Josh later learns that the village's ritualistic practices are based on paintings made by a member named Ruben (Levente Puczko-Smith), a deformed boy who was the product of incest but is viewed as some kind of seer. Josh asks to take pictures of Ruben's drawings, but he is forbidden.
In keeping with Aster's previous film Hereditary, in which physical and mental disability provides a metaphor for trauma and familial dysfunction, the disabled body once again becomes the monstrous body, used to convey a monstrous world. Midsommar seems to hark back to the horror film's eugenicist beginnings.
Ruben, the Hårga's oracle, is “a product of inbreeding” responsible for adding to the Rubi Radr, the cult's gospel. Ruben appears in only a handful of scenes and never speaks, but his appearances are instructive, usually foreshadowing or interrupting an act of violence.
Despite seeming like he respects Christian and sees him as a friend, he is actually apathetic to his existence and it is later revealed that he was planning ways to separate Dani and Christian, given that he showed fellow Harga member Maja a picture of Christian to set them up.
Things You Only Notice The Second Time You Watch Midsommar
Why did Pelle want Dani?
It is alluded that Pelle and Dani are destined to be together based on the fact that they are an astrological match. Not only is she the ideal person to become the Harga's queen, she is also the ideal mate for Pelle.
Throughout Midsommar, it's clear that Pelle is attracted to Dani, and he's the only one who remembers Dani's birthday while in Sweden, with Christian forgetting about it, and even kisses Dani when she becomes the new May Queen.
Connie Was Drowned As A Tribute To The Element Of Water
While audiences see the physical bodies of every other character before the final scene, she does not reappear until the very end — in a wheelbarrow. Though her moment of death isn't shown on screen, it lends itself to the Midsommar four elements death theory.
A smile breaks across her face as Aster describes in the screenplay, "She... surrendered to a joy known only by the insane. She has lost herself completely, and she is finally free.
“The girls walking backward through the field and them picking flowers, and then putting those flowers under their bed in order to dream about the man they are to marry. And then the act of putting menstrual blood in the coffee and pubic hair into – in this case – into the meat pie. In Swedish lore it's a pancake.
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.
A potentially traumatic event death of Dani's parents and sister drastically transforms Dani, leaving her psychologically traumatized. Later on, Dani develops posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder caused by this distressing event.
(Mark wanders off with a girl with whom he has not been approved to mate; Josh sneaks back into the Oracle's house to read from the sacred book of runes, and is killed by the Oracle, now wearing Mark's face.
The Hårga's support of Maja is remarkable. After the encounter, she is pictured in a red-lined dress, a striking change from her previous white linen. She wears bright red lipstick, seeming to mark her as a sexual being, an honored member of the community. She is without a partner because the group is her partner.
A scorned Dani chooses boyfriend Christian to sacrifice, who's then sewn into the now deceased bear's skin, and burned alive with the other sacrifices. This act is intended to cleanse the Harga, and in this case Dani herself, of their "worst affekts," those being their flaws or sins.
Midsommar, the movie, is partially based on the real midsummer festival celebrated in Sweden, but includes violent and pagan cult activities not found in the actual tradition.
The cause-and-effect relationships between events in the movie feel suggested more than confirmed. The predominant read of Midsommar — one that Aster himself has more or less advanced — is that it's a metaphorical depiction of a relationship in crisis entering a tailspin and plummeting to the ground below.
She catches sight of the ritual through the temple's keyhole: Middle-aged naked women are writhing and singing around her boyfriend mid-coitus. One old woman goes as far as to push on his ass cheeks to intensify the thrusting. Dani, like any reasonable person, throws up immediately and flees to the sleeping quarters.
Adding to the list of Midsommar hidden details is that Simon's method of death was based on a real Norse execution ritual known as the Blood Eagle. It's made even more terrifying because Simon was alive while it happened and was still alive when Christian found him.
Midsommar's most terrifying scene doesn't involve gore — it's the haunting murder-suicide scene at the beginning of the movie. Ari Aster skillfully exposes the horrors of depression in Midsommar, leaving audiences disturbed. Terri's suicide in Midsommar sets the stage for a dark journey of mental health struggles.
The meat pies, in particular, are the linchpin of another pivotal scene: a younger Hårgan invokes a love spell by placing a pubic hair into the goat-filled pie of her intended. This dish is paired in the film with beer laced with drops of menstrual blood.
In the final act, all the outsiders except Christian and Dani have “disappeared,” and the midsummer ritual continues with a maypole dancing competition — which Dani wins. After the competition, Dani is crowned May Queen and is carted around the commune to bless their crops.
It's heavily implied that Pelle's own parents were sacrificed in their own time, as Pelle tells Dani that they burned in a fire when he was a child. However, having brought the May Queen to Hårga, Pelle is spared from being sacrificed and instead given the highest honors.
Dani's sister Terri (Klaudia Csányi) loses her ongoing battle with her mental health and decides to take her own life, filling the Ardor home with carbon monoxide. This doesn't only result in the death of Terri, but her and Dani's parents too.
Ultimately, Dani becomes the May Queen she was always destined to become and sacrifices Christian to complete the mid-summer ritual. The most unexpected element in the film is not his death nor is it her being crowned the May Queen, it is actually how many times Aster overtly foreshadowed these events.
