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81-486: Midsommar is a 2019 folk horror film written and directed by Ari Aster . It stars Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor as an American couple who are drawn into a violent cult in rural Sweden. Supporting actors include William Jackson Harper , Vilhelm Blomgren, Ellora Torchia , Archie Madekwe , and Will Poulter . A co-production between the United States and Sweden, Midsommar was initially pitched to Aster as

162-524: A maypole dancing competition and is crowned May Queen . Christian drinks the hallucinogenic tea and is coerced into a sex ritual to impregnate Maja, a 15-year-old member of the Hårga, while older nude female members watch and mimic Maja's moans. Dani witnesses the ritual and has a panic attack . She is surrounded by the commune's women, who mimic her cries of despair. After the ritual, a naked Christian attempts to flee. He discovers Josh's severed leg planted in

243-617: A slasher film set in Sweden, an idea which he initially rejected as he felt he "had no way into the story." Aster ultimately devised a plot in which the two central characters are experiencing relationship tensions verging on a breakup, and wrote the surrounding screenplay around this theme. He described the result as "a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film." Aster has mentioned 1981 Albert Brooks film Modern Romance as an inspiration for Midsommar , and also called it " The Wizard of Oz for perverts". Aster worked with

324-417: A "smashing start". It went on to debut to $ 10.9 million, finishing sixth at the box office; IndieWire said it was "just decent" given its estimated $ 8 million budget, but the film would likely find success in home media. In its second weekend, the film dropped 44% to $ 3.7 million, finishing in eighth, and then made $ 1.6 million in its third weekend, finishing in ninth. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave

405-468: A 2022 article in the Journal of Popular Film and Television . Wolfe outlines the film's competing ideologies of femininity versus masculinity, academic knowledge versus folk knowledge, and capitalism versus communism, writing that "the horror of the film is driven by the objectified Other ’s resistance to the imperial power’s desire to dominate physical place and own ideological space, but is complicated by

486-512: A British release on Blu-ray and DVD on October 28, 2019, an Australian Blu-ray release on November 6, 2019 and a US release on Blu-ray in July 2020. As part of the A24 x IMAX venture, the director's cut was shown on Summer Solstice in select IMAX auditoriums on June 20, 2024. Midsommar was released on Digital HD on September 24, 2019, and on DVD and Blu-ray on October 8, 2019. The director's cut of

567-471: A Christian myth resulting from the misunderstanding of some older verse." While taking no view on the historical authenticity of the ritual, the authors of a 2022 study concluded that the ritual as described was not inconsistent either with physiology or the tools available within the sociocultural context of the Viking era. They further concluded that, were it performed in the most extreme versions depicted in

648-458: A film that would later be renamed The Blood on Satan's Claw . The director of The Blood on Satan's Claw , Piers Haggard , adopted the phrase to describe his film in a 2004 retrospective interview for the magazine Fangoria . In the interview, Haggard notes how his film contrasted with the Gothic horror films popular in the previous decade: I grew up on a farm and it's natural for me to use

729-518: A flowerbed and a barely alive Simon on display in a barn, having been made into a blood eagle . An elder blows a powder in Christian's face, paralyzing him. For the final ceremony, the commune leaders explain that the commune must offer nine human sacrifices to purge it of evil. The first four victims (Mark, Josh, Simon, and Connie) were outsiders lured to them by Pelle and Ingemar, while the next four (the two elderly members who killed themselves in

810-430: A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Christian had intended to break up with Dani, who is still grieving the death of her family, but reluctantly invites her after an argument. At the commune, they meet Simon and Connie, a British couple who were invited by Pelle's commune-brother Ingemar. Ingemar offers the group psychedelic mushrooms . Dani has a bad trip and hallucinates about her dead family. The day after their arrival,

891-641: A regular stream of folkloric horror; from Jonathan Miller 's Whistle and I'll Come to You (BBC, 1968) and Lawrence Gordon Clark 's yearly A Ghost Story for Christmas strand for the BBC (1971–1978). ITV, meanwhile, produced the Alan Garner adaptation The Owl Service (1969), Nigel Kneale 's Beasts (1976) and the HTV drama Children of the Stones (1977), which share a theme of ancient folklore seeping into

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972-480: A review of The Medium , which draws inspiration from Thai folklore , Kong Rithdee wrote in The Bangkok Post : "International critics will not hesitate to tag The Medium as the latest example of "folk horror"—think Robert Eggers' The Witch or Ari Aster's Midsommar . But Southeast Asian horror has always been folk horror. It's our default mode, our modus operandi , it's what audiences in this part of

1053-401: A scare picture," but concluded that the film "doesn't jell because its impulses are so bifurcated. It's a parable of a woman's religious awakening—that's also a woman's fantasy of revenge against a man who didn't meet her emotional needs—that's also a male director's masochistic fantasy of emasculation at the hands of a matriarchal cult." In The New York Times , Manohla Dargis was critical of

1134-455: A startling reality check." Time Out ' s Joshua Rothkopf awarded the film a 5/5 star-rating, writing, "A savage yet evolved slice of Swedish folk-horror, Ari Aster's hallucinatory follow-up to Hereditary proves him a horror director with no peer." For The A.V. Club , A. A. Dowd stated that the film "rivals Hereditary in the cruel shock department", and labelled it a "B+ effort". Writing for Inverse , Eric Francisco commented that

1215-484: A straightforward slasher film set among Swedish cultists. While elements of the original concept remain in the final product, the finished film focuses on a deteriorating relationship inspired by a difficult breakup experienced by Aster himself. The film's soundtrack , composed by the British electronic musician Bobby Krlic , takes inspiration from Nordic folk music . The film was predominantly shot on location within

1296-891: A strong folk horror element, with a strange creature terrorising a farm in Cornwall. From 1984 to 1986, ITV produced the pagan -influenced adventure series Robin of Sherwood . This was a retelling of the Robin Hood legend, which sometimes featured disturbing supernatural elements drawn from British folklore. The BBC comedy horror series The League of Gentlemen (1999–2017) referenced and homaged several folk horror works in its episodes, including The Wicker Man and Beasts . Folk horror elements sometimes turn up in American television productions. For instance, The X-Files episode " Home " (1996) has been described by writer Matt Berger as an example of American folk horror. In

1377-533: A suggestion that, in this unique case, the Other is also a nationalist, right-wing power, and the tension between home and foreign reflects that of a new Cold War ." The film's central sex scene, between Christian and Maja, has been the subject of debate as to whether it depicts rape. An article in Sexuality & Culture asserts that "the ambiguous nature of this scene may be viewed as problematic because it blurs

1458-412: Is "neither the masterpiece nor the disaster that the film's most vocal viewers are bound to claim. Rather, it's an admirably strange, thematically muddled curiosity from a talented filmmaker who allows his ambitions to outpace his execution." David Edelstein of Vulture praised Pugh's performance as "amazingly vivid" and noted that Aster "paces Midsommar more like an opera ( Wagner , not Puccini ) than

1539-434: Is a horror auteur to be reckoned with." On Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on 54 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as the "horror equivalent of a destination wedding", and "more unsettling than frightening, [but] still a trip worth taking." Writing for Variety , Andrew Barker noted that it

1620-415: Is encouraged to participate but refuses. After unwittingly urinating on a sacred tree , Mark is lured away by one of the female commune members. That night, Josh sneaks out of bed to take illicit photographs of sacred texts. He is caught by a half-naked man wearing Mark's skinned face and is bludgeoned to death. The following day, Dani and Christian are pressured into drinking a hallucinogenic tea. Dani wins

1701-560: Is not hrafn but hugin , the personal name of one of Odin 's ravens.) There is debate about whether the blood eagle was historically practiced, or whether it was a literary device invented centuries later by the Christian Norse authors who transcribed the sagas. No contemporary accounts of the rite exist, and the scant references in the sagas are several hundred years after the Christianization of Scandinavia . In

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1782-556: Is traumatized after her mentally ill sister Terri kills their parents and herself via carbon monoxide poisoning . This strains Dani's relationship with her increasingly distant boyfriend, Christian. Several months later, Christian and his friends Mark and Josh have been invited by their Swedish friend Pelle to attend a nine-day midsummer festival at his ancestral commune, the Hårga, in the rural Hälsingland region of Sweden. The festival occurs only once every 90 years. Josh, writing his thesis on European midsummer festivities, regards it as

1863-565: The Orkneyinga saga , the blood eagle is described as a sacrifice to Odin . Þar fundu þeir Hálfdan hálegg, ok lèt Einarr rísta örn á baki honum með sverði, ok skera rifin öll frá hrygginum ok draga þar út lúngun, ok gaf hann Óðni til sigrs sèr. There they found Hálfdan Hálegg, and Einarr had an eagle carved on his back with a sword, and cut all the ribs from the spine and pulled out a lung, and he gave it to Odin for his victory. Snorri Sturluson 's Heimskringla contains an account of

1944-492: The Budapest metropolitan area of Hungary , from July to October 2018. Midsommar was theatrically released in the United States by A24 on July 3, 2019, and in Sweden by Nordisk Film on July 10, 2019. The film grossed $ 48 million and received positive reviews, with praise for Aster's direction and Pugh's performance in particular, although it polarized general audiences. In the middle of winter, an American student, Dani,

2025-500: The 1952 Finnish horror film The White Reindeer , in which a lonely bride is transformed into a vampiric reindeer, an idea derived from Finnish mythology and Sámi shamanism . Matthew Sweet , in his Archive on 4 documentary Black Aquarius , observes that the late 1960s counterculture movement led to what he terms a "second great wave of pop occultism" which pervaded popular culture, with many film and television works containing elements of folkloric or occult rituals. Whereas

2106-546: The 1970s, Alfred Smyth supported the historicity of the rite, stating that it is clearly human sacrifice to the Norse god Odin . He characterized St. Dunstan's description of Ælla's killing as an "accurate account of a body subjected to the ritual of the blood eagle". Roberta Frank reviewed the historical evidence for the rite in her "Viking Atrocity and Skaldic Verse: The Rite of the Blood-Eagle", where she writes: "By

2187-463: The 2020s television series such as The Third Day and The Red King continued the folk horror tradition. Darkwood is a 2017 survival horror game by Acid Wizard Studios that made extensive use of folk horror imagery and themes, notably the rural isolationism, combining them with elements of body horror . Mundaun is a 2021 first person folk horror video game by Swiss developer Hidden Fields. The atmosphere and imagery has been compared to

2268-829: The Corn (1984) (an adaptation of Stephen King 's 1976 short story ), The Blair Witch Project (1999), and the documentary Wisconsin Death Trip (1999). The films of Ben Wheatley have been seen as notable films of a modern folk horror revival, particularly Kill List (2011), Sightseers (2012), A Field in England (2013) and In the Earth (2021). Horror films from the Southeast Asia region have frequently drawn upon local folk beliefs, including those of Indonesian , Thai , Malay and Dayak cultures. In

2349-600: The Demon (1957), based on M.R. James's " Casting the Runes ", has been seen by horror historian Darryl Jones as foreshadowing the "folk horror" genre. Night of the Demon features isolated rural settings and countryside people who believe in the supernatural. Adam Scovell, writing for the British Film Institute , describes three films from the late 1960s and early 1970s as the "Unholy Trinity" of Folk Horror:

2430-451: The Hårga commune, irritating Josh. Dani is disturbed by the ceremonies, but Pelle convinces her to stay. He explains that he, too, was orphaned after his parents perished in a fire, and the commune became his new family. Connie and Simon demand to leave and are individually driven to a nearby train station. During his thesis research, Christian is told that outsiders are sometimes brought into the commune for "mating" purposes to avoid incest. He

2511-470: The Hårga, Pugh commended the other women involved, saying they "made this scene possible" as she typically struggles to cry on camera. She reflected: "I knew I would never be so open and so raw and so exhausted like I was that day ever again". The sex scene between Christian and Maja was filmed on the final day. Reynor said he spent time attempting to boost morale among the extras involved, none of whom spoke English, including Isabelle Grill (who plays Maja) who

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2592-494: The Sons of Hunding", where a character describing previous events says: Nú er blóðugr örn breiðum hjörvi bana Sigmundar á baki ristinn. Fár var fremri, sá er fold rýðr, hilmis nefi, ok hugin gladdi.     Now is the bloody eagle with a broad sword carved on the back of the killer of Sigmund. Few were better kinsmen of kings, who rule land and gladden the raven. (The word translated "raven"

2673-483: The Unholy Trinity has a very distinctive British flavour, Kier-La Janisse argues in her documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror that the genre has culturally specific manifestations in American, Asian, Australian and European horror. Examples of "folk horror" films from the United States include Crowhaven Farm (1970), The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978), Children of

2754-571: The United States on July 3, 2019. Aster's original 171-minute cut of the film, which A24 asked Aster to trim down for a wide theatrical release, had its world premiere at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City on August 20, 2019. It was shown in theaters across the United States for a weekend starting on August 29, 2019. The director's cut was released as an Apple TV exclusive on September 24, 2019. On physical media, it saw

2835-461: The aforementioned Blood on Satan's Claw , Witchfinder General and The Wicker Man . He says they subvert expectations, having little in common except their nihilistic tone and countryside setting, noting their "emphasis on landscape which subsequently isolates its communities and individuals". He suggests that the rise of the genre at this time was inspired by the 1960s counterculture and New Age movements. Scovell also cites an early example as

2916-525: The aging crisis in Japan. The comments resulted in a major controversy but also resulted in Narita becoming a popular figure among some young Japanese people. Folk horror The cultural evolutionism of E. B. Tylor and James Frazer and the witch-cult hypothesis of Margaret Murray influenced a series of writers, who introduced ideas of pagan survivals in their fiction. Influential British turn of

2997-500: The appointed time; and when they had captured him, they ordered the figure of an eagle to be cut in his back, rejoicing to crush their most ruthless foe by marking him with the cruellest of birds. Not satisfied with impressing a wound on him, they salted the mangled flesh. Another possible oblique reference to the rite appears in Norna-Gests þáttr . There are two stanzas of verse near the end of its section 6, " Sigurd Felled

3078-554: The back of Ælla, and they cut away all of the ribs from the spine, and then they ripped out his lungs. The blood eagle is referred to by the 11th-century poet Sigvatr Þórðarson , who, some time between 1020 and 1038, wrote a skaldic verse named Knútsdrápa that recounts and establishes Ivar the Boneless as having killed Ælla and subsequently cutting his back. Sighvatr's skaldic verse: Ok Ellu bak, at, lét, hinns sat, Ívarr ara, Jórvík, skorit. And Ella's back, at, had,

3159-414: The backbone and severed all the ribs down to the loins, and then pulled out the lungs; and that was Halfdan's death. In Þáttr af Ragnars sonum (the "Tale of Ragnar's sons"), Ivar the Boneless has captured king Ælla of Northumbria , who had killed Ivar's father Ragnar Loðbrók . The killing of Ælla, after a battle for control of York , is described thus: They caused the bloody eagle to be carved on

3240-571: The background of some scenes indicate events in the film. In April 2020, A24 announced it would be auctioning off props from its films and television series, including the 10,000-silk-flower May Queen dress worn by Pugh, which was reportedly purchased by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for $ 65,000, after both Ariana Grande and Halsey had expressed interest on social media. The proceeds were donated to provide COVID-19 pandemic relief for firefighters and their families. Other items from

3321-603: The basis of a number of British television plays of the 1970s; examples from the BBC's Play for Today strand include John Bowen 's Robin Redbreast (1970) and A Photograph (1977), David Rudkin 's Penda's Fen (1974), and Alan Garner 's Red Shift (1978), along with entries in the 1972 Dead of Night anthology series, such as The Exorcism . Adaptations of the antiquarian ghost stories of M. R. James , which derive their horror in cursed objects, medieval superstition, occult practices and witch trials, also provided

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3402-565: The beginning and goes on to become a Queen, as with Cinderella and Snow White . The article also notes the use of imagery foreshadowing later events throughout the film. Aster himself said "We begin as Dani loses a family, and we end as Dani gains one. And so, for better or worse, [the Hårga] are there to provide exactly what she is lacking, and exactly what she needs, in true fairy tale fashion." Monica Wolfe discussed Midsommar as reflecting themes of globalization and American imperialism in

3483-406: The beginning of the nineteenth century, the various saga motifs—eagle sketch, rib division, lung surgery, and 'saline stimulant'—were combined in inventive sequences designed for maximum horror." She concludes that the authors of the sagas misunderstood alliterative kennings that alluded to leaving one's foes face down on the battlefield, their backs torn as carrion by scavenging birds. She compared

3564-472: The beginning, plus volunteers Ingemar and Ulf) are from the commune. As the May Queen, Dani must choose the paralyzed Christian or a randomly selected commune member as the final sacrifice. She chooses Christian, who is stuffed into a disemboweled bear's body and placed in a wooden temple alongside the other sacrifices. As the commune prays, the temple is set alight. As the temple and its human sacrifices burn,

3645-721: The cast in July 2018. Some early scenes set in the United States were also filmed there; Dani's apartment was filmed in Brooklyn, New York City, while other scenes where Christian's friends interact were filmed in Utah. The majority of the film was shot in Hungary rather than Sweden, primarily due to financial constraints, but also as Sweden limits daily film shoots to no longer than eight hours. Principal photography began on July 30, 2018, in Budapest, and wrapped that October. Harper said

3726-493: The century horror writers M. R. James , Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen produced seminal works of folk horror, notably James' collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary , Machen's novella The Great God Pan and Blackwood's novella The Wendigo . Maria J. Pérez Cuervo cites Grant Allen 's Pallinghurst Barrow (1892), John Buchan 's Witch Wood (1927), and Eleanor Scott's Randall's Round (1929) as early examples of folk horror fiction. Cuervo argues that, following

3807-406: The character depth behind Dani and Christian, finding them "instructively uninteresting" and stereotypically gendered as a couple. Eric Kohn of IndieWire summarized the film as a "perverse breakup movie," adding that "Aster doesn't always sink the biggest surprises, but he excels at twisting the knife. After a deflowering that makes Ken Russell 's The Devils look tame, Aster finds his way to

3888-399: The characters, which Birrell found irritating, and the fact that he did not find the film scary. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 405 reviews, and an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Ambitious, impressively crafted, and above all unsettling, Midsommar further proves writer-director Ari Aster

3969-638: The commune members mimic Ulf's screams. Dani sobs, but as the temple collapses, slowly smiles. In May 2018, it was announced that Ari Aster would write and direct the film, with Lars Knudsen serving as producer. B-Reel Films , a Swedish company, produced the film alongside Square Peg, with A24 distributing. Aster's previous horror film, Hereditary , had been a huge critical success, making over $ 80 million to become A24's highest-grossing film worldwide. According to Aster, he had been approached by B-Reel executives Martin Karlqvist and Patrik Andersson to helm

4050-832: The countryside as symbols or as imagery. As this was a story about people subject to superstitions about living in the woods, the dark poetry of that appealed to me. I was trying to make a folk-horror film, I suppose. Not a campy one. I didn't really like the Hammer campy style, it wasn't for me really. The term was later popularised by writer and actor Mark Gatiss in his 2010 BBC documentary series A History of Horror (Episode 2, "Home Counties Horror") in which he cited three British-made films— The Blood on Satan's Claw (Piers Haggard, 1971), Witchfinder General ( Michael Reeves , 1968), and The Wicker Man ( Robin Hardy , 1973)—as genre-defining works. The Jacques Tourneur film Night of

4131-494: The eagle was strongly associated with blood and death. Saxo Grammaticus in Gesta Danorum tells the following about Bjørn and Sigvard, sons of Ragnar Lodbrok and king Ælla: Idque statuto tempore exsecuti, comprehensi ipsius dorsum plaga aquilam figurante affici iubent, saevissimum hostem atrocissimi alitis signo profligare gaudentes. Nec vulnus impressisse contenti, laceratam salivere carnem. ... This they did at

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4212-416: The film 4 out of 4 stars, describing it as a "terrifically juicy, apocalyptic cinematic sacrament that dances around a fruitless relationship in dizzying circles". A Vanity Fair article from December 2019 reflecting on the 2010s in horror films argued that Midsommar was part of a trend of " elevated horror ," along with Aster's previous Hereditary and Robert Eggers directed The Witch , and that it

4293-509: The film a grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 3 out of 5 stars, with 50% saying they would definitely recommend it. Ankur Pathak of The Huffington Post says it "divided audiences (and some critics)", while Screen Rant writer Mark Birrell said it was "one of the most polarizing horror movies of 2019" among general audiences. Birrell cited, as the film's positive qualities, its performances, cinematography, music, its atmospheric tone, which Birrell said

4374-436: The film feels "like a victory lap after Hereditary ", and that Aster "takes his sweet time to lull viewers into his clutches ... But like how the characters experience time, its passage is a vague notion." He described the film as "a sharp portrayal of gaslighting ". Richard Brody of The New Yorker said that the film "is built on such a void of insight and experience, such a void of character and relationships, that even

4455-403: The film may be read as a " parable of snarky, city-smart, modern rationalism undone by primal rural values". Alternatively, he proposes that the villagers' traditions could be read as far-right, white nationalist or eugenicist . In Vox , Alissa Wilkinson described Midsommar 's story as following Dani's emotional journey and following fairy tale conventions, where Dani loses her family at

4536-543: The film that sold at auction were the bear costume worn by Reynor for $ 4,760, the mallet used to crush a cult member's skull for $ 10,000, and other villager costumes that sold in the $ 4,500 range. All the proceeds from the Midsommar collection raised over $ 100,000 for the FDNY Foundation . Aster said the visual effects for the psychedelic scenes involved trial and error: "I'm sure for some of those shots we got to

4617-549: The film was then released on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray as an A24 shop exclusive on July 20, 2020, in limited copies. Midsommar grossed $ 27.5   million in the United States and Canada, and $ 20.5   million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $ 48   million. In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $ 8–10 million from 2,707 theaters over its first five days. It made $ 3 million on its first day, including $ 1.1 million from Tuesday night previews, which Deadline Hollywood called

4698-582: The film would be given an NC-17 rating or R rating by the MPAA for its US release due to its graphic nudity, with it eventually being given an R rating after cuts. An NC-17 rating is considered harmful to a film's box-office performance. Aster wrote the film while listening to the British electronic musician the Haxan Cloak 's 2013 album Excavation . Aster recruited him to compose the score, credited under his real name, Bobby Krlic. Krlic began composing

4779-740: The film's production designer Henrik Svensson to develop the film's folklore elements and the traditions of the Hårga, while visiting Hälsingland together. He researched Hälsingegårds, "centuries-old farms that typically had painting on the walls", to develop a stylized version for the set, as well as May Day and midsummer celebrations in Swedish , German and English folklore . Aster also researched spiritual movements and communities, saying he particularly drew inspiration from Rudolf Steiner 's anthroposophy and Theosophy . Florence Pugh , Jack Reynor , Will Poulter , Vilhem Blomgren, William Jackson Harper , Ellora Torchia , and Archie Madekwe joined

4860-471: The first level of the house of narrative cards can't stand." He added, "In the end, the subject of Midsommar is as simple as it is regressive: lucky Americans, stay home." Emma Madden in The Guardian criticised the film for its depiction of disabled characters as "monstrous" and argued that it resurrects harmful horror film tropes of ableism and eugenics . Tomris Laffly of RogerEbert.com rated

4941-423: The folk horror films of Ben Wheatley and Robert Eggers. The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is a folk horror point-and-click adventure game developed by Cloak and Dagger Games and published by Wadjet Eye Games in 2022. Players assume the role of an antiquarian who is attempting to excavate a mysterious tumulus in rural Northern England during the late Victorian era . Blood eagle The blood eagle

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5022-443: The group witnesses an ättestupa ceremony, whereby two elders commit suicide by jumping off a cliff onto the rocks below. When one of the elders survives, the commune members mimic his wails of pain before crushing his head with a mallet. The commune elder, Siv, attempts to calm Connie and Simon by explaining that every member does this at the age of 72, which is considered a great honor. Christian also decides to write his thesis on

5103-476: The historical veracity of the rite, also saw parallels to martyrdom tracts. Frank's paper sparked a "lively debate". Ronald Hutton 's The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles : Their Nature and Legacy states that "the hitherto notorious rite of the 'Blood Eagle,' the killing of a defeated warrior by pulling up his ribs and lungs through his back, has been shown to be almost certainly

5184-414: The line between consent and sexual assault " and that the film has implications for contemporary understandings of rape, particularly of males . Yusuke Narita, a Japanese professor at Yale University , positively cited a scene in the film where an elderly person is forced to jump off a cliff. Narita used this as an example of "mass suicide" or "mass seppuku ", which he claimed was the only way to solve

5265-474: The lurid details of the blood eagle to Christian martyrdom tracts, such as that relating the tortures of Saint Sebastian , shot so full of arrows that his ribs and internal organs were exposed. She suggests that these tales of martyrdom inspired further exaggeration of the misunderstood skaldic verses into a grandiose torture and death rite with no actual historic basis. David Horspool in his book King Alfred: Burnt Cakes and Other Legends , while not committing to

5346-612: The mallet prop used for the senicide scene was a replica of one at a museum in Stockholm, and that the cliff-jumping was based on historic practices in Sweden . Costume designer Andrea Flesch developed the Hårga's costumes with antique linen from Hungary and Romania, and buttons from Sweden. Aster asked for the clothing to appear handmade, and for the Hårga to dress in white. Many of their costumes were hand-embroidered with rune designs unique to individual community members, signifying their families and occupations. Murals and tapestries in

5427-583: The modern world. Matthew Sweet observes that occult and pagan elements even appeared in children's programmes and 1970s episodes of Doctor Who . Comedian Stewart Lee , in his retrospective of The Children of the Stones ("a tale of archaeology, occult ritual and Chopper bikes ") identifies that series as part of a "collective Sixties comedown" which includes the genre works The Owl Service , Timeslip (1970), The Tomorrow People (1973), The Changes (1975) and Raven (1977). The 1982 British TV series Westcountry Tales episode 'The Beast' also has

5508-487: The music before filming began, taking inspiration from Nordic folk music , and collaborating closely with Aster. The film makes use of diegetic music , where events on screen meld with the score. The soundtrack album was released on July 5, 2019 via Milan Records . Midsommar had a pre-release screening at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in New York City, on June 18, 2019. It was theatrically released in

5589-402: The one who dwelt, Ívarr, with eagle, York, cut. And Ívarr, the one who dwelt at York, had Ella's back cut with [an] eagle. Skaldic verse, a common medium of Norse poets, was meant to be cryptic and allusive, and the idiomatic nature of Sighvatr's poem as a description of what has become known as the blood eagle is a matter of historical contention, particularly since in Norse imagery

5670-408: The point where we had 60 versions. In one iteration the tripping was way too distracting and you're not paying attention to the characters. Then you brought it down to the point where if you are paying attention to the characters, you'll never notice the tripping effects." The more minimal visual effects were settled on a week before the first screening. There was around a six-week debate as to whether

5751-479: The popularity of pagan survival theories, weird fiction and supernatural fiction presented rural areas as "the domain of irrational forces that could only be appeased with certain rituals," often involving animal or human sacrifice. Shirley Jackson 's The Lottery (1948) was described in The Irish Times as "arguably the most influential North American folk horror text". The earliest known use of

5832-418: The rite was a literary invention of the original texts, a mistranslation of the texts themselves, or an authentic historical practice. The blood-eagle ritual-killing rite appears in just two instances in Norse literature, plus oblique references some have interpreted as referring to the same practice. The primary versions share certain commonalities: the victims are both noblemen (Halfdan Haaleg or "Long-leg"

5913-503: The same event described in Orkneyinga saga , with Einarr actually performing the deed himself: Þá gékk Einarr jarl til Hálfdanar; hann reist örn á baki honum með þeima hætti, at hann lagði sverði á hol við hrygginn ok reist rifin öll ofan alt á lendar, dró þar út lungun; var þat bani Hálfdanar. Afterwards, Earl Einarr went up to Halfdan and cut the "blood eagle" on his back, in this fashion that he thrust his sword into his chest by

5994-486: The shoot was "arduous" due to the heat. Wasps were highly abundant and a major issue on set. Pugh reflected "the shoot was totally nuts" and commended Aster's direction: "he was dealing with possibly 100, 120 people, additional extras and actors there, all speaking in three different languages and he was the captain of the ship". Ahead of filming the drug use scenes, Reynor said that the cast discussed their own experiences with psychedelic mushrooms. On her breakdown scene with

6075-479: The term, though describing an artefact rather than a genre, was in John Fowles ' 1966 novel The Magus , in which an African figure is described as a folk-horror, a corn-doll bundle of black strips of rag that hung down to the ground in a series of skirted flounces. The term folk horror was used in 1970 in the film magazine Kine Weekly by reviewer Rod Cooper describing the filming of The Devil's Touch ;

6156-528: The world grew up with—think Nang Nak or Pontianak as classic examples, or more recently, Joko Anwar 's Satan Slaves , Syamsul Yusof 's Munafik and Emir Ezwan's Roh ." Indonesian horror films have featured local folklore for many decades, including Satan's Slave (1980) and Mystics in Bali (1981); in the 2010s, The Queen of Black Magic and Impetigore also attracted international attention. As well as cinema, rural paganism formed

6237-400: Was a method of ritual execution as detailed in late skaldic poetry . According to the two instances mentioned in the Christian sagas , the victims (in both cases members of royal families) were placed in a prone position , their ribs severed from the spine with a sharp tool, and their lungs pulled through the opening to create a pair of "wings". There has been continuing debate about whether

6318-413: Was a prince; Ælla of Northumbria a king), and both of the executions were in retaliation for the murder of a father. There are two sources that purport to describe Torf-Einarr 's ritual execution of Harald Fairhair 's son, Halfdan Long-Leg , in the late 9th century. Both were written several centuries after the events they depict, and exist in various versions known to have influenced each other. In

6399-635: Was an example of "horror at its best". Writing in The Guardian , Steve Rose describes Midsommar as "a powerful study of grief, betrayal, breakups, and more". Rose suggests that Dani's three male companions may be seen as representing " toxic masculinity ", or analogues of the three male companions in The Wizard of Oz (namely the Tin Man , Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow ). Rose proposes that

6480-416: Was appearing in her first feature film role. He reflected that he felt male nudity was unusual for a horror film, where female nudity is more typical. He said that he "advocated for as much full-frontal nudity as possible, I really wanted to embrace the feeling of being exposed and the humiliation of this character. And I felt really, really vulnerable, more than I had actually even anticipated.” Svensson said

6561-402: Was grounded in realism and a high level of attention to detail, and its themes, which included its exploration of mental health issues. However, he attributed its uneven audience reception to negative aspects, such its length, its lack of subtlety, its derivativeness and poor use of genre clichés, its over-stylization, its tendency to be over-serious, the implausible plot, the one-dimensionality of

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