
bicker over the Rubi Radr and we see Christian take a bite of Maja s special meat tart and
wash it down with a nice refreshing glass of love cocktail as Pelle closely monitors him and
Maja does this face. Dani s clearly aware of Maja, she s aware of Christian being aware of Maja, and
at this point I don t think there s any fight at all in Dani, she s not necessarily threatened
by Maja, she s just clearly sad that she can feel Christian pulling towards her, and she s got
that sort of end of relationship sinking feeling of that person your partner tells you not to worry
about . It s a test she s pretty certain Christian is going to fail, even though for her it s world
ending when he actually does. All of that s pretty straightforward. More confusingly though we have
Josh and Mark. Josh has been lost in thought, entirely distracted for the whole scene.
The only thing he seems interested in, interested in enough to take the initiative
with Christian, is the Rubi Radr. We ve just seen him learn about it, ask to take
a photo of it, ask Christian about it, and then finally break in and take photos of
it. So it s pretty safe to say this is what he s concerned with. If we bring up the notes he
s looking at, these weren t necessarily built for close scrutiny but we can see he s trying
to figure out the affekt runes, something that we ve got the answer to. It is unfortunately too
late to save Josh though. Beyond that we can see a couple of suggestions that Josh is starting
to be a bit doubtful about the whole thing. Here we see No empirical evidence for a shared
language , Language is subjective and How does this work? . It s safe to say Josh is starting
to have more questions than answers about how this society functions and feels as though getting
access to the Rubi Radr would be a way of solving, or even just proving, what s actually going on.
And as for Mark, this is the last time we ll see him in a three-dimensional format. Inga rocks up
and requests that he accompany her into the woods, so that she can show him . Now Mark is presuming
that is broken English for a roll-in-the-hay, Inga is dressed with red accenting so we can presume
some fertilising is about to go down. But as the audience we re seeing how ragefilled Ulf is, we
know Inga and Ulf are at least somewhat close, so alarm bells should be ringing. Now there s
a bit of mystery and uncertainty surrounding what happens to Mark here. We know he s going
to get skinned and worn by Ulf in a moment, but what happens prior to that is up for debate.
For right now we re going to go with this quote from Ari Aster saying that there s a suggestion
that Inga sleeps with him before he is killed. And as of right now on screen I d say that s what
s happening. If we re sure of two things at this point it s that Inga seems sexually interested in
Mark and she s probably luring him away for Ulf to kill, so that tracks. But there may be another
level to this we re not quite realising yet, which we are going to look at later on when
that mystery presents itself. For now though, Inga lures Mark away, probably sleeps with
him and then he is definitely killed. And before anyone says eh, not a bad way to go ,
remember they do wear his skin right after that. Cut to bedtime and we see Josh in the absolute
zone getting ready to go Tom Clancy on the H rga compound. Dani is again asking him for sleeping
pills and again he doesn t think to ask if she s okay. We then get this shot of him pretending to
go to sleep with his trainers on. Now on first reading this is telling us that he s planning to
sneak out. But I have seen multiple suggestions that this could be a reference to the real world
cult Heavens Gate , the ones who thought they d be beamed up to the mothership upon death and were
all wearing matching sneakers when they committed mass-attestup. But these are New Balances,
the Heavens Gate cultists wore black and white Nike Decades. Now that line was discontinued
after the Heaven s Gate incident and getting a pair now is reasonably expensive due to their
taboo associations. The members of Heaven s Gate also were found covered by blankets. So this image
of just Josh s sneakers sticking out from under a blanket is absolutely reminiscent of the Heaven s
Gate deaths. But on the other hand, Christian is literally wearing Nike s, if they wanted this to
be a direct visual reference to Heaven s Gate he could just be wearing Nikes. Beyond that, Josh is
probably the least likely to be brainwashed by the H rga so I think this is a weird place to decide
to employ the allusion. Now you could say it s his academic brainwashing that leads him to do this
which leads to his death, and you wouldn t be wrong. But to me it s just weird that they wouldn
t choose to use Nike s here, given they already include Nikes in the movie and clearly could
have. Truthfully it makes very little difference, sneakers under a blanket shortly before death can
absolutely be seen as a Heaven s Gate reference. And maybe Nike heard about it and refused, they
clearly don t want to be linked to the incident or they d bring back a shoe that currently sells
for around $6,000 a pair due to the controversy. Moving on from sneakers we see Josh heading
over to the chapel building to photograph the Rubi Radr. It s unclear if he notices Ruben or
not here, he does kind of look in his direction, but I guess either way he s not overly concerned
about being snitched on. As he walks up to the podium we get a good look at the corner
of the room and we can see there s no one standing there. I know Annie getting behind
Peter s bed bothered people in Hereditary, so here we either need to suspend disbelief
that someone can teleport to this corner, or we can presume this building has secret little
side hatches like we see here. Whatever the case is Josh is going to turn around to be confronted
by Ulf in Mark s skin and as the camera pans we get a few frames of this figure stood in the
corner. Now I think it s pretty clear this is Pelle, I could be wrong and ultimately we
can t confirm it, I was speaking with Kirby, the creator of the fan website Midsommary and
she thought it was this fellow. But I m going to proceed as though it is Pelle because I m fairly
sure it is. And we do have a couple more clues, firstly this is in line with the person who
actively dislikes the victim seems to be the one who kills them . Ulf kills Mark, Ingemar
kills Connie and Simon. Dani kills Christian, in a way. And really Pelle is set up in opposition
to Josh and his academic badgering. As well as that when we see Josh and Mark talking to Pelle
outside Pelle says he s just working in the garden which I think is very likely a nod to how we see
Josh buried there, upside down in a shrubbery. And whether or not this is Pelle does have
pretty major ramifications. We ll see Ulf and Ingemar sacrificed at the end because they
have brought outside offerings, that is to say unwilling outsider sacrifices. If this is Pelle
then we can see that due to his other successes, or more likely his usefulness to the cult, he
doesn t suffer this fate for killing Josh. And I don t think Pelle would ever risk that, I think
he s too good at the game the H rga are playing, too good with people, for him to just consign
himself to death. So we can say at this point Pelle is pretty sure that at least one, if not
both, of the following things are going to happen: Dani is going to stay with the H rga and/or
Christian is going to take a swing at getting Maja pregnant. Those are the things that Pelle is
rewarded for at the end and otherwise I just don t see him taking the risk. And that brings us to
the other major point, that Pelle must really not like Josh. We know there s friction already from
Josh bringing up potential links to the Nazi s, we know because of those links the H rga are
not fans of Josh s ethnicity, we know Pelle is repeatedly fobbing off Josh and not giving
him explanations and we know Josh isn t being respectful of H rgan boundaries. But Pelle must
really not like him because if his plan went wrong then he could have died alongside, or in place of
Ulf and Ingemar. Now is that likely given that he s useful and the H rga are making the rules here?
Maybe not, but we can t say for certain. And if that s even an option then we can certainly say
he must really dislike Josh to involve himself directly here. Maybe I m wrong, we don t see Mark
die, or Simon, or Connie, we don t even see Josh die fully so we can t be certain who is and isn
t involved with each one. But given what the film does show us I think we can say quite safely
that Pelle feels most personally offended by Josh, followed or perhaps on par with Christian,
and there again we ll see Pelle at least on the scene when Christian is taken captive.
There s more to say about Josh s death but I ll save that for when Christian finds his foot
later on because that imagery kind of brings it all together. But this should be ringing alarm
bells for a Prometheus metaphor given Josh is about to die for transgressing and acquiring
forbidden knowledge by taking the pictures. If you re wondering about the dynamics of
what s actually happened to Mark here. He has been skinned, he is being worn by Ulf and
from what Ari Aster has said in interviews you can sort of imagine it as a vest with the
head attached, and then a separate set of trousers for the legs. It s not an all in
onesie. As for why Ulf chooses to do this, obviously we have the reference to skin the fool,
beyond that it certainly works for distracting Josh, but I think we can take it almost like
wearing a trophy also. Ulf really hates Mark, and this isn t just getting rid of him,
this is ghoulishly parading the kill. Couple of other things before we move on, there
s some possible Michael Myers referencing going on here with the Mark mask, especially with the
head tilt we see Ulf do, also potentially a bit of Texas Chainsaw Massacre referencing going on
with Josh being hammered from behind and dragged away in quite a similar manner to Kirk from TCM.
I ve also seen quite a few people asking who s making this groaning sound we hear, some people
think it might be Ruben, some people think Ulf, but it is definitely Josh making this involuntary
sound following the mallet to the head, we can see his lips moving slightly and it describes him
making this sound in the original script. And with that we are done with Part 2 and on to the home
stretch. This is Part 3: The light in the dark. So let s take a break from regular proceedings and
discuss villains and victims. We know this film is deliberately divisive, we know it s working
to subvert the audience into siding with Dani, brainwashing them into siding with the H rga just
as she does, but we also know that the truth of the ending is only momentary emancipation at
the hands of a much worse indoctrination under the H rga. So this begs the question, who is the
villain here? Is it the H rga? They re certainly the ones killing people, but they also represent
Dani s means of escape and by many metrics they are a loving and close community. Is it Christian?
Perhaps he s positioned as the primary antagonist, he s most definitely a dickhead, but is he
a villain? Cheating on your partner is a heinous thing to do, but it s not exactly murder
cult levels of villainy. And Dani, Dani couldn t be more of a victim really. Everything we
feel is pretty much from her point of view, we re literally conditioned to feel alongside
her. But she also does indicate that Christian should be killed, seemingly she will be living
as a H rga after this meaning she s at least tacitly complicit in the deaths of her friends.
That is actually pretty villainous. She s also not perfect in the relationship either but I
think we can forgive her for that. So we can say that Dani is a victim, and a villain. And we
can certainly say that about Christian. He may not be killing people but he is a bad guy, and
given what ultimately happens to him he s most definitely a victim. Josh? Same thing, victim of
academic brainwashing and murder, villain for his disrespect of the cultural boundaries and for
putting his academic career before his friends and before his principles. Mark? Absolute dickhead
again that thinks watching people commit attestup would have been sweet. Probably didn t deserve
to get skinned. And the individual H rga, who presumably have all, or nearly all, grown up
in the H rga. They re definitely villains, but it s impossible to define them as such
without also acknowledging the truth that they ve been indoctrinated too. That there s
a cycle of victimhood and villainy that s just implicit to life in a cult. You will be lied to
in order to get you to join, you are a victim, but you will do the things the cult asks of you,
you will recruit more members, so you re a villain too. That s the insidiousness of cults, how they
work through you. Dani had never planned to see her friends die, certainly not to be smiling
manically about it or picking Christian. But this is what she s now a part of. And so that
s why I think we see this victim and villainy to really every single character we see speak on
screen. It s reflecting the nature of being in a cult, of being at once a figure of sympathy and
condemnation. And that s going to be important as we look at the closing scenes because this becomes
extremely ambiguous as to who is right and who is wrong. So let s say right now, there isn t one
character on screen that we can say is 100% right, or 100% wrong. The film absolutely leaves that
decision up to you from here on out. Whether you side with Dani or you side with, presumably what
Christian is screaming through his eyes at her. Whether you think the H rga are pure evil or the
perfect cure to Dani s mistreatment, there really isn t a wrong answer. Again, I prefer to revel in
the abstraction between those readings. But what we can say with certainty is that the film shows
the ending shot of Dani to us as a moment of joy, of mad, spiritual bliss from her point of view.
There s no ambiguity to how she s feeling having just watched her partner die. So I think from
here on out, anything we discuss shouldn t be seen as 100% condemnation, and certainly
not 100% innocence, from anyone on screen. Let s jump back to chronology and with the H rga
plan now in full effect time is of the essence. Dani and Christian wake to find Josh missing and
Mark still absent. Dani is clearly concerned and Christian is again uncaring, especially about
Josh. Breakfast begins with a H rgan elder making the announcement that the 19th book of Rubi Radr
was stolen and I ve seen a lot of confusion about this online. So, no there wasn t a book stolen,
the H rga are just simply lying here because it provides them a good cover story as to why Josh,
and potentially Mark, may have absconded. It also puts Dani and Christian on the back foot of
being softly accused of something, so they aren t thinking of accusing the H rga of anything.
It s a lie, a manipulation, a performance that gets them the momentary compliance they require.
So I can see why it would be confusing, we don t outright see what happens and it s not necessarily
overt that Dani and Christian are being lied to, but that is what s happening. Another question
I ve seen asked is why is this the 19th book and does that mean Ruben had written 19 books? And the
answer is no, not necessarily. This could just be 19 out of the hundreds of volumes there, and again
we never see Josh take a book, we never see him select a book, so all we can really say is that
the H rga just picked one, perhaps the one we see Josh taking pictures of, or just one at random.
Following breakfast we go right into the H rga asking Dani and Christian about it
directly. They both deny any knowledge, but Christian goes a step further by defending
Mark and pointing to Josh as the prime suspect, before renouncing him as a friend, and more
importantly for Christian, a collaborator. So he really isn t concerned about his friends
whereabouts, or that a book has been stolen, only that he still be allowed to use the H rga for
his study. Dani clocks this and gives Christian another look of disbelief. Even Pelle gives
Christian a raise of the eyebrows here. But Christian being a dick isn t really surprising
at this point, the more important thing to focus on is that the H rga are using this accusation
to split Dani and Christian up for the rest of the film, suggesting Christian go see Siv and Dani
go with the H rga women for the days activities. We can see into the kitchen where Maja and Irma
are stood watching the exchange. And we know Christian is about to go have the talk with
Siv so Maja is clearly nervous for a reason, Irma is about to lead the dance around the
maypole, so really they re both waiting on Dani and Christian and eager to see them accept the
proposition to split up. They give the impression, in a sense they are, of waiting in the wings,
waiting for their part in this performance. And when we take that in conjunction with the
whole lying about the theft of the Rubi Radr, and manipulating to split up Dani and
Christian, this scene is really laying bare for us how duplicitous the H rga are. How
well practiced they are in their performance, that their well-crafted accusation allows
them to almost forcibly separate the couple. Christian does seem to show some level of
recognition that all may not be well as he not so subtly asks Dani if them splitting up is
okay. She is clearly concerned, but she says it s fine right away. And I think this is a good litmus
for where Dani is at in this moment, because she is concerned about Josh and Mark, she has wanted
to leave, but she doesn t seem to feel any safer with Christian than without him. As Christian
walks away the camera follows him and Dani and the H rga remain still in the foreground, as visual
foreshadowing for her coming decision of staying there with them. Especially given he s walking
towards the thing that will cause it. Moving on from there and let s follow Christian first
so we can do all the May Queen stuff at once. Now Siv s house is immediately striking
because it has a very unique aesthetic, it s very different from the rest of the H rga
design we see which is quite brightly coloured and more chaotic. This set is actually based
on this design from the 1955 Danish film Ordet, just adapted into a more H rgan visual language.
And we see the same thing we see with the other murals in that the designs seem to be prophetic,
in a way predicting of things to come as we know Ari Aster likes to do. And as I ve said there is
this sense of fairytale serendipity to everything, of this being Dani s story so everything kind of
does happen at the right place and right time. And from this answer Ari Aster gave in an interview,
we know that s a part of it, that there s a sense of inevitability to everything. But he also says
that these are symbols and practices that the H rga have lived with and understood their entire
lives. So when we zoom in on a bear on fire, yes that s foreshadowing Christian being burned
up in a bear suit and that might feel like the H rga are in some way predicting this, but
really it s only in the sense that they have a ritual where a bearman effigy is set on fire
and they have artwork reflecting that ritual. Earlier I said we d come back to why Christian
is represented as a bear and this seems like a good time given the film is clearly drawing
the two together here. We already covered the links with bears in Scandinavian folklore, of
the very specific links we see referenced in these paintings and bears relationship with
the Prince Charming character that possibly represents hidden dangers. But what we haven
t discussed yet, is that both Christian and the bear are going to represent the worst
affekts of the H rga. So let s start there, Christian represents a bunch of negative
characteristics: control, duplicity, laziness, we d be here all day. And truthfully this sentence,
the worst affekts , has been bandied about a lot, it s in the film, it s quoted in articles it
shows up in discussions, and we have just had to work under the assumption that it meant
the things the H rga dislike. And it does, but we haven t been able to really identify what
they were it s just been kind of vague. Until now that is, because now we have the key to the H rga
affekt. We can understand it a lot more literally. As we ve discussed, The H rga grade the affekts
from positive to negative and so they do quite literally have a set of worst affekts. I don t
think this is so much an abstract concept as it is a literal application. So the four prohibited,
or worst affekts, are as follows. Betrayal, Conflict or anger or war, taboo or warning, and
finally crisis or death. And you don t have to try very hard to find all of these in Christian. He
absolutely betrays Dani, he betrays Josh too. He s certainly a source of conflict and anger in
Dani s life, and in Josh s. Taboo or warning is perhaps the most up for interpretation but given
that Dani should be warned he s about to do a very taboo thing he almost certainly qualifies.
And finally crisis, he s pretty clearly putting Dani in crisis, but also perhaps worse, Christian
is in crisis as to what he wants. It s what leads him to treat Dani poorly, to have roving eyes
for Maja and even in his appropriation of Josh s thesis idea. It s a dangerous mind that doesn
t know what it wants. And so Christian quite literally does represent the worst affekts of the
H rga, he s a perfect candidate for the sacrifice. There is also another quality the H rga don t
like, which is the concept of a Christian and really this is why he carries the name.
He s the opposition to the pagan H rga, the one they have represent their worst enemy,
so naturally he is a Christian. Now really it s not solely Christian representing these worst
affekts, he is homogeneously linked with the bear. I m not saying bears are going to cheat on
you and try and abandon you during your grief, bears wouldn t do that to you. But to the H rga
they do represent these negative affekts. And that brings me back to the other part, that they
are traditionally a symbol of masculine power, traditionally that goes hand in hand with
connotations of virility. They re a big, strong dangerous animal and they ve also
been closely tied to myths of shapeshifting, of great warriors and so on in Scandinavian
mythology. Viking beserkers for example chewing on hallucinogenic mushrooms and trying to evoke their
wolf or bear spirit, kind of like what we see in the Northman. And so bears are quite closely tied
to notions of warrior masculinity and violence and shapeshifting. And again we see Christian and the
bear woven together, he is the symbol of overt and perhaps even dangerous masculinity that the H
rga absolutely want to make use of, but have no room for in their society. We see the bear chasing
the ox in the opening mural and we can read this as the masculine and feminine sides of nature,
Christian and Maja kind of locked in a breeding dance or ritual. But as we know the H rga are
all about harmony, the hermaphroditic balance of nature. Christian is not in balance, he can t find
harmony within himself and he certainly can t find harmony within the H rga. He only thinks about
himself, he is the bear, the alpha if you like, and what the H rga are doing by burning the bear,
by burning Christian, is symbolically burning in effigy their quasi-satanic enemy, The Black One,
who we can presume is the real source of these negative affekts. Either through superstition or
manipulative tactics the H rga have identified this Black One within Christian, rendering
him the ideal candidate for the bear suit. As they sit down Siv purposefully mirrors
Christian s actions, and this is a part of H rga customs that we ve seen before, but
really she s wanting to get him to agree to her idea and so she s using the mirroring
technique to try and influence him towards her side. Christian is appropriately nervous given
the circumstances and his first thought is to again say he has no idea where Josh is. The H rga
Rubi Radr accusation is still working, he s still on the backfoot and Siv uses that to catch him off
guard once more by going straight into How do you feel about Maja? . Christian is confused,
although this may be largely performative given he already knows Maja has eyes for him,
he also says he hasn t even spoken to her which, is kind of true but not really. Siv mentions that
Maja and Christian are a perfect astrological match, and we won t see much else done with
this, it s just another nuance of H rga belief, but in the script we do find out that Pelle and
Dani are also a perfect match so we can see it as an effort to divide Christian and Dani to more
cosmically-appropriate partners. Siv explains that Maja had seen Christian prior his arrival
because Pelle had sent her a photo, confirming what we already knew, that the H rga were well
acquainted with the group before their arrival. Now Christian let s that sink in, thinks about it
for quite a while, and then finally says, I m here with someone . It takes him a terrifyingly long
time to say I m not going to cheat on my partner and even then he doesn t really say it, he more
says he can t because he s there with Dani. I m here with someone is not I m in love with someone.
And that s a problem the H rga are quick to solve by escorting her away to a field somewhere. That
he s even thinking about it isn t great, but that he doesn t even really say no and his first issue
was that him and Maja hadn t really spoken enough, not that he s dating Dani, should tell us where
Christian s head is at with the whole thing. Siv tries to quell Christian s concerns
with Dani will not know. It s very blunt, this is really the only time the H rga will
admit to one of the characters that they are willing to be duplicitous. Really doubly
duplicitous because Dani does find out. But this isn t something they d show to Dani,
or even Josh. Siv is just comfortable doing it because she knows Christian is a liar too, that
he ll be happily complicit. And she s right, his issue is clearly with Dani knowing, not
with betraying her trust. She also knows that Christian will be dead soon so I don t think she
s particularly concerned. Let s say if Pelle is good with people, Siv is incredible with them.
She understands exactly where and how to push Christian to get what she wants out of him.
And Siv then says, I m not proposing marriage, you wouldn t be approved for that . Which
Christian should probably be concerned about, because what she s actually saying is you would
never be accepted into our community because we think you re pure evil . She clarifies the offer
saying it s a one night deal to mate with Maja, again Christian s response is not I m in love
with Dani and that girl is in her mid teens so absolutely not , he just says I think I ate one
of her pubic hairs . And Siv doesn t even blink, saying this sounds probably right . Sensing
she hasn t quite won him over yet she follows up with From an academic perspective it would
also provide a unique glimpse into our sexual rites. She s tempting him with having something
unique that Josh doesn t have, just like Josh was tempted by the Rubi Radr. So you could
say Christian s also part of this metaphor of desiring forbidden knowledge, in that Josh
gains academic knowledge and is killed for it, we could make an argument that the same thing
happens to Christian just with carnal knowledge. He partakes in the forbidden fruit of the
garden, a metaphor we ll see played with later. Again Christian gives this a good old mulling
over before trying to negotiate with Siv and ask for the unique glimpse without participating.
In true Christian style he s gone from being concerned and ill at ease, to openly trying to
twist the situation into what s best for him, with Dani registering as a minor concern at best.
And implicit in what he s saying here is that the unique glimpse if you will, what this gets
him, is more important than being true to Dani. He s trying to have both, but this is clearly
structured in a way where one is more important than the other. And that s all while pretending
he hasn t been attracted to Maja anyway. And like we ve seen several times already,
the conversation cuts off, we don t get the catharsis of Christian s answer. Every time one
of these moments seems like it may be too much, it disappears and we don t get that catharsis,
and in a way that s mimicking what s happening between Dani and Christian. They ve had many
chances to break up, many reasons you could say, but they never take the out. Here Christian is
propositioned to do something that would end their relationship and we don t get to hear
what he says. Interestingly in the original script this scene goes on for a little longer
and we hear him ultimately declining Siv s offer and saying it s something he doesn t think he can
do. But, that is not in the final cut of the film where it is left open, and ultimately Christian
does go through with it although his level of consent is debatable to say the least. And so it
s kind of up to you what Christian says here and why that bit may not have been included, for me
though I think that change was made to keep the audience from any catharsis or relief, to keep
them guessing all the way up until the end, and ultimately to prevent Christian from
achieving any kind of redemption. Because really from a tension point of view it s better
if we don t know where Christian s head is at.
So let s skip back to Dani now, who was on her
way to join the women for the maypole related festivities. And let s start with the maypole
because there isn t too much to say here really, obviously a part of May day and midsummer
celebrations, beginning as a pagan ritual and continuing on into Christianization. All very
well-trodden ground, but something I want to specifically cover is that the Maypole is broadly
recognised as a fertility symbol. And without wanting to be too crass, that s because it s a big
old pole, it s inherently phallic and it s rolled out in springtime because of this connotation,
because spring festivals are generally fertility festivals. Naturally the earth s fertility
was a big deal for early agrarian societies, and again we see that closely tied with
the sun for obvious reasons. In terms of subtextual understanding, the maypole being stuck
in the ground is a symbolic representation of the fertilizing of mother earth s womb. But that
s not all that s happening with the maypole, it s also covered in flowers as maypoles often
are and this is, as we know, a symbol of Mother Earth s blooming fertility. So while people
often will describe it as being simply phallic, it s actually a hermaphroditic symbol representing
both sides, which is extremely fitting for the H rga who see nature as this hermaphroditic
balance between masculine and feminine. On to the ceremony and we see Karin leading
Dani to the hallucination station. We don t know exactly what s in this but given the effects
are similar and it s also referred to as tea, it s likely that this is mushroom tea again. And
it s worth noting that all the people we see take a glass get it from the same jug and in roughly
the same amount. This isn t a situation where Dani is being spiked, or the other girls are given
a stronger dose to ensure Dani s success. Everyone is drinking the tea. Karin tells Dani to make
eye contact with the witchy serving lady and I think we re supposed to understand this as some
predictor of who will win May Queen, but it may just be another aspect of the H rga mirroring, of
openness and a kind of bonding. Whatever the case, all the other girls do it too so we can
presume this isn t some specific test for Dani. We then see Dani and Karin engage in some more
physical mirroring as they drink the tea and do the in-out breath. This is the first time Dani
s really done it fully, and it is pretty obvious that it s what she s supposed to do, but still she
pre-empts Karin in asking if she should do it. So however you want to look at it, it s evident that
Dani is quickly picking up the H rga customs. And immediately after taking the tea and
demonstrating knowledge of H rga customs, what does Dani get? A big hug from Karin, she
s held, exactly what she isn t getting from Christian. This is a micro-representation of
what the H rga are doing to her. They dose her, indoctrinate her and love bomb her and
that s their method of assimilation, as well as getting rid of any problematic
side characters they don t want around. From there we see Dani begin to come up
on the tea. Again we see Dani visualising herself becoming a part of nature. We
ve covered this pretty extensively, it s Princess Tuvvstar, it s symbolic of H
rgan indoctrination and this idea of natural awakening and it s in-line with how these
Volkish groups use nature to indoctrinate and influence. But it s worth noting that
from here this is really going to step up. Obviously the tea is a lot to do with this
but it s crucial to understand that as she accelerates into the position of May Queen, as
her H rga indoctrination is becoming complete, all of this imagery tying Dani to some kind of
natural awakening, that s going to accelerate too. And right on queue as Dani is about to start
freaking out, Irma begins to exposit the origin mythos of the H rga. Now there s a lot to unpack
here, so let s start with what Irma actually says in full. It was here long ago, that the Black
One lured the youths of the H rga to the grass and seduced them into dance. Once they began,
they could not stop, and they danced themselves to death. Now, in life-holding defiance of the
Black One, we dance until we fall. And she who survives last will be crowned for her stamina. So
couple of immediate takeaways, Irma mentions this having effected the youths of the village, but
only women are here dancing and the winner will be crowned the May Queen. And this is an example
of the H rga twisting myth to suit their needs, but I think what s actually happening here
is by making it just women, we re inherently positioning The Black One as male, just like
the bear, just like Christian. Secondly in the script it isn t just a dance until we fall
scenario, once everyone was nice and dizzy the remaining competitors would then have to race over
hurdle like fences to a finish line. And again, that s a real part of the tradition. Not
everywhere, not all the time, but hurdle races have been used to select May Queens. Not
so much with the dancing until you fall though, that may be a very niche thing somewhere, and
there are a lot of variations on the theme, but from my understanding this is brought in to align
with the real-world myth of the H rga dancing. And yes, this is a real myth from the real town
of H rga. The first mention of this myth comes in 1785 from Ber ttelse om H rga by i H lsingland or
Narrative about H rga Village in H lsingland but it became more well known via the folk song
H rgal ten which describes the same events. The main difference is it s not this
abstract of The Black One in the folk story, it is more obvious it s the literal devil,
describing him as a fiddle player with cloven hoofs that leads the town to destruction. There
s another difference in that the H rga in the folk story don t dance on the spot but rather
over distance. But otherwise the stories are essentially the same. We don t know a whole lot
about the origins of the myth beyond what I ve told you, but references to the devil playing
stringed and pipe instruments are plentiful, and one major one is something we ve already seen
referenced is the Pied Piper of Hamelin. It s not explicit that the Piper is the devil
in that story, but he was depicted as a sort of trickster and a lot of academics
have suggested a route between the two. And this myth is still celebrated today, in
the form of the dancing competition known as H lsingehambon. To quote Henrik Svennson They
start with the staging of the myth on the H rga meadow and then follows several segments of the
dance to finally be ended in the nearby city of Kilafors. Given that the most well known aspect
of this myth is the song I thought it would be a good idea to get a version we could actually
listen to so you can hear the whole story. I ll put English translations up on screen and
I ll try not to let it come in too loud just in case you ve fallen asleep, but this is your
warning to adjust volume. So without further ado here are the immensely talented Felicia Hallen
and The Skaldic Bard performing H rgal ten. [LYRICS ON SCREEN] Hopefully that was a nice break from
listening to me talk, big thanks again to Felicia and The Skaldic Bard for doing
that. Their channels are linked in the video description if you want to hear more from them.
Given that this is the real introduction of The Black One to the story we should probably
take a look at that too. I think first and foremost we can see this as being an abstract
personification of everything they don t like, their worst affekts, tied loosely to this devil
figure from real-world H rga folklore. But in universe I think we can very much see this
as another aspect of life in a cult, that they need to form some kind of opposition, some
intangible enemy to have people to fear and to strive against. This could be something as simple
as the government, or it could be Lord Unex, great ruler of the Galactic Confederacy. The point
is that in line with telling people what to think, you generally have to tell them what to fear. That
s the other side to control, it s not specific to cults. Anyone who s read 1984 will know that
governments do this all the time, give their people an enemy to fear in order to bolster their
own support. So you can see The Black One as that, it s somewhere between a literal devil figure, and
another system of control and indoctrination. That s why it represents the worst affekts of the
H rga, so when H rga display those traits they can be reprimanded, they can point to the black
one and say don t do that because we are against that. Perhaps for H rga children You have to do
x thing or The Black One will come and get you . Once Irma s speech has concluded, we see her
clap and the dance begins. This is probably the one time Dani entirely fails to observe
customs, primarily because she is absolutely off her chops but also so we can get this visual
foreshadowing of all the other H rga maidens bowing to her, the Queen in a crown. Something
that I m told because I haven t seen it yet but we will see visually referenced during Dune 2.
The dance then begins in earnest and we quickly see Dani picking up the moves and following along.
And she s absolutely loving it for the most part, she s having the most fun we ve seen her
have, she s free and among loving kin, which is all she really wants. But I think
it s important to remember that this scene is bookended by the H rga openly lying to Dani and
ends with Dani thinking she can speak Swedish. As the dance goes on we see girls starting
to fall, starting to be overwhelmed by the combination of dancing and mushroom tea. And given
that Dani is going to beat all the girls it does raise the question, is this rigged? Are the H rga
only playing along here and letting Dani win so she can feel this extra level of acceptance? And
ultimately, in terms of what we see on screen, it s very difficult to call it. We do see Maja
take an early tumble, and given that she needs to not be at the May Queen ceremony so she can
be with Christian, we can safely assume she faked her way out. But as for the rest, I m leaning
towards no, they re not faking. We see Dani accidentally push down the last two contestants,
we also know that some of the girls fell out of running quite brutally, we ll come to that in a
follow-up section because we don t actually see it on screen. But really I m leaning towards no
because we don t have any proof they did rig it. It certainly feels like they probably have, but
we cannot make that claim because we don t have any evidence. And in the script it s more clear
that the other girls are being quite competitive, softly making fun of each other and trying to say
things to make each other fall or otherwise cause a bad trip. We could say that the painting of
the May Queen blessing the crops above Dani s bed suggests they think she might be May Queen, but
it isn t set in stone, it s just another aspect of this fairytale serendipity. That this is Dani s
story. We could say that Siv saying with certainty that Dani wouldn t find out shows prior knowledge
she d win. But a) Siv is lying about that and b) they could just distract her another way. So I m
going to say no, the H rga don t rig it directly, also how could they given that Dani could just
fall over as soon as the circle starts moving. But they all are likely invested in it going a
certain way, and potentially a lot of what we see from the other girls is performative. Certainly
when Dani is crowned everyone, even Maja, is happy together. So I think it s a pretty safe
bet this was the conclusion the H rga wanted. If Dani hadn t won then she could still
have been removed from the commune, she could have just been sent with the May Queen
procession to bless the field. But after that, it s difficult to get to a point where she has
to pick Christian for sacrifice. So clearly it s better for the H rga, and the movie, that she
does win. So we can t say they did rig it but it certainly seems to benefit them in every way.
Again the film leaves this choice up to you, is this Dani s fairytale serendipity or is this
all the design of the H rga, manipulating them from behind the scenes? The film presents
a very blurry line between the two. As for Dani speaking Swedish, no
she isn t speaking real Swedish, it s just gibberish and the subtitles are Dani s
imaginings of what she s saying. She doesn t just magically start understanding Swedish, but the
fact that this exists points to this very much being a dilemma the film is putting towards
us, is Dani somehow awakening to this world, or is she in the midst of a mental breakdown and
being manipulated, and given Aster s tendency for doublespeak and competing narratives, I
think you have to accept it s at least some of both. Here though she s absolutely just
hallucinating that she s speaking Swedish. Now during the dance we ll see Christian take
his seat in the audience, Pelle doesn t really seem interested in talking to him, nor him
Pelle, but he s sat next to him anyway. From this point on the visual difference of Christian
is extreme. Up until now we ve seen the group, or at least Dani and Christian in
dark colours, standing out from the rest of the H rga. Now though we only see
Christian standing out in the group shots, with Dani essentially indistinguishable from the
H rga. This is cemented by these shots during the crowning sequence where Dani is held aloft by
the H rga as their ceremonial queen and Christian stands entirely alone, in front of
the temple he ll be sacrificed in. And as soon as he sits down Ulla comes over
to bring him some of, what looks like the tea, but Ulla describes as springwater with special
properties . So I think we can say based on that they re probably giving Christian something a bit
stronger. He asks what it does and Ulla replies that it breaks down your defences and opens
you for the influence. And maybe they re just full mask off at this point, more likely though
Ulla just isn t fully aware of what she s saying because she s off her chops too and accidentally
said the quiet part out loud. Either way this is exactly what the H rga have been using substances
like this for throughout, it s all just a fast track to getting people suggestible. And
Christian really doesn t want to take this, he s clearly tired of tripping and feeling pretty
weird at this point, again there s this languid, lotus-eaters vibe to his scene here as opposed to
the dizzy chaos when we cut back to Dani. When he protests Ulla doesn t seem to put much energy
into convincing him, just pushing the glass back towards him and telling him to trust her.
Christian takes a look at Maja before drinking it, presumably considering the options, and very
subtly we can see Pelle giving a slight nod of approval when Christian does drink it, essentially
notifying to us that his plan is going to work. Oh and if you re wondering what the hand-waving
is about, it s just the H rga way of applauding I think, somewhat like the silent clapping
we have now at universities that don t want their students to be triggered by loud noises.
But I think the real answer is that claps have a different kind of meaning to the H rga, we
see it used in their ceremonies quite a lot, even the Maypole Dance is kicked off with a
clap. So I think on one level it s showing us how different H rga communication is
from ours, but also everyone is tripping, and later we ll see an old H rga man clap
in Christian s face and significantly worsen his trip. So it may also be that they re
conscious clapping could cause a bad trip.
Next up is the crowning but before we look
at that there s one thing I want to clear up about the role of May Queen that people are
probably 50/50 on. The position of May Queen is built up to Dani somewhat in the film, the title
Queen gives the impression of something regal, something important. And since the film s release
I d say that s shifted to a point where some people think Dani has just Avatar d her way into
being a H rga top dog. That is not the case. There have been many May Queens as we see, it doesn t
mean they get a leadership role and really it s only open to the young girls, it s most certainly
not some prophet position like we see with Ruben. And on the flip side to that, the May Queen is
not something being made up to trick Dani into feeling accepted. The H rga are absolutely playing
up to that, but the role doesn t exist solely for that. It s not, as we see in The Wicker Man, the
thing drawing our main characters to the cult, it s just another part of the celebration.
And while we can safely assume that May Queens over the years may have had something
to do with choosing sacrifices here and there, the burying of grain and meat seems to be the more
common conclusion to being crowned. Remember the mass sacrifice we see at the end is taking place
every 90 years, so it s not a case of every May Queen being new blood that has to sacrifice their
boyfriend. That is absolutely what the H rga are doing this time though and their encouraging of
her to choose Christian as a sacrifice secures her place with them. Not just so that her
last umbilical bond with home is severed, but also so she feels party to the crime and
as though she has no one else to turn to. The May Queen is a semi-important tradition to the
H rga that seems mostly to be treated as fun and games, a bit like a prom queen. It may have life
and death implications during the 90-year ceremony but this isn t the traditional role in all the
intermittent years. So yes Dani becoming May Queen is the perfect ending for her twisted fairytale,
but it s most definitely being built up as a grander moment than it really is, especially given
Dani s hallucinating and the big reaction from the H rga, but I think beyond that it s been built
up too much in the understanding of the fandom. Pelle may have been playing it down but remember
he did just describe it as a dance competition. Following Dani s victory she s absolutely mobbed
by gleeful H rga and immediately dragged into a group photo. And this is a reoccurring theme from
the moment Dani and Christian have been split up, the H rga are physically moving them from scene
to scene. This goes hand in hand with both of them practically becoming mute, and it s a very clever
technique. Primarily it strips our characters of agency, reflecting their submission to the
cult, willing or otherwise. But beyond that, it gives everything this drugged, chaotic energy
where everything is a bit confusing and off-beat. The pace of the film rapidly increases as these
major things begin happening and it doesn t give you time to think, the trippy visuals, the
accelerating oddness, the lack of communication between Dani and Christian, it very much immerses
you into their weird and confused states of mind. Following the photo we see Dani being mobbed once
again, now in full flower crown regalia, pulsing and changing as part of her hallucinations. As the
melty face crowd gathers to celebrate we see Terri and Dani s parents as part of the crowd, her mum
in particular looking quite displeased with Dani. Mainly we should see this as a manifestation
of Dani s guilt over being accepted into a new family. We ve just had Odd say Welcome Home to her
again, she s being showered with love and praise, and I think this is her grief trying to claw it
s way back by getting her to feel guilt about that. I ve said it before but I ll repeat
it just in case people have skipped here: this does not mean that Dani s parents were H rga.
As much as there are these broad and intangible links between Terri and Dani, the attestup and
Dani s spiritual awakening, it s nothing concrete, it s something more thematic. This is Dani
at the height of her trip dealing with a lot of strange faces and conflicting emotions
and projecting her family onto the scene. Now her parents sort of barge past her, but Terri
doesn t. As soon as Terri walks by Dani she turns and stays alongside her even into the wideshot.
Which honestly I was pretty surprised by. You d expect the illusion to break between shots. So as
with the Ardors asleep in front of their TV and Terri awake and conscious of the camera, we can
see a difference here again between Terri and her parents, who by now have disappeared back into the
crowd. And I think this is suggesting that Terri is somehow awake to, or conscious to, the dramatic
awakening/entire mental breakdown that Dani s going through and is about to be going through.
There s this repeated link of Terri being alert to what Dani is seeing and feeling, just like when
she opened her eyes at the attestup rock. She s repeatedly breaking the fourth wall, and generally
that fourth wall represents Dani s point of view. As Dani is hoisted onto her victory plinth we
again see Terri s face, with it s one glassed eye and hosepipe, appear in the shape of the trees.
And again, if you want to see this as just part of Dani s hallucination, her guilt over Terri,
I think that s entirely fair. But in these two specific instances, Terri walking alongside
Dani, Terri appearing in the trees behind Dani, Dani is not aware of her, she s not looking in
her direction, not freaking out about it like when she saw Terri in the mirror or like when she
saw her mum just a moment ago. So it s safe to say Dani isn t seeing these manifestations. Now she s
not seeing the flowers on her head moving either, but they are, so this is far from concrete
evidence. But to me this is very out of place with all the other hallucinations, it s
always Dani seeing Terri, because that s what a hallucination is. There s a big focus
on Terri s eyes with every hallucination, but every time Dani has been aware of it. But
here at the end it s Terri seeing Dani while she is unaware of it. Terri watching over her as she
speeds towards her moment of crisis and murder, as she confronts the black one just like Terri
did. And in saying that we re not really talking about a hallucination of Dani s anymore at all,
it s something else entirely. And again I have to stress that this is nothing concrete and in the
language of the film this is a hallucination. But at the same time I think it s pretty definite that
the film is at least having the conversation that something like that is occurring. That Terri
is present in some way, even if only in Dani repeating the cycle of her behaviour. Anything
further than that I think it s up to you what you want to believe, is Terri s spirit watching
over her, has Terri returned to these ancestral and literal roots Dani is now envisioning, but
whatever the case, this image of Terri in the trees far behind Dani, to me, is the closest the
film gets to outright saying okay we re definitely having this conversation just very subtly .
And just before we see Dani getting hoisted up into the air we get this. Which I
think we can agree is a pretty dodgy move by Pelle for a bunch of reasons, but
also not something Dani says no to. And I know she s not in a sober state here
at all, but from what we can observe, it does seem like she kisses him back a little
bit. And that s important because it kind of shows us without telling us that Pelle is going to
be entirely successful, he is going to get Dani, and they are going to be the model H
rga couple. He does it pretty sneakily, it kind of looks like it might be a friendly kiss,
and he gets right out of dodge after doing it, but it is most certainly a romantic kiss
that at the very least Dani doesn t reject. Now moving from Dani on the platform
we have this final meal with the H rga, but this time Dani s at the head of the
table. And just as we ve seen happen before, the H rga are waiting to be seated. She observes
the custom, understands people are waiting on her and then unlike what we ve seen before she
sits down before the last person arrives, the last person being Christian. So whether she
does that intentionally or not, it s this symbolic nail in the coffin, that Dani is with the H rga
and Christian is without, he just doesn t quite grasp that yet. She follows this up with this
moment of noticing the leaves on her chair moving, again assisted by her hallucinating, but we see
her hand make some slight motion, as if she s controlling the plants. Which is actually a pretty
common reaction when you might see stuff moving like that, you might test to see if you have a
degree of influence over what you re witnessing. But here I think it shows us that Dani very much
is buying into this idea of spiritual awakening, she does finally feel like the May Queen, a
naturalistic and rebellious form of the feminine, like the unbridled mother earth figure she s
dressed as a caricature of. In this moment, fake or not, Dani feels fully realised. And to
her I think Christian looks very sad and confused, bent double from the poison he s filled with.
Now the only dark coloured character in this sea of white frocks, he s beginning to appear
to her as The Black One, the spiritual enemy. And as Dani finally picks up her cutlery and we
see this beautiful flow down the table as we have twice before, again Christian is the odd one out,
not picking his up on queue, not harmonizing with the H rga as Dani has done, instead festering
over whether or not he should have sex with Maja. Maybe I m being too harsh on him there, it
s fair to say he s also entirely off his chops and probably becoming more and more concerned
over the day Dani is currently having as well.
The food on the table is put forward somewhat
differently here, up until now it s been very simple, very natural and basic food. But here we
see it spoiling in the sun, flies buzzing round it to remind us of decaying flesh. I ve seen a
number of people wondering is this human meat, is this Mark perhaps, and so I want to stress we
have zero evidence the H rga are cannibalistic. This dish does look purposefully strange however,
it s actually two goats with the meat scraped off arranged to look like a double headed goat
creature. There s also this cake which the films food stylist described as a H rgamancake.
We don t really get to see them close up but there s also a tower of crawfish and apparently,
at some point, the bottom half of a roasted turkey arranged so that it appears to be diving into
a tray surrounded by fish heads and pig legs. Now we do get a moment of eye contact between Dani
and Christian, as if they might say something to each other, but the H rga are very quick to
shut that down. Coming in from off camera with some Deus Ex Herring that Dani needs to eat
whole. Now herrings, specifically pickled herring is a traditional food of Swedish Midsommar, but
from what I can gather pickled herring also seems to be pretty popular all year round in Sweden. I
think what we re supposed to find unsettling here, beyond having to put a herring in your mouth,
is that Dani is having this forced on her, she s gone from feeling fully realised and leading
the table right back to not having any agency. And especially when seen from Christian s point
of view, these strangers gathering round your girlfriend and laughing while forcing her to put
something in her mouth, it s got a really creepy, non-consenty edge to it that started with Pelle
kissing Dani and continues beyond Christian and Maja. And I think this should reinforce to the
viewer that Dani hasn t inherited some position of power as May Queen. She s just another part of
the ritual and is absolutely under H rga control. From there we get this quite funny, quite
weird little exchange between Christian and this old man. Christian asks him what s going
on and the old man, looking quite displeased, claps in his face. And this seems to have a
kind of world-shifting effect on Christian s hallucinations. Everything jumps into sixth
gear. We then see the old man turn and give a very subtle nod to someone off camera which
seems to queue off the toast. Now I think what s happening here is the old man recognises Christian
is out of it, and is either checking he s already at that next level, or more likely accelerates
him towards it by doing something shocking, then gives the signal that Christian is primed
and ready to be taken advantage of. But there is something aesthetic, something subtextual
about this that makes it feel like something else. Like Odin is clapping a new layer of
consciousness into Christian, or there being some other layer of mysticism at work here. Just
the way the old man is in frame, his general vibe, this world shifting quality we get to Christian
s hallucinations following the clap, and the fact that other than Christian s quite child-like
response straight after, he s essentially mute for the rest of the film. Now again that s
all subtextual it s not really a product of anything magical happening, but the film is
definitely getting wackier, more outlandish, more surreal with the visuals, and I do think
there s supposed to be a sense of something vaguely mystical here even though it s just an
old man clapping. But yeah, in terms of what s actually happening I think this is the signal
that everything s ready to proceed as planned. Christian seems extremely soured by this,
and it s made worse by his overhearing of Dagny insisting that Dani is like her family now
and that they are sisters. I think maybe he can sense Dani pulling away but he doesn t dwell on
it long and instead begins a bout of prolonged eye contact with Maja. She gives him a sort
of come hither nod and walks off to the chapel building. And she is acting a bit weird, Maja
is quite weird anyway she s grown up in a cult, but it s worth remembering that she is also on
the mushroom tea that Dani is, so she s probably feeling quite trippy herself. And I absolutely
adore this shot of Maja walking past the table, it s very pre-raphellite, very art-nouveau.
In fact this shot, and Maja in general reminds me of one of my favourite paintings of
all time, John William Waterhouses the Lady of Shallot. And that painting is based on the Lady
s yearning or unrequited love for Lancelot, so I think it fits quite well here, although I have no
idea if that s an intentional piece of imagery. I love how we have the intense reflections blooming
from Maja, giving us this soft suggestion that the sungod itself is blessing the union. And I love
how coldly and calm Siv is watching Christian, overseeing her plan. We ll find out in
a moment that Dani is watching him too, so really this is Christian s moment of judgement,
all eyes are on him, what sort of man he is going to be. And he is quite literally squirming over
it. We can only interpret, and the majority of his squirmy behaviour is mainly from whatever
concoction he s been given. But we do also get a clear sense that he s visibly conflicted.
And that conflict only exists because of the things he wants, because of his suddenly important
research and because of his movie-long desire for Swedish babes. Put simply if he wasn t interested
in cheating on Dani and screwing over his friends, there would be nothing to be conflicted over.
It s left entirely up to your interpretation but Christian is somewhere on the spectrum
between showing signs of nerves, signs of pent up frustration and signs of being entirely off his
chops. But whatever he is, it s clearly focused on Maja, and that s clearly something Dani notices.
She s certainly aware he s interested in Maja, in fact in this moment and when she asks if
Christian can come along with her, I think she knows something very bad is going to happen
with Christian and Maja, she just realises she has no choice but to let go of trying to control
it and let him prove what sort of a partner he is. We see Pelle drawing Dani as the May Queen
for a second time, and this really shows us that his plan has been realized. He d sketched
out what he wanted, what he desired for Dani, and now here he is drawing it observationally
after his plan has come into reality. The banquet concludes with Siv separating Dani
and Christian by sending Dani off to bless the crops. She leaves in a carriage, again
another fairytale allusion, the princess, or rather queen getting into her carriage.
And just as Dani leaves, right on queue, we see a path of flowers being laid out for
Christian to follow and go do the deed. Again this link between flowers and fertility and this
sense of performance to everything the H rga do. Just before we get to that though let s scoot
ahead and look at the quick scene of Dani blessing the crops. Now as we ve been going through I hope
it s been clear that this isn t indicative of a current. real Swedish Midsummar celebration. It
s a mashup of different influences and historical fictions rolled into something unique. We know
that the May Queen is more of a May day thing, as the name suggests. But I want to draw your
attention to a passage from The Golden Bough, the book Ari Aster used frequently when researching
pagan traditions. We have seen that in Sweden the ceremonies associated with May Day or Whitsuntide
commonly take place at Midsummer. Accordingly we find that in some parts of the Swedish province
of Blekinge they still choose a Midsummer s bride, to whom the church coronet is occasionally lent.
So not only do we have the general precedent of May Day celebrations having taken place on
Midsummer in Swedish history, but specifically the choosing of a Midsummer Queen, or Bride that
will be crowned. And so the May queen blessing the crops at midsummer like we see here is not only
common to May Day celebrations, but it s probable that something very similar has occurred in the
history of Swedish midsummer. That being said this exact ritual is still a bit of a mashup of
different things. It is common for the May Queen to perform some kind of fertility blessing
for the land and for the people. For example carrying a fertility bough between households,
just like the one we see Dani holding here. And conversely burying food, or things that will turn
into food, or burning it as we ve already seen, is a relatively common practice and something
still happening today in other May and midsummer celebrations. For example Beltane, where there
is this specific planting or burying ceremony, but there s lots of other adjacent examples we
could point to. So yes this is all a mash-up, the whole movie is really, but it s mashed up
from bits and pieces that all still apply in some way. Now have the H rga just devised this to
get Dani away from Christian? I don t think so, we see evidence the May Queen does usually
bless the crops and the presence of the carriage and the synchronized march away lets
us know this is an every year type of thing. Now as for the singing part of the ceremony,
we have two phrases being repeated. The most prominent being s haf i g a tr til Gu s. Now these
are easily googleable, but it would be remiss of me to not mention the work of u/NeuerFardin who
decoded where they were from two years ago and who I am relying on here for exact translation.
So s haf i g a tr means, he had good faith and til Gu s means in God. The second chant, which is only
seen in a brief cutaway from Christian and Maja, is signi, signi oss, gumna valdr , which means
bless us, bless us ruler of men or ruler of all men . And you might notice there that both of
them sound a bit...Christian. Because they are. They actually come from inscriptions on real life
runestones, which a lot like the attestup stones we see are almost gravestones, not grave markers,
but memorial stones let s say. And if they were to have used the entire inscription, it would
have been a lot more obvious that these were post-Christianization. So what s happening
in the film is that they re using Christian language as this ancient supposedly pagan chant
to bless the crops. And you can read this several different ways u/NeuerFardin thought this was
the H rga using Christianity as a disguise, but I do have to disagree with them there as the
pagan rite is what s overt here and the Christian language is quite hidden. I think this is
actually yet another example of the H rga constructing their own mythic history to suit
their needs, and as with nearly everything else when we look closely we see it doesn t really
hold up to scrutiny because ultimately they re a cult of charlatans that have keyser soze d
a set of beliefs from whatever they felt like. Let s leave Dani in the field and move on to the
big one. And I m dreading this for two reasons. The first being the tightrope I have to walk here
to hopefully stay monetised. Obviously this is a long scene and I can t show you really any of
it. As I m recording the voice over I don t know exactly how possible that s going to be, so
if you see randomly inserted footage or a lot of censor boxes, just know it was my only option and
there will be an uncensored version on Patreon. The second reason, is that I m very aware we have
to approach this delicately. We have to be able to approach this from two realities, because the film
is. On the one hand Christian is pressured, dosed, doubly dosed in fact, coerced, and clearly feels
something a tad beyond post-nut clarity come the acts completion. This is not a good situation for
Christian, and if you see him purely as a victim here, I don t think anyone can tell you you re
wrong. However, this is not Christian s story, it s Dani s. And I just want you to imagine for
a moment that your toxic and unloving partner has been separated from you on holiday, and you come
back to them tripping balls, having sex with a just technically not underage person in some part
of freaky group ritual. A person you ve noticed they seem to be attracted to. As I said at the
start of this section this is all shades of grey between victim and villain. And Maja too, she s
absolutely complicit in leading Christian astray, but can we really say she s not a victim of
coercion herself here? She s only thrilled about it because the cult have raised her with
this mission in mind. So should we be angry at Christian for betraying Dani, should we be
angry at the H rga for putting Christian in this situation? Maja for trying to seduce him
or Christian for accepting or even considering it given her age? It s honestly up to you, but
given that we know Christian is here looking for Swedish babes, joking about impregnating
them, aware of Maja s attraction and ever so slightly reciprocal of it, and given that he didn
t say no to Siv s offer and ultimately he walks himself to Maja and does the deed, I m siding
with Dani. And the film clearly wants us to, we obviously see this as a betrayal from Dani s
point of view. It s a betrayal Christian clearly regrets immediately, but it is one he enacted.
And so I do think he s worthy of condemnation here. This is an aspect of relationship horror, of
this being a breakup movie. What Dani sees through the keyhole is essentially the worst fear of a
paranoid partner brought into reality. I think most people in relationships would be horrified
by this. So even if it s very questionably done by the H rga, they, and the film in general,
have positioned this as Christian s choice to make. Every chance he s had to rebuff it
entirely he hasn t taken and when it comes time for it he does ultimately go through with
it. And we know he s doubly motivated to do so, not just by desire for Maja, but in what it
would mean for his currently lacking thesis. So whether it s encouraged or pressured along by
the H rga or not, the end of this film hinges on Christian s betrayal of Dani, and betray her he
most certainly does. I don t think his level of technical consent due to sobriety matters much to
Dani in that moment, but we should recognise that both Christian and Dani are having their agency
removed during this final act. So we cannot say at the same time that Christian is consenting to
this, it s just shades of grey in both directions. So onto the scene itself and it begins with the
H rga elders getting Christian into costume and encouraging him to inhale some vapour, for his
vitality. And vitality generally refers to health, strength and wellness but it s often used in coded
double speak regarding ones ability to perform. So I think we can say this is going to do a couple
of things: One being to clear his head up a bit, bring him back to a downered then uppered version
of clarity, and probably more crucially, allow his body to operate how everyone currently needs it to
operate despite all the trippy spring water. There s also this repeated motif of smoke being inhaled
or exhaled relating specifically to The Black One, we see that with Terri s death, with Dani
s nightmare, and here again very subtly, and very aptly given Christian is supposed
to be representing The Black One throughout this and the final sacrifice. You may notice
one of the elders is wearing a pretty freaky mask and we ll deal with that later but I do
think given it s this elder that opens the door for Christian that practically the veil
might be here so only Christian sees Maja and the line of H rga women. Not necessarily out of
modesty, more a false sense of spiritual grandeur. And when that door opens my god is it a startling
visual. I think Maja on the bed of flowers is an absolutely stunning aesthetic, again visually
she s so close to that pre-raphellite and sometimes art nouveau waifish ideal, and being
surrounded by this bed of flowers, it s just very, very striking. Again we see flowers linked to
anything and everything fertility related. But that doesn t mean that what we see here is a
calm or pleasant image. Because behind Maja we have this line of H rga women, clearly planning
on observing, and for want of a better word it's just plain weird. Like from Christian s point of
view, probably not what he was expecting when Siv floated the offer. As to why they re there we can
t say for certain, but I think it s likely some mix of the H rga feeling together, so this moment
needing to be a communal thing and beyond that the life cycle of young and old, this is mostly older
H rga women here and Maja obviously represents the other end of that spectrum so we ve got the
cyclic H rga thing going on, and then finally, probably most likely, is that these are all H
rga mothers and this is kind of an extra level of fertility blessing and reassurance
through kinship. And I suppose as well, just as the H rga are prone to do, staying close
and observing to make sure the plan is completed. And let s stick with that a moment because
a question I ve seen people have a lot is, how do the H rga know that Maja is going
to get pregnant from the first time with Christian. And the very easy answer is that they
don t. They tip the scales as much as they can, do their best to pick fertile candidates and enact
all these rituals and so on, but ultimately it may not work. And given the existence of Ruben
and the bloodlines being very well preserved, their proficiency in surgery and butchery, I
think the H rga are quite well versed in all things reproductive. However, there is this fairy
tale serendipity, inevitability as Aster puts it, to what we re seeing on screen. So normally
it wouldn t be a 100% chance of pregnancy, but in this case I think we can say there is.
We can say that pretty certainly because this is that story where everything unfolds in
such a way as to seem almost pre-destined, I think it s a pretty safe assumption that
Christian does get Maja pregnant here. And so despite both looking reasonably terrified
and this almost certainly being a whole bunch of firsts for Maja, they engage in some entirely
unsettling fornication. We see Ulrika come and offer Maja some comfort which again, not
making things any less weird here Ulrika. And we then hear her start singing. Long time
fans of Ari Aster may recognise this tune from There s Something About the Johnsons, we hear
the mother there humming essentially the exact same melody. As the singing builds we then get
this half chanting, half moaning, from both the women in the background and Maja. And I think it
s pretty obvious given their body language that this is supposed to be them feeling the act
alongside Maja as they feel everything else. I think practically you could also argue this is
done to make sure Christian gets the job done too. Cut to Ruben looking absolutely harrowed in the
corner, my god has this poor kid seen some shit. As I said before, maybe he s here to observe
the beauty and spirituality of the lifecycle to aid his prophecies, maybe he s here so he s got
an idea when it comes to making the next Ruben, or maybe he s here just because this is simply
his bedroom and this is the worst invasion of privacy since Piers Morgan was left in charge
of a newspaper. I do think there s a sense of all eyes being on Christian here, just
like the last scene at the banquet everyone is looking to him for the decision he ll
make. Ruben, the crowd of H rga, Maja, Dani through the keyhole. There wasn t necessarily
a route to survival for Christian at this point, but everything going right for the H rga
here hinges on him following through. We move outside to Dani returning in the carriage
and the younger H rga women waiting for her to accompany them to Siv s house. She can hear the
group moaning though, because of course she can, and wants to go investigate. We see Hanna
stop her gently and say I think you should not . And I think from this we can say safely
that Hana knows exactly what is going on in there and almost certainly knew that prior to her
leaving with Dani. We see Dani make this face, and I just want to say again how immaculate
Florence Pugh is, even just seeing this as a still it s heart wrenching. And she knows immediately
what it means, that Christian wasn t the man she hoped he d be when she left for the blessing,
but it s so much more than that, her entire world has been ripped apart and she is completely
alone, just as she s been terrified she would be. Now the big question, did the H rga want Dani to
find Christian mid-deed. And as with some other stuff we ve looked at, I don t think we can prove
they did, but when we look at outcome this again gets them exactly what they want. And if these
young H rga girls wanted to stop Dani they could, not that it would make much difference, but
they do just stand and watch. So we can t prove that the H rga want this to happen, but given
the timing, given their ability to intervene, given this gets them exactly what they want, I
certainly think this was the desired outcome. We see Dani at the keyhole, which is just an
incredible shot and there s so much built into it at this point that anyone rational is raging
for Dani. We see her walk away from the door, unable to speak, she won t really be speaking
coherently either from this point on, and then throw up on the ground. And it s
not super clear but that s what Christian sees when he runs outside that also makes him
throw up. As soon as Dani collapses away from the door she is rushed by H rga women ready to
console her. So they were ready for the moment, ready to be quite physical with her and drag
her over to the dorm room. Take from that what you will but to me it suggests they re ready
and prepared for her to catch Christian and absolutely could have physically stopped her
if they d have had any inclination to do so. And then what follows is probably
the most intense scene of the film, Florence Pugh described this as the scene everyone
was nervous about filming in the run up to it, knowing how intense it would be. She wrote about
it at length on Instagram and I encourage you to go read it because it sounds like it was brutal to
film both physically and emotionally. I don t just want to go on and on about how amazing Florence
Pugh is, but everyone in this scene is absolutely stunning. In terms of what is actually happening,
we re seeing the H rga women feeling Dani s pain, showing her that she is cared about, that whatever
she is going through she does have people there for her. And it's up to you how authentic you feel
they re being. It absolutely feels authentic, it feels like this idea of collective effervescence,
and I think we can presume that for most of the ordinary H rga they buy into this emotional
connectivity 100%, for all we know they may have suffered grief due to the outcomes of the H
rga mating selection as well. But again I think it s best to judge it by outcome. So as caring and
emotionally driven as it is, as much as it may actually show Dani that she s not alone, really
what s happened is they ve pushed for her trauma, very probably made sure she saw it, and then
immediately rushed to force themselves onto her as a new emotional support network. These women may
believe they re doing the right and caring thing, in this moment I suppose they are, but they re
also party to a gross system of manipulation that has facilitated the destruction of
Dani s entire life. And Dani being alone, being terrified of being alone, and being
incredibly vulnerable really she has no choice but to accept it. I mean she could
say no, but why would you do that if you re terrified of being alone? We do see her
almost attempt to crawl away from the group and eventually be held in place, which is another
example of the H rga physically controlling Dani and Christian s movement during this final
act as they have their agency fully removed. We get a cut to this mural on the wall which I
ll definitely have to censor. I think the meaning is pretty clear here, we have the May Queen
surrounded by H rga maidens just as we see now, perhaps with a lean towards grieving given their
hooded cloaks. Below we see a fire with two fully engorged gentleman either side of it, alluding to
the coming sacrifice and who will be sacrificed. And while we re looking at it we re hearing
the groups wails of grief, so it s a pretty easy link here that Dani s grief is going to lead
her towards sacrificing Christian. As the wails intensify we cut back to the chapel and see
that it s synced up perfectly with the group moaning. So we have this mirroring that again
suggests the H rga are all in unison. It s not overtly supernatural, but again we see this hint
of natural cycles, natural processes lining up and there being some kind of background inevitability
pushing things towards a climax. There s also another kind of mirroring here as we see Dani
and the groups wails represent something similar to labour and in the Christian and Maja scene
obviously impregnation. And I guess if you want the beginning and blossoming of love in one scene
and the grief towards the end of it in the other. Back in the chapel and we see Maja take on a
pretty gleeful mood stating that she can feel the baby. And yes, this is supposed to be weird
and obviously no she can t, but at the same time I think we can assume that there will be a baby,
because that s just how this story is built. Christian turns around and sees the gummy
old lady and just takes off running, which I think we can agree is understandable given
the circumstance. We see Christian run outside, bloody and confused, somewhat reminiscent of Adam
in the garden following his distancing from God, suddenly aware and ashamed of his nudity.
Another artistic influence for the film is Hieronymous Bosch s Garden of Earthly Delights.
Garden there with obvious significance too, we ve also got Christian having just partook
in a form of forbidden fruit, so I don t think an Adam reference would be entirely out of the
blue here. I think we can also view Christian running around terrified and naked here as a
soft inversion of the final girl trope. Final girls having a tendency to have lost or ripped a
lot of their clothing on the way to their escape. After running around embarrassed for a moment
Christian runs into Josh s upturned foot buried in the soil. So let s leave Christian for a moment
and talk about Josh and what he represents. Which I think at it s core can be described as an
unhealthy zeal for knowledge. He s specifically obsessed with obtaining the H rga s secrets, so
forbidden knowledge, as I mentioned earlier very Promethean. A Promethean quest for knowledge. To
give you the briefest possible answer as to what I mean by that. In Greek myth Prometheus steals fire
from the gods and gives it to man, in this case fire is representing knowledge or illumination.
And Prometheus doesn t just get away with it, he s eternally punished for his crimes, being
strewn across rocks and pecked apart everyday before being remade anew the next. He seeks
forbidden knowledge and is violently punished for it, just like we see with Josh. And this is
a very common theme in writing and it has been for a very long time, but in Josh s case this
is more like Odinesque rather than Promethean. And to pre-empt any confusion here I just want
to tell you that Norse mythology is full of inconsistencies, potential paradoxes and things
that don t really make sense. In a manner very similar to Greek Mythology these godly characters
can change size, shape, species, die in some stories and are living again in others. Every
mythology suffers from this in some respect, and because formal written language was quite
late to Norse culture, there s quite a lot of this overlapping inconsistency stemming from purely
oral traditions. We don t have to worry about the actual consistency of the myth too much, we just
need to know how and where it applies to the film. So as you may know, Odin, the all-father of the
Norse pantheon, is a great many things but perhaps most notably he is known for his wisdom.
And more crucially his desire for wisdom. He seeks knowledge of how to prevent Ragnarok,
the apocalyptic conflict that will consume the 9 realms, he seeks knowledge of those other realms
and he seeks to understand and achieve mastery over the runes of the Norns, you can think of them
as the Norse quasi-parallel to the Fates of Greek mythology, the weavers of destiny. So in short, he
wants to know the answer to everything. And like most characters in mythology that seek wisdom,
he has to pay a great sacrifice to attain this wisdom. Now versions differ on how he goes about
his plan, but the generally accepted version comes from the poem H vam l in the Poetic Edda, that
sees Odin visiting the roots of Yggdrasil, the world tree that connects the nine realms. It is
at this root that Odin finds Mimir and the well of knowledge, essentially the answer to all things.
So desperate was Odin for the answers he sought, that he plucks out his own eyeball in payment for
Mimir allowing him to drink from the well. What comes next though is crucial, and the detail we
re interested in which has become the matter of some debate. Odin is hung on the tree, presumably
some of the root, above the well of life, where he will hang for 9 days and 9 nights because as
we know, 9 is a sacred number in Norse mythology. And if hanging there with an eye missing wasn t
bad enough he also forwent any food or water and was then pierced with his own spear Gungnir,
in a manner very reminiscent to Christ on the cross - which is worth noting given that we know
Christianization was in progress by the time these stories were being written down. Now that s a
pretty shit week for Odin but he does it happily, in what he describes as a sacrifice to himself ,
which makes a kind of sense, he s seeking wisdom and he s the literal embodiment of wisdom so who
else do you really pray to? And to cut a long story short, it s actually the subject of a lot of
debate whether Odin was suspended traditionally, or was he hanging some other way, namely upside
down by his feet. Now while Odin is hanging there he gazes in to the well below, which is
reasonably difficult to achieve if you re hanging by the neck, but impossible not to accomplish if
you re hanging by your feet. He then clutches at the runes he sees in the well, again, pretty
impossible one way round but easy enough if you re hanging by your feet. And lastly he drinks
from the well, and same thing again. It just doesn t seem possible for Odin to do these things
if he s hanging traditionally. Now I gave you the caveat about the physical inconsistencies of
Norse mythology for that reason, because he could, because he s Odin. And truthfully there s a lot of
people that think this should, or even has been, dismissed as a theory. There s a few reasons why
academics don t agree with it being upside down, one being that sacrifices we do know about to
Odin tended to occur in a gallows. Honestly the arguments seem well thought out from what I read
and that s fine and dandy because we don t need to care about historical accuracy here, we just need
it to be a well-known aspect of mythos. In fact given all the H rga mythos seems to be incorrect
in some way that actually suits us better. Accuracy aside, you can probably see where
this is going. Josh is suspended upside down, not really hanging but a version of it, in mimicry
of Odin, for the folly of his quest for knowledge he didn t deserve. And this isn t a blessing,
they re using this imagery to make fun of him just like they do with Mark being dressed up as
the fool. As they see it he absolutely isn t Odin, he was not deserving of the knowledge, and so
they re mocking him with this desecration. In the original script Josh was actually chained up and
being pecked at by birds, exactly like Prometheus, except instead of the regular eagles pecking
at him it was Crows in reference to Huginn and Muninn. And instead of being blood eagled we
would have seen Simon hanging upside down like Odin. So we can see how one morphs into another
and the messaging is streamlined a bit and really that s why I m so sure of the intention behind
how Josh has been buried here. It s also why I was confident this upside down crucifix and beam
of light behind Josh wasn t accidental, because we have these quite glaring similarities between
the crucifixion and Odin s upside down ordeal on Yggdrasil during a scene where we re deliberately
foreshadowing every aspect of Josh s fate. Now we re not quite done with Odin because
there s another link here that helps validate our earlier theory about the temple at Gamla
Uppsala. Regardless of whether Odin was hanging upside down or not we just need to know that
hanging from a tree while being exsanguinated, is a reference to Odin. Because there are
a small number of accounts, examples of sacrifice happening where the subject was hung
by a tree and exsanguinated into a receptacle. Mostly animals might I add but maybe humans
too. And this is pretty much exactly what we have at the temple at Gamla Uppsala. Why the
sacrifices are hanging in trees, in mimicry of Odin s sacrifice. If we look at this image of the
tapestry of the supposed sacrifices you can see that the branches actually have horse heads, which
is almost certainly a reference to the world tree, Yggdrasil, which translated means Odin s Horse.
We also have the reference to their blood being used by Adam of Bremen, so if it did happen it s
pretty certain it was happening in Odin s name. And still that s not all, because there s one
other very well known place that Odin is hiding in plain sight, hanging specifically upside down
and that is The Hanged Man tarot card. The Hanged Man is a pretty unique card in tarot because
seemingly it s the only card that s a direct reference to a mythological figure. At least, by
most understandings, obviously tarot is pretty nebulous in how it s applied and understood.
But the hanged man is understood by most, to be very similar, if not directly depicting
Odin hanging upside down on Yggdrasil. And what does the card traditionally represent?
Well, generally wisdom and enlightenment, exactly what we d expect it to given what
we ve been discussing. So while academics may want to argue Odin was one way up, the
more mainstream mythology/esoteric version that the H rga are more likely to pull from
is upside down just like we see with Josh. Now as for the rune on the foot it s either
this rune, Dagaz which represents awakening and enlightenment, among other things, which
is a pretty bang on way of describing what Josh sought from the H rga s point of view and
fits exactly with this ironic punishment of his quest for knowledge. However it doesn t quite
fit as we have these top spokes coming out. It is however a perfect fit for this rune from the
H rgan affekt where we can see those top spokes are present. The meaning of this is shyness and
depression, so it could just be that like they labelled Dani and Christian with runes they also
labelled Josh. Now given that these rune meanings weren t ever made publicly available in this
instance I m leaning more towards this being a reference to awakening or enlightenment
and they re mocking Josh, because that s the message of this burial as a whole. It s also
worth pointing out that when Josh is dug back up we ll see that his notes have been stuffed in his
mouth, again in mockery of this quest for wisdom. This kind of ironic punishment is very common in
Norse mythology: Loki s trickster mouth gets him in trouble and he has his lips bound shut, Odin
seeks knowledge and has to lose an eye. There s a logical consistency and karmic circularity to it.
So I think we can say pretty safely that to us, Josh represents Promethean, or rather
the Odinesque quest for knowledge, knowledge he shouldn t have, sought out for the
wrong reasons. And to put a little bit of icing on the cake there Odin was known as the breaker
of oaths , breaking vows when he saw he could profit from doing so. Which is exactly what
Josh does when he breaks his promise to Pelle and the H rga and takes pictures of their
sacred scribblebook. Before we leave Josh, I do want to point out another inconsistency,
or hypocrisy of the H rga. That is that Josh is killed for seeking knowledge and that Mark is
killed for being a fool. Now if you were in the H rga they may tell you this is about circularity,
about give and take and balance and all of the things they like to espouse, but for me it speaks
to the fact that they re making it up as they go. These supposedly strict and definite rules are
plied and played with for the H rga s benefit. Back to Christian having just the worst
afternoon and he moves from Josh into the shed in which we see Simon hanging having
been blood-eagled. If you don t know what Blood Eagling is in it s essentially a method
of ritual execution in which the ribs lungs and torso are cut and spread in such a manner so as to
supposedly resemble wings. As will probably come as no surprise we have very little proof of the
authenticity of it. As with the attestup it may simply be a literary device that was never really
practiced, but again that doesn t matter to us, given that the film is going off mythos and we
know the H rga are playing fast and loose with their applications of mythology also. It s a
bit hidden in the background but Simon is being pecked at by a chicken as he hangs there, so we
do still have a soft Prometheus reference too. Now given how exposed Simon s lungs are we
can see some element of breathing still, or rather inflation and deflation, so I
think Christian gets up close underneath either to identify Simon, or to check if he is
still alive. He certainly doesn t look alive, but the almost breathing would suggest otherwise.
However lungs shouldn t be able to do this outside of the body, so it may be that the exposure
and suspension is just causing them to fill or respond strangely or perhaps even that this
is just an element of Christian s hallucination, although it seems to look a lot more
real than other hallucinations we see. Christian doesn t get much time to think about
that as he turns round into a facefull of paralysis powder blown by Odd. For anyone still
siding with the H rga I think having paralysis powder on hand is a pretty clear indicator that
they are the bad guys. As for what this is, let s just say that it s a magical movie
concoction that does precisely what we need it to. There are things that can provide
forms of conscious sedation but there isn t really anything that matches up exactly
in terms of how it effects Christian here. And as Christian falls to the floor with a
bloodstream that would likely make Charlie Sheen have second thoughts, we see Pelle
smirking at him through a gap in the shed wall. I think we can safely say he knows he s won
at this point, Christian is not surviving this, all of Dani s friends have been removed, she
s May Queen, she saw Christian cheating and she didn t reject Pelle s kiss. So, this is his
moment of gloating, I don t think he feels much in the way of guilt here. We can also see Irma
staring in from the back too. It s so clever and so minimal but the closing of Christian
s eyelids for him is so smartly done that you really don t need the following explanation as
to Christian s paralyzed predicament. It just conveys everything in one harrowing little
action. The airplane scene transition seems to get all the glory but I think this eyelid
closing to eyelid opening cut is even stronger. Christian comes to with Ulla telling him he cannot
move and cannot speak. There s something very obviously terrifying about how matter of fact she
is, just as when she described the spring water s role in lowering his inhibitions. And I m not
saying she s completely departed from reality, but there is a sense to her that she has no
idea she is doing anything wrong, or harmful. We can assume that like Ulf she s every part
a true believer, and so she quite innocently goes about announcing the terrible things she
s doing, seeing the instructions as inherently justified and positive because they came from H
rga elders. As Ulla walks away we see her join the waiting crowd of H rga before cutting out to
the wideshot to take in the full insanity. Dani, is of course mute by this point, centre stage and
in the full May queen flower explosion getup. This caricature of bright blooming fertility
juxtaposed by the grief-stricken frown. Now at the end of Hereditary we have this wild
speech from Joan, the veil is fully lifted and the insane plan of the cult is laid bare. This
is very much the same thing. And as a test at the end of the Hereditary video I kind of ran
through it line by line to show that everything makes sense now we ve unpacked it. So we re going
to do that again, but before we do all that there s a very important bit of language that we have
to look at, because it causes a lot of confusion, it s the main reason why people think Ulf may
have flown to America and killed Dani s family. It took me longer than I care to admit to figure
it out, but ultimately it s very simple once you understand it. So there s going to be two bits
of unique terminology used here. Those being new bloods or newblood and outside offerings
. We hear our group of outsiders, including Connie and Simon, described as new bloods, and
we hear Ulf and Ingemar be described as having brought outside offerings. And at first it seems
like there s more than one inconsistency here, if Ingemar brought outside offerings
then what did Pelle do if not the same, and more crucially what outside offering did Ulf
bring? Which leads to speculation which leads to theory crafting which leads to Ulf supposedly
being an international man of mystery who has killed the Ardors. And if the group are outside
offerings in this equation then what s a new blood? And to make things doubly confusing why
is Pelle being celebrated for bringing new blood, while Connie and Simon are described as new bloods
in the same speech and Ingemar is dying for it? Well don t worry about any of that word salad
because that s not what s happening, but please know if you were confused, I understand and I was
too. But here is the answer, New bloods means any outsider to the H rga that could potentially
be a member. Newblood, is subtly different, it means primarily a new bloodline to the H
rga, new genetic material to avoid inbreeding, which Christian and potentially Mark have been
used for. It also means an accepted new member, which Dani is. So new bloods, meaning
outsiders, provide opportunity for newblood, that is to say new bloodlines to the H rga.
Either through producing offspring like Christian, or through becoming part of the family like Dani.
Ingemar and Pelle both have brought new bloods, but only Pelle has found successful new blood.
Hopefully that s clear. Any outsider visiting is technically a new blood, but newblood itself is
the act of the H rga taking on or producing a new member through whatever means. On to the more
contentious phrase which is outside offerings and this is purposefully vague because it s cult
doublespeak for a horrendous practice. An outside offering is essentially an unwilling sacrifice.
Ulf and Ingemar have transgressed, forcibly signed Mark and Connie and Simon up for sacrifice
presumably because they wanted to, and now, in line with what we hear in the coming speech,
they re essentially forfeiting their lives to balance out that act. That s why we have four new
bloods and four H rga. And hopefully if that was confusing you, because it certainly did me, you
can now rest easy knowing everything makes sense. Now on to the speech and we ll go through
it section by section. From the top: On this, the day of our deity of reciprocity, we
gather to give thanks to our precious sun. As an offering to our father we will today surrender
nine human lives. So the day of our deity of reciprocity. This could be a reference to it
being a particular day of the week, Wednesday is Wodinsday or Odinsday, Tuesday is Tyr, Friday
is Frigg and potentially Freyr, Thursday is Thor. And there s arguments to be made for them being
deities of reciprocity, but in truth I don t think it s necessarily any of them. More likely
it could of course be a reference to Sunday, given the sun is referenced right after. However
I think the day is a reference to specifically Midsommar and the deity is this hermaphroditic
nature being, the mother and the father that they worship. The H rga never overtly mention Norse
gods, except Ymir right at the start and we can say that s as a broader, more abstract concept of
nature and creation. So I think the deity here is this unnamed mother/father/nature figure. What
s more important is the notion of reciprocity, because that s what s driving things here. It
s why they throw trees and jewels and possibly children in the river, definitely Connie. It s
why they bury and burn meat and seeds and it s why they re sacrificing their own alongside the
new bloods. The H rga are very keen on balance and harmony and all of these steps are taken so
in return they ll receive what they desire from their deity, or deities perhaps. A bountiful
harvest, plentiful fertility, long summers and so on. It s all about reciprocity, they give
to the gods and the gods give to them in return. This is also why we see them giving thanks to
the precious sun, because that s the beginning and therefore the symbol of nature s bounty and
the provision of life. It s entirely intertwined with their mythological understanding of nature
to the point where really you can consider it one and the same with their deity. And lastly
the nine human lives, this is very simple, nine is a sacred number in Norse mythology and
in all likelihood this has been influenced by the alleged pagan sacrifices at Gamla Uppsala,
which also saw 9 humans being sacrificed. On to the next section As H rga takes, so H rga
also gives. Thus, for every newblood sacrificed, we will dedicate one of our own. That
is: four newbloods, four from H rga, and one to be chosen by the queen. Nine in all.
To die and be reborn in the great cycle. This part is pretty simple. As H rga takes, so H rga
gives, that s again this idea of reciprocity, balance and harmony that we ve just been
discussing. Every newblood sacrificed is every outsider sacrificed. The one the
queen chooses is obviously going to be Christian. And I ve seen some people
confused by exactly who these nine are, so let s quickly make sure we ve got that nailed
in. Our four from the H rga are Ulf, Ingemar, Dan and Ylva. Our four newbloods are Mark, Josh,
Connie and Simon, and one to be chosen by the queen making nine is Christian. And to die and be
reborn in the great cycle is pretty standard pagan fayre for returning to nature and eventually
being reborn through it s interconnectedness. From there we see Sten taking over proceedings,
pointing out the four H rga to be sacrificed. We see effigies of Dan and Ylva because they ve
already been cremated And we can see the effigies are this blend of fruit, tree and person,
symbolizing that their sacrifice will result in the reciprocation of nature s
bounty and that they have gone to rejoin, and eventually be reborn through nature. I think
you could also make an argument that they re intended to allude to the mother/father figures,
the hermaphroditic binary of the natural world. We then hear that Ulf and Ingemar have volunteered.
And I think we can all agree that they certainly are willingly going through with it, but the term
volunteered is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. We saw Ulf openly sobbing, we know up until a day
or two ago Ingemar had romantic designs on Connie. If they ve volunteered it s only by desiring to
be the ones that killed Mark, Simon and Connie, thus needing to be sacrificed to preserve
this abstract sense of harmony and natural law. But that need has been entirely invented
by the H rga, obviously this whole thing has, and outcome wise this seems to be a pretty good
deal for the H rga. More on that in just a moment because we move from Ulf and Ingemar to Pelle
being lauded for what he s brought. Now you may or may not agree with me, I think this is Pelle
hitting Josh with the mallet, and so there s an extra level of hypocrisy here because he s done
exactly what Ulf and Ingemar have but he isn t having to volunteer , because he s valuable, an
ideal H rga citizen that understands the real game being played. If you don t think Pelle
killed Josh then we still have to accept the reality that whoever did still isn t having to
volunteer for it. Whatever the case we still have this sense of Pelle playing the game better than
Ingemar, recruiting better, understanding people, being more practical and restrained in his beliefs
than Ulf and ultimately being celebrated for it. And so when we re talking about Ulf and
Ingemar and their volunteering we need to ask the question: was this something
the H rga intentionally engineered, or at least pushed towards happening?
And despite being more devout than Pelle, Ulf and Ingemar simply are not as useful to
the H rga, not as trustworthy in playing the performance of H rga. Ulf is a liability, someone
who can t be trusted to maintain the performance of H rga placidity, and Ingemar is a failure,
someone who perhaps didn t even understand the racial attitudes of his own community, someone
who certainly didn t pick well like Pelle did, someone who couldn t successfully drag back
his Viking babe and provide the community with new blood. So while we can t perfectly glean
what the H rgan elders are thinking, I think it s likely that again they ve engineered the best
outcome for themselves in terms of who they rewarded and who they got rid of. And I d go out
on a limb and say it s probably indicative that, to the elders, being a successful manipulator
is preferable to being a devout believer. And before we move on from Pelle I just want to
point out his greenmanesque get up here with the grass crown. This absolutely was a past practice
in Midsummer celebrations, specifically Swedish Midsummer celebrations where you might find
people attending dressing up as The Green Man, or Green Men as the case may have been. Just to
go back to that quote about May Queens from a couple of sections ago on the subject of the
Midsummer s Bride, the passage continues The girl selects for herself a bridegroom,
and a collection is made for the pair, who for the time being are looked on as man and
wife . And I think what we re seeing here with the mirroring of Pelle and Dani at the end,
both in their flower crowns, is some riff on that practice. If Dani is prom queen, Pelle
is prom king. It s not an actual marriage, more a ceremonial or symbolic one, but given
the kiss they ve shared and the general free love vibe at Midsommar, I think we can safely say
there is some degree of coupling up between them. We see Pelle get a big smile on his
face at the mention of the new May Queen which I think we can take as
confirmation that Pelle is getting everything he wants here. Sten says he is
being rewarded for his unclouded intuition, which we can understand as an almost divine
level of foresight in how he s chosen people, at least from the H rga perspective. And
this repeated link between clouds, the mind, and divinity is reinforced by the unclouded Ruben
finger painting at his cloud table. We can say pretty safely that Pelle and Ruben are operating
on rather different intellectual levels so how we should really understand this is, to the H
rga culture Ruben represents a kind of living divinity, his mind is literally unclouded and
so he supposedly, but not really, becomes this vessel, this channelling device or otherwise
prophetic figure. Pelle is being rewarded for having unclouded intuition, so one aspect of
him, his ability to judge people and plan and manipulate around them, is akin to something
divine because he s seemingly so good at it. And for the final sacrifice Sten introduces
Torbjorn via a system of lottery, or tombola. And I adore the odd gameshow vibe this takes
on with Honourable Torbjorn please step forward surrounded by silent, but on cue, H rga applause.
Even though this is an extremely dark moment, it still has this air of whimsy to it
that makes it even more unnerving. And as we know Torbjorn is up against Christian
who doesn t have the ability to protest but is presumably somewhere between wanting to
kill Pelle and beg Dani for forgiveness. And finally Sten turns to Dani, telling her
that they patiently await her verdict. For one last time we ll have this cutaway rather
than hearing the end of the conversation, the catharsis is nearly here but the film is still
baiting it out, so we don t get to hear what Dani says but I think it s almost certainly just the
word Christian . I already spoke about the visuals with Dani here at the start, but it s worth
repeating just how insane and beautiful this is, and how well Florence Pugh is selling this
exhausted, almost lobotomised grief that Dani s going through. As for Dani s decision, I know
we ve discussed that too but I just want to raise the question, how much of a decision did she have,
really? From a practical standpoint it s not like the H rga are going to just let her go, it s not
like consigning a stranger to death is any more palatable either. I think the decision between
a perfect stranger and someone who has just betrayed you and torn your heart out probably isn
t much of one either. But on an emotional level, in terms of what s driving Dani in this moment,
her worst fear has already been realised, she is alone. Her family is gone, her
friends are gone or otherwise absent, and Christian is gone from her life too. This
isn t a choice between Christian and Torbjorn, it s a choice between Christian and the H rga,
between being entirely alone and being truly held for the first time. The loving community and
co-dependence she s been searching for or the man that just destroyed what was left of her life. It
s not just that Christian has ruined everything, it s that from Dani s perspective the H rga are
offering her everything she is missing. So she does ultimately make the decision, but from
Dani s perspective I really don t think there was much of one to make. She s terrified,
alone and without any other option, being offered everything she s lacking. Which is a very
common situation for people joining up with cults. From here we move on to the final sacrifice but
before we do that there is one last mystery we need to address, which is what the heck is going
on with Inga during the final scenes? You may have noticed we didn t really dwell on her and Mark
and there s been a couple of her appearances I haven t commented on. And that s because there s
a bit of a mystery, a very subtle mystery but a mystery nonetheless, as to what s going on with
her off camera, especially towards the end of the film. So to explain we have a few key events,
firstly Inga seeming to flirt with Mark. Secondly Inga displaying that she has a reasonably close
relationship with Ulf. Following that her luring Mark away for whatever reason, either for a roll
in the hay or simply to be killed. And either way, we know he is killed. Next we see Inga sporting
cuts on her face as if she s been in some kind of violent scuffle that we don t get an on-screen
explanation for. Then, at the choosing ceremony we see two crucial things. First is Maja, wearing
full red lipstick. Second is Inga, and she s not exactly unhappy, but she s not wearing the
same smiles a lot of the girls around her are, her applause is only momentary. Like Maja, and
some of the other H rga maiden s, her outfit is accented with red. And she s wearing this thing,
which the film isn t going to explain. Following that we ll see her crying at the side of this barn
building, seemingly being consoled, but also maybe more being told to pull herself together here
and quite forcibly being brought back to the group. She s slipping out of character, letting
her true feelings through. Here, quite notably, the H rga are not all in emotional unison, to
the left of the barn we see Ulf and Ingemar being attended to and fussed at by the smiling H rga
women. That s clearly what Inga should be doing in that moment, that s where she s being brought
back to, but she clearly isn t smiling. So what is she upset about that everyone else isn t? And
lastly Inga s behaviour during the final scene, where we have this slow mo unleashing of H rga
madness. Everyone is going crazy, we do see a pretty varied mix of emotions, but Inga in
particular seems angry. Very, very angry. And all of that together makes for a pretty perplexing
puzzle. What is going on with her off camera? And the two operating theories floating around are, A)
Inga actually really liked Mark and is horrified at him being burned, or B) Inga was actually in
love with Ulf and she s now inconsolable that he is to be sacrificed. As we ll see neither of
them are entirely consistent so I m going to explain both and you can judge for yourself.
So let s start at the start, potentially overruling any possible speculation we could make,
we have this quote from Ari Aster I already showed you suggesting that it s implied that Inga slept
with Mark. And to be honest, that s entirely true, it is implied that she slept with Mark or at least
lured him away to do so. Now Maja s lips here are full red, obviously red lips and lipstick in
general are sometimes attributed to certain parts of female anatomy, specifically that they
might be mimicking or alluding to them. There s also this sense of Maja perhaps coming off as a
more fulfilled and confident woman here, and we know red is our link to fertility. So I very much
take Maja s lipstick and outfit here to be a sign that she has indeed been impregnated, or at the
very least believes she has been. And so we very much can interpret Inga wearing red as a sign of
that too, which would seem to suggest that her and Mark did get about making some new blood before
he was killed, perhaps Ulf comes up behind them, or Mark realises something is wrong, there
s a scuffle and Inga s face gets injured, she likes Mark and felt a connection with him
so seeing him burn at the end makes her sad and upset, specifically with Ulf who did the killing
meaning she doesn t want to console him here. And to be honest, it could just be that simple.
That s the cleanest, easiest interpretation. But let s throw a few spanners in the works. The
first easy one being why does she decide to get upset about Mark way after his death but is fine
and happy and dancing immediately after? Secondly, Inga did not get these injuries from Mark. At
least, not in what was originally filmed. It s been confirmed by Julia Ragnarrson, the actress
that plays Inga, that this was supposed to be from her face colliding with the maypole during the May
queen dance but that scene isn t present in the final cut of the movie. And that will immediately
split people into two camps, one side will say that explains the cuts, it s just a deleted scene
and they didn t have the time or budget to reshoot every scene that involved Inga once they decided
to remove it. That is almost certainly true, these are big group scenes, major scenes, really
the whole climax of the film and shot on location, CGI ing it out is another expense too.
But there s the other argument that says, well they could have removed it, and really
the final cut of the film, the final edit, is what we should take as gospel. So if Inga
has a cut here, then there has to be a reason why within the canon of the film. And I think
that has a lot of merit too, I like things to have in canon explanations. Really I suppose it
depends on where you stand with concepts like the death of the author and so on. I think given the
repeated decisions to focus on Inga, they were okay with the cuts being there. But given that
Inga does not have these cuts when we see her at the Maypole dance, we know she didn t get them
from Mark in any explanation of what happened. Another spanner comes in the form of this thing,
which is a very large cornicello, which is a talisman, often a pendant or amulet, mimicking
a twisted animal horn. This is a full-size one perhaps supposed to be an actual animal horn.
It looks quite devilish, quite sinister, but these are actually quite a popular symbol,
specifically in Italy. And they re supposed to represent fertility and virility. Given that it s
bright red and attached to Inga in the location it is I think we can safely assume it s a fertility
blessing of sorts, so again, pretty safe to say someone has got Inga pregnant or potentially
pregnant. But there s something about it, it sticks out, Inga doesn t look happy she looks
resentful, and none of the other girls are wearing one. It seems like a bad thing, something perhaps
similar to a scarlet letter. For those who don t know this term comes from the book The Scarlet
Letter, set in Puritanical America the novel sees the protagonist Hester Prynne on trial for having
a baby out of wedlock. As punishment she is forced to wear a red, or scarlet, A on her clothing, to
signal her as an adulteress. So a scarlet letter is essentially a communal mark of shame, often
for sexual transgressions. And applying that here, it would explain why Inga is a bit more serious
and not full of pride like Maja, she s perhaps being shamed because she slept with the fool.
Or perhaps even because she was only supposed to lure him away but slept with him instead, now
she s being punished for that. So if you like the Mark theory, that explains that. But again she
s not immediately upset following his death, the H rga perhaps don t want Mark s blood or
bloodline after signalling him as the fool, and most crucially, this symbol is traditionally
a fertility blessing, not something designed to shame someone. Now sure, the film could be
twisting it to mean whatever the film wants it to mean, but its odd to choose something that
specifically blesses fertility if you want it to mean the opposite. So on the whole there, it
could be as simple as Mark and Inga fraternizing, but I don t think it s a perfect theory. And,
if you subscribe to the idea that we should still pay attention to what the face cuts mean
given we never see them happen and the event causing them was purposefully cut out, then
it wouldn t explain how she got them either. Now the other theory is that Ulf and her are very
close, she s actually perhaps in love with Ulf, and this explains her emotional state more
at the end for sure. She s not wanting to say goodbye to him and when she finally has
to we see a reaction that s actually very expressive rather than this lack of anything we
get towards Mark. She s only pretending to like Mark to lure him away because that s what Ulf
wants. But there are problems with this too, primarily that she flirts with Mark prior to
him offending Ulf, secondly that given what we know about H rga mating approval and H rga
age brackets, that there s no way Ulf and Inga would be in the same bracket and approved
at the same time. She literally refers to him as father Ulf so we can presume
a significant gap between them. And, if Inga isn t potentially pregnant then why is she
wearing this thing? Why is she decked out in red? So both options are possible, but neither
are perfect. And we re so far in the weeds here that whatever you prefer is probably the
right answer. But I have a theory of my own, and whether it was ever intended or not, I
can t say for sure, but I think it does fit quite neatly and hopefully doesn t leave anything
unexplained. And I m just going to warn you now, this is a bleak theory so hold on to your
keisters. Okay, we know the H rga use familial names for each other like Pelle referring
to Dagny as his sister. So when Inga refers to Ulf as Father Ulf, this makes sense. But we
also know she was probably born into the H rga and that means there s a good chance that someone
there is her biological father. We know she has a close relationship with Ulf, despite their age
difference, and seems confident she can calm him down even when he s really angry. So what if Ulf
is her biological father? What if she liked Mark, or didn t it doesn t really matter it s the same
outcome, but Ulf uses this to have her lure him away. We know she doesn t get any cuts there so
there s no implication of a struggle. She s fine and dandy at the midsummer dance, on the tea and
falling into things and celebrating with Dani. But at the same time, Ulf is being told by the H rga
elders that he s volunteered at the very least, something has him crying, because he has a big
week . And we know he doesn t seem to fear death. So what if the H rga elders decided, Ulf is on
the way out anyway, no reason to traumatise more people than we need to, and they tell him that
he s been chosen for the selective inbreeding, with Inga, his biological daughter. Loyal and
devout Ulf naturally accepts and, almost certainly against her will which would explain any face
cuts if we ve decided we need them explained, follows through with it. We then see Inga wearing
this ghoulish, devilish fertility symbol that none of the other girls, not Maja, are wearing. Not
necessarily a mark of shame, because that doesn t quite gel with this being something the H rga
desire, rather some ritualistic element involved in the creation of the next Ruben. Because I think
that s what may be going on here. From that point on we see Inga angry at what s happened, almost in
shock, then seemingly refusing to take part in the girls goodbye to Ulf, instead crying and clearly
being told she needs to forget about something, and then lastly unbridled rage watching him
burn, because, well of course given what might have happened. And I really like this theory,
because everything is explained very neatly, I don t think there s a single loose end.
Now I ll remind you that it is competing with Ari Aster saying this, but he is also just
saying there s a suggestion about Mark and Inga, which we can agree there is a suggestion, but
that doesn t necessarily oppose this theory. But let s rewind for a moment because
I couldn t actually find the interview, or the AMA or whatever it was, where Julia
Ragnarsson said the cuts were caused by the maypole, and I d also seen people suggesting she
d had an accident on set colliding with it. So I actually reached out to her to see if I could
get some clarification and, as was the case with everyone I spoke to that worked on the movie,
she was absolutely wonderful. So once I d got the clarification I was looking for about the maypole
I thought, well I just have to ask. So I mentioned this mystery with her character towards the end,
and I m going to preface this by saying she was admittedly very hazy on the details because of
the amount of time since, and this was just in DM, this wasn t anything formal it was very quick and
I was asking her pretty in depth questions out of nowhere, so pinch of salt to everything
and please remember I was putting her on the spot in terms of being able to remember
stuff. This is all very much not canonical. That being said my first question was, do you
know why Inga was so upset next to the barn? And she replied that she thought it was to do
with Ulf but she couldn t quite remember, so I replied that the other option was that it would
be Mark and she said that Inga definitely did not have feelings for Mark, that she was sure of that
part and in her mind she was just luring him away. She also said she remembered the discussion of
a possible love connection between Ulf and Inga. She agreed with the assessment that Inga likely
had been impregnated and the cornicello was to do with this. And so at this point I was like okay
I have a pretty crazy theory and I explain what I ve just told you about Ulf and Inga potentially
being related and there being a situation off camera where another Ruben is horrendously
created, and then of course I apologised for being a gigantic weirdo and actually messaging
someone that. But surprisingly her reply was this makes sense and actually sounds familiar . You can
imagine my delight. Now I want to stress again, this is far from definitive, and if you re looking
for the mainstream answer, just go with Inga and Mark because it s what Ari Aster says is at least
implied. But if you re still here at this point you probably aren t looking for mainstream, you
want that good good. And so what we re left with is a theory that I think leaves no holes, no
confusion, and seemingly fits with the actresses memory. Which again was hazy and put on the spot
by me asking her ridiculous questions. It even fixes the inconsistencies with the pre-existing
Ulf theory like her not being pregnant but here she is. And hot damn, that s good enough for me to
at least consider it for my head canon. So thank you, thank you, thank you to Julia Ragnarsson for
taking the time out to help us shed some light on that. We can t exactly say it s mystery
solved, I can t say it is this for certain, but I feel as though it s the only possible
explanation that explains everything. Which is the only reason such a weird idea jumped into my
head in the first place, purely because it fits. So ultimately the takeaway is going to be down
to you, but for me I think I m going with this. Back to chronology and we have the H
rga wheeling bodies into the temple in preparation for the burning. We see them being
transported in wheelbarrows through the fields, this suggestion that this is just another
part of their cycle, just another necessary part of planting and harvest that speaks to
how comfortable the H rga are around death. As we see the various bodies being brought in
we see that the methods of their deaths are relatively obvious, Connie being drowned for
example. And all of the bodies present can, in some way relate to one of the four elements, in
some cases two. Connie clearly represents water, Christian clearly represents fire, I think we can
say Ulf and Ingemar likely do too given how they go out. Josh is definitely Earth, he s covered in
soil having recently being buried. Simon is air, and Mark really could be air, earth, or fire,
given he s just a stuffed bag of kindling. Dan and Ylva I think most likely represent
air, but you could also make an argument for earth and fire too. You can make similar
speculation with the seasons but again we don t see anything that really stands out meaning
wise and nothing that strikes as a perfect fit or an outstanding puzzle, its mainly just
secondary allusions to nature and the elements. But this has led to some speculation online
that maybe this is a key part of the ritual, that there is something esoteric being referenced
here perhaps, or this being what the characters represent, but ultimately I don t think it s quite
the case. For a start we re already tripling up on what these characters represent, we have the
Wizard of Oz metaphor. Mark is the scarecrow, Josh is the heartless tin-man, Christian
is the cowardly lion and Dani is Dorothy who doesn t want to go home. And then on the more
folklore/mythological/tarot side of things we have Mark as the Fool, and the titular character from
Skin the Fool, and we have Josh as the misguided Odin figure or The Hanged Man, and then Christian
as The Black One which as we know is a quasi or actual devil figure. We have the Devil in tarot,
generally representing saturnine power so virility and strength just like the bear symbolizes. There
is also sometimes a bear card in non traditional tarot decks which symbolizes authority over
you. So I think maybe we re going a layer too deep by saying all these elemental allusions are
supposed to code the characters in some other way, because they re triple coded as is. I think the
more simple explanation here is that the elements are important in pagan rituals, and crucial here
to the H rga because these deaths are supposed to be a part of their natural process. That s why
every killing takes place with something naturally occurring, water, stone hammer, fire and so on.
I m not sure you can say what happened to Mark or Simon was particularly natural , but they
weren t killed by lazer beams or anything like that so I suppose it fits. And more so than how
they were killed, that they are now representing these elements in the ritual is the more crucial
part. It s the suggestion that that s all we are, just a complicated expression of elements
that will be broken down and returned to the ecosystem to one day be born anew. I don
t think there s anything hidden beyond that. We then move past an upset Inga, into the barn
to see Mats teaching young H rga lads how to correctly dress a bear carcass while Christian
watches paralyzed in the corner. I ve seen a lot of people asking, how do the H rga know
about these rituals if none of them were alive to see it, how do they have such advanced
knowledge to do the blood eagle and so on, and I think right here is the answer to this.
Not only are the H rga learning to cut things open from a very young age, but it also shows the
passing of skills and customs between generations, ensuring that they ll be continued into the
future. And once the bear is correctly cut open and we see the full cavity, is at least
a little bit yonnic, a little big vaginal, and given that this bear, Christian, the black one,
are these symbols of dangerous masculine energy, this seems quite fitting given the hermaphroditic
balance the H rga believe nature to have. Now it is not at all clear in the film but
Christian has his legs amputated to allow him to fit inside the bear, or perhaps just to
prevent him from running if the powder wears off. Jack Reynor said in an interview: Do we deserve to
have our legs chopped off, and get stuffed inside a dead bear ? Now, people have suggested that
Jack Reynor was referring to Josh, given that we see his leg sticking out of the soil. But as I ve
shown you he s actually buried upside down and as I probably can t show on Youtube he absolutely has
both his legs at the end. In the script it does make reference specifically to Christian s legs
being folded inside the bear, but there are many, many changes between script and movie. But
actually we do get another clue, and again I m not sure how much of this I can show, but as Christian
is put on the table he has his frock pulled up and his feet pulled into the cutting space. We
then see Mats pick up some cheese or piano wire, likely in reference to Hereditary, just as the
camera cuts out. So just to make this all that much horrifying, yes I think almost certainly
Christian loses at least his feet and ankles. We then cut to Christian in the bear, in
the temple, being monologued at by Arne, who I think we can say is probably the top H
rga priest. He tells him that he is a mighty and dreadful beast and we can see this as applying
to The Bear, The Black One and Christian. That by purging him they are purging the worst affekts of
the H rga and banish him to the deepest recesses to reflect on his wickedness. And as far as the
ritual is concerned that is being spoken to The Black One, but on a subtextual and actual level
we can also see it as the H rga s condemnation of Christian. Now the script describes the priest
as being dressed as V oarr or Vidar, the Norse god of vengeance. I can t find any particular
similarities to Vioarr in how he s dressed, no veil association, no red hat. And also
there s three people dressed like this in the film and only one in the script. I think what
is important is the association of vengeance here, that the H rga are burning the black one, their
enemy that cursed them all those years ago, so it s a logical route to emblemize this with the god
of vengeance. Still though, there s a dissonance between the happy H rga sacrifice and a priest
dressed as a god of vengeance. And on the wall we see these runes, and you might think they re
probably to do with balance and harmony, but no, this means conflict, anger and war. And look at
how it s painted up there, this repeated crossing symbol decked out in nationalist colouring.
I think really what s happening here, is that this moment, the visual rug pull for people who
are seeing it for the first time, is the lifting of the veil on the ideology at the heart of H
rga. That s why I don t think there s much of a focus on making him look like Vioarr here, because
we re more concerned with this looking like the strange regalia of behind the scenes at a nazi or
perhaps clan ceremony. The symbols on the wall are very much their own thing, but when combined with
torches and talk of vengeance and war, it all very quickly becomes familiar. And the truth here is
that what we re seeing inside the temple here is the truth, the bitter ideology at the core of
the H rga, that s why we see such a distinct shift in tone when inside, it s the difference
between exterior projection and interior belief, and what s interior to the H rga is incredibly
violent and eerily reminiscent of the Nazi s. We even see the torchbearers doing
something reminiscent of the fascist salute, albeit mirrored and close to the chest
which is so perfectly fitting to the H rga that I will stand in awe of Ari Aster
for four years following the completion of this video. And not only that but the term
holocaust derives from a Greek word meaning to completely burn a sacrificial offering,
which is exactly what we re seeing here. With the temple ablaze we see Christian left
to his demise before moving to a touching and troubling last moment with Ingemar and Ulf. Now
they ve just been given some honey or sap from a yew tree by Mats, and as he gives them it he
provides them with separate blessings. To Ulf he says feel no pain, to Ingemar he says feel
no fear. Now, as is probably very clear by now, I don t speak Swedish, so I m going off the
very helpful prior work of u/chebghobbi and u/TheGuyWithAToaster who do speak Swedish and
handily pointed out that these subtitles are the wrong way round. According to them Mats
actually says feel no fear to Ulf and feel no pain to Ingemar. Which does line up with how we
see the scene play out in the original script. And as the burning commences we see Ingemar
looking afraid but we never see him in pain, and we see Ulf not afraid but then very
much in pain. So there is that subtle hint that maybe the blessing works, maybe it s the
power of their belief providing placebo. But, if we zoom out a bit and look at what s really
happening, this stuff absolutely does not work, these two men are being sold lies and dying
horrendously for their beliefs. Which raises the question, what is this actually supposed to do?
The yew tree has been involved in making medicine but to my understanding ingesting the sap can be
toxic and potentially fatal after a few hours. But I don t think the film is necessarily operating
under the practical realities of yew trees, nor do I trust that it is what Mats says it is.
Given the H rga s distress at Ulf s screams, their mirroring of his pain, I think it would be
preferable if he had been sacrificed quietly. So maybe placebo, maybe there are some calming
and pain numbing effects just not enough to nullify what they re going through. But another
possibility, one that I prefer but can t prove, is that what they re actually being given is
something to prevent them from running. It would just be too easy for them to see the fire coming
and get second thoughts and go running out of the temple in front of the H rga, ruining the most
important event of their century and displaying a lack of belief in H rga customs. So I can t
prove it, but given it doesn t seem to do what Mats advertises, and given neither Ulf nor Ingemar
make any attempt to move from their positions, even when confronted with the reality of the fire,
leads me to believe it could be something along those lines. All of that is secondary to their
moment of realisation when the screaming begins however, Ingemar clearly looks nervous prior
to the fire reaching them but Ulf looks calm, until it begins and his eyes tell a very different
story. And exterior to all the complicated emotions and morally grey areas of what s
happening with Dani, we should take this scene as the film s ultimate condemnation of life within a
cult. Ulf is the most devout H rga we see, Ingemar is a happy H rga citizen, he just failed where
Pelle succeeded. But they weren t the right fit, and so the cult found another use for them, and in
that moment we see all the lies and pageantry and performance become meaningless. Ulf and Ingemar
s final moments are filled with the realisation that they have been lied to and are dying without
any reason beyond the continuation of that lie. For Christian I don t think we can even imagine,
in real life this is probably a level of insanity that would just cause you to shut down. The
script describes him as being steam-boiled inside the bear. But in the context of Dani s
fairytale, within the suspension of disbelief, Christian is likely aware that Dani s
choice was a monster of his own making, and for him too these final moments are
likely ones of far too late realization and abject terror. I entirely
understand if you hate Christian, in terms of what his character represents
you are supposed to. But I think we can all agree that Christian exits the film victim
to something far, far worse than himself. And so we move to the final scene, Dani
and the H rga watching the temple burn, the H rga switching between manic joy
and horrendous anguish as they mimic the emotions of those inside. It's utter lunacy, just
completely unbridled weirdness but it provides the melody, the ramp this crescendo of emotion
mimicking Dani s entire mental break. It sells the scene and leaves you with this horrendous
sense of unease at what you ve witnessed, it s so intense and confronting that it doesn t
give you time to sit and process what s happening. Dani though, is on her own arc
here, she s not mirroring the H rga, she s in the midst of complete mental collapse.
We see her face stuck in this catatonic frown, and make no mistake she is watching Christian burn
here, we cut from this, right to this. And once she s seen it s done we finally get some movement
from her in this shot which I absolutely adore. I love how she looks like some giant slug of flowers
here, heaving herself across the landscape as if she s being pulled in, becoming one with nature,
as she s coughing out the smoke, as it has been throughout smoke is this representation of her
grief and sickness, and her expelling it here represents her exorcism of Christian, The Black
One, from her life. It s absolutely stunning and surreal and perfectly delivered. Earlier we spoke
about the meaning of Dani s family name, Ardor, meaning to believe in something or do something
passionately and with fervour. But this comes from the latin ardorem meaning, to burn, or literally
a flame or burning heat. Which makes sense, it s likely why we have burning passion and
intense belief and other such phrases. And Daniel/Danielle means either God will judge
me or Judged by God . So a translation of her name with a bit of artistic license here
is God has judged me to burn intensely, which is pretty fitting given what Dani has chosen
for Christian, and what she s now watching him do. In the final moments we see Dani
turning to observe the H rga, who are now racked with sadness at the loss of
their kin. And for a moment she looks puzzled, as if she d forgotten entirely what the
concept of caring about someone was, and then she looks back to the temple, and
cracks into a lunatic smile. To quote the script, she is finally free. It is horrible and it is
beautiful. And this of course speaks to the overwhelming joy Dani is feeling in the fact of
abject horror, and to the need for this division, this dissonance in the final moments of the film.
She is entirely unhinged, destroyed and alone, but she s also finally free from Christian, and
turning to see the H rga screaming in pain at the loss of their loved ones, she knows she won t be
alone any longer, and that she finally is held. Now we ve already spoken about this ending
quite a bit, but I do want to give some final thoughts on it as we close out. As we know
the problem with the kill your ex reading, that Dani is being emancipated here, is that Dani
is being manipulated and lied to still. She s traded one terrible partner away for something
arguably much worse. It may feel like a moment of victory, but the longer you stay with it
and let it fester in the back of your head, the more you realise that Dani has fallen and
likely won t ever get up again. And not only is she worthy of our sympathy, but our condemnation
too, she may not have said it on camera, but she chose Christian. Which as we know,
is a terrible thing to do no matter who she chose. We know it s not a decision she s made
as much out of rage as she has out of fear, he brought her worst fears to life by leaving her
entirely alone and now she s choosing to escape them by attaching herself to another toxic system
of control. It doesn t justify anything, but it does help us understand. And in understanding
both sides we can see the truth of things laid bare here, not just in the outcome of the film
but in what is being said about relationships. Because when we add up all the cynical readings,
all the romanticised readings about Dani s decision and her future, and her past, there is
a very clear and very bleak message that shines through. That co-dependency will kill you. Dani
had the opportunity to leave, she wanted to leave, she didn t even need to come, but at every point
she didn t leave because she was terrified of being alone. The real happy ending for Dani is
one where she decides to confront her fears, to do the thing that Christian doesn t dare
to and break up. We like to see the ending as either a horror twist in that Dani is now a
member of a murder cult OR as an emancipatory quasi-feminist break up narrative. But
given that Dani goes from bad to worse, from frying pan to fire, I think we can take
a deeper lesson here that the co-dependency Dani is most desperately seeking, is
also the thing leading her to harm. That s the logical conclusion, when you game
it all out, that s what you re left with. But it shouldn t be the takeaway. It shouldn t be
a hopeless message. By explaining the truth and dwelling in the detail we do lose some of the
overall feeling, what this is meant to supplant within you. It s meant to feel like an insane,
manic 180 into absolute joy. Gone are Dani s feelings of betrayal, her pain at the hands of the
Black One. The blackness and bleakness that has been holding her back. And when we stop and unpack
all of what this actually means it can be easy to forget how wonderful and awe inspiring this moment
is to Dani s trampled spirit. Yes it s a horror movie, yes it s a really, really twisted message
and no you shouldn t sacrifice anyone even if they ve been really mean to you. But that shouldn t be
the focus, only the explanation for the curious, when actually sitting down to watch we should
look at the broad and the bold and this extremely freeing moment where Dani ultimately emancipates
herself. It can seem terrible because she s consigning someone to death, but I don t think the
film wants us to feel that way right at the end, not on first viewing at least. She
may have lost her mind in this moment, but she s finally done the thing we ve
been secretly wanting her to do all movie, and finally free of Christian she feels
nothing but insane bliss. It is horrible, the route she s taken to get there, but this
moment, what she s feeling here, is beautiful. And it s one of those things you may look at
differently depending on where you are in life. If you re stuck in a bad relationship you might
see Dani s emancipation as a positive, if you are alone you may share her need for closeness and
co-dependency, if you re recently single you may attach yourself to this final understanding, that
co-dependency here is the thing that s killing her. And even though they seem like progressions
of one another, different levels of understanding a conclusion, I think it s preferable to view
them in conjunction. None of them are necessarily wrong or right readings, this is just what the
outcome is of creating something intended to be divisive. The reality is Dani is better without
Christian, the reality is she is no longer alone, and the reality is that everything she s taken
part in here, driven by a need for co-dependency, has almost certainly led to the entire
destruction of the self, of the Dani that existed in the opening scene of the movie. All
of those things are true, and ultimately how you feel about the ending will largely relate to
which of those is the biggest takeaway to you. Now you probably thought we were done, but
not so fast. After the Hereditary video one of the biggest questions I got was something I
d never really considered. What happens next? And this time, rather than just answering in the
comments, I came prepared. So firstly Ari Aster has hinted that the festival isn t done, it s
a nine day festival that we see roughly half of. And with that hint comes the implication
that the sacrifices at this festival may not be done with. Terrifyingly this may not mark
the immediate end to the violence. Beyond that though we have three major questions:
Do the H rga get caught for their crimes? Are the disappearances going to
be successfully investigated by American or Swedish or British authorities?
Number two: What happens to Dani in the short term following Christian s death?
What happens in the long term as well? Three: What does the future
look like for the H rga? Alright, so just keep in mind that I m going to
be using evidence from the film to draw these conclusions, but at the same time everything
here is pure speculation. The first question, to me at least is very easy to answer. No, they
do not get caught for the killings. Just going off what the film gives us, the mass sacrifice
might be a part of a 90-year celebration, but the H rga are no strangers to killing outside of
that. We know the attestup takes place routinely, we know something happened to Pelle s parents,
there s also the possibility that sometimes they do go ahead with the drowning ritual. Killing is
a part of H rga tradition and the H rga method of maintaining secrecy and the two are very
clearly intertwined, because it s traditions have been built around their need for secrecy.
And if the H rga are killing people frequently, at the very least just through the attestup,
then they haven t been caught for it yet and we can assume they re pretty good at
hiding it. We ve seen their method for disposing of bodies and it s pretty thorough.
And crucially, this is the horror of the film, just like The Wicker Man they do get away with it,
they are getting away with it, in broad daylight, in plain view. And that s the point of the film,
it's not presenting some back and forth scenario where the main characters do battle with the cult,
or even present passing resistance to them, it s not a film about good succeeding over evil. It s a
film about a cult very much getting away with it, specifically because of the political fears
it s tying into and fears over their success. But let s stick with the practical aspects of
will they get caught: other than some brief drunken mention at the party we really have no
evidence that any of the friends and family of the backpackers have a clue where they are.
In fact the group themselves display a lack of awareness as to where they re going. So even
if we assume that American, British, Swedish authorities were to get involved, it s not certain
they d know at all where to look or where exactly the group had gone. And if they did eventually
find the H rga, they d find no trace of the people they were looking for so long as Dani was
hidden, and a tight knit community of seemingly benign but eccentric hippies that are skilled
in lying and disposing of bodies. And if that wasn t enough I should point out that what we re
discussing is essentially the plot of The Wicker Man. The May or Summer Queen from last year goes
missing, police officer is sent to investigate, is brutally sacrificed in broad daylight by
the community he s investigating. Given this is in many ways an homage to The Wicker Man,
I think we can safely say that it's aware of that plotline and what is being implied here. So
no, the H rga do not get caught, and if you want to see a sequel to Midsommar about what that
might look like just go watch The Wicker Man. Question two, what happened to Dani in the
short term following Christian s death? So we can t say for certain what role drugs really
play in Dani s decision and ending state, she s been going pretty hard for a few days so I don
t think we should consider her sober, but at the same time I think it s clear that her decision and
ending state are far more the result of madness, of a complete mental break. So I don t think it s
a case of, once she sobers up she s going to back out of her decision. I think this goes deep
to her core. This is her transition moment, her acceptance both of and by her new H rga
family. That isn t a moment you just reneg on once the credits roll. Not to mention how easy it
will be for them to gaslight her into believing she is fully complicit in the sacrifice and using
that as a springboard for telling her she has to stay. Essentially making her feel responsible
just as we ve seen people do to her throughout. So short term she s absolutely staying with the
H rga and becoming fully indoctrinated and this next part sucks but here we go, she s almost
certainly getting with Pelle. He s obviously been manipulating her towards that for the
entire movie, he s dressed in a costume clearly reminiscent of the Green Man, as we ve discussed
this symbol of masculine natural virility. The male pairing to the May queen, the two sides of
this hermaphroditic understanding of nature. As much as the people in the kill-your-ex camp
may feel like it s a win at the end for Dani she s most definitely traded down in the boyfriend
department, going from someone who didn t really care about her to someone who just orchestrated
the killings of everyone she had left in life. And given these nods to virility and their
mother/father roles I think it s a pretty safe bet she will be pregnant soon. And to put a nail
in that terrible coffin, remember this is a fairy tale. Which means Dani needs a Prince Charming and
she needs a Happily Ever After. Which brings me to the second half of this question, what about the
long term. And the easy answer is, she lives to 72 and then takes the Attestup. The couple we see
doing it, again dressed as the mother and father figure are clearly mirroring Pelle and Dani and
we have this emphasis on the cyclic nature of life throughout the film. So very straightforward, Dani
stays with the H rga for the rest of her life. Last question, what does the future of the H
rga look like? And this one has the possibility to contradict everything I just said. Ultimately,
and this may be a bit soppy but it is the answer I think Ari Aster would give and is presenting to us
throughout the film, is that what happens to the H rga in the future is ultimately down to us. They
represent the rekindling, the brewing and brooding of far right sentiment in the western world. The
film is about groups, ideologies and figures that are like them and it s pointing out that they re
gaining worrying traction, a trend that Aster, and I think most people looking at the writing
on the wall in 2018, predicted quite handily. These groups have continued gaining popularity.
There has been a breeding ground for these ideas, in a lot of ways it has gotten worse. But Ari
Aster is quick to point out he doesn t know, he doesn t know if this will be a flash in the
pan or the catalyst for something much larger. And that s what the H rga really represent, the
fomenting of these ideals, the potential for this extremely dangerous thinking to come back
around, this 90-year cycle he s talking about, which at its most basic we can see is this
cultural recursion towards nationalism and fascism, essentially a repeat of Europe in
the 30 s and 40 s. That s what the film is drawing a lens to. So to provide closure to what
this film truly means is in this rare instance, to answer the question of what comes next. Do they
fade into obscurity? Is what they truly believe, all the ugliness of it, laid bare to the
world? Or do they continue to gain traction, gain followers, either ignorant dupes or malicious
co-conspirators? Do they continue to swell and eventually take power of their own? Do their ideas
become international? Ari Aster wants you to worry about that. Because the truth is what happens to
the H rga is down to all of us. Who we choose to support over the coming decades, where we choose
to place our faith and the systems and ideals that we believe in. If as a collective we re conscious
of that, if we re conscious that we don t want to repeat the worst period in living memory, and
we re conscious of what the people spewing these messages are really saying, then I d say it s
a safe bet the H rga are dead and gone within a couple of generations. But looking at the world
since the film s release, looking at the lack of hope in its ending, I don t think that future s
as certain as we may have once thought it was. Before we close out I just want to discuss the
Wicker Man for a moment longer. In Hereditary the cult is terrifying because what they believe
is true. In The Wicker Man, the question is never really answered, but whether the sacrifice will
work or not is not the basis for the terror, it s that the islanders believe that it
will. It s their zeal, their passion, their ardour for that belief that provides
the terror. And while Midsommar is scary, the end isn t necessarily built for us to
feel terror. Not like The Wicker Man is, not like Hereditary is. As I ve covered it s
more of a subversion of audience expectation, you ve had them scared the whole way through,
but in these final moments they likely feel catharsis or repulsion at Dani s decision.
The key element of subversion happening here, the crucial difference between the two films, is
that in The Wicker Man the unthinkable happens, the main character, our hero, is brutally
sacrificed with no ex machina intervention to save him. Midsommar manages to do the opposite of
that while still remaining entirely unthinkable, our main character doesn t get sacrificed, they do
the sacrificing. At least in a figurative sense. It s a genius spin on the idea because you get
all the terror, all the build that feels familiar, but in those final moments you have the audience
cheering with the cult, with Dani. And as we ve covered extensively that s the result of endless
meta tricks the film is pulling on you. So I can see why Ari Aster would want to distance himself
from The Wicker Man, because this isn t just that but redone for modern audiences, it s so much
more, and most crucially, it manages to sidestep The Wicker Man s horror and subvert audience
expectations in a brand new way they would never have felt was possible going in to the movie. You
may see the trailer and realise the H rga aren t to be trusted, but there s no way you re going
in expecting this ending. And this is truly why Ari Aster stands out to me, because in both of
these movies of his we ve covered, I truly believe he s found multiple ways to elevate not just what
a horror film can be, but what a film can be. And that, is everything for this video guys.
Before I go I just want to thank everyone again that helped me with this because there are
a bunch of them. From the film specifically Henrik Svensson, Gene Park and Julia Ragnarsson,
your help was invaluable and sincerely validating. From Youtube Felicia Hallen, The Skaldic Bard,
and Nordin Walks. They re all linked in the video description, please check them out.
Beyond that Mauritz the vintage book dealer, Kirby from Midsommary, she runs a tremendous
resource on the movie that I ll link below too which saved me so much time in not having to
figure out the H rga s names. I think she may be the biggest Midsommar fan in the world so check
her stuff out too. Also thank you to r/Midsommar, r/Hereditary and specifically any reddit users
I sourced from throughout who I mentioned by name. Big thanks to everyone that s supported
me on Patreon and those that continue to do so, and everyone that has watched
this video. Thank you all so much. I m going to take a break just for a few days to
celebrate my birthday and then I ll be getting started on the script for The Witch. I m really
going to try to get that out quite quickly and keep up at least some level of consistency from
here. I work freelance so I am able to adjust my workload accordingly the better Youtube does,
and the support I ve received has really made a difference already. And If you want to have a bit
of fun and hear me react to the CinemaSins videos for Midsommar and Hereditary that will be up on
Patreon in the next couple of days. Stay safe, and please don t join any cults before the
next time I see you. Thanks so much guys.
