Ari Aster’s latest film, Midsommar, is a break-up movie carefully disguised as a folk horror film. Taking place over the course of roughly half a year, it follows college student Dani, reeling after the brutal death of her family, as she joins her boyfriend and his friends on a trip to Sweden to take part in a midsummer festival.
The film has been a definite hit with its very well-written characters, original storyline, and incredible setting. However, part of what seems to be playing to the film’s success are the layers upon layers of detail. Lots of films will have hidden meanings, with the intention being that you understand more about the plot with each viewing. This list will look at some of the hidden meanings in the film and how they might change what we think of the movie as a whole — spoilers ahead.
Updated by Madison Lennon on March 4, 2020: Midsommar was one of the most notable and talked about horror films released last year. It solidified Ari Aster as a horror director to watch after his previous critically-acclaimed film, Hereditary. Since the movie released, fans have studied the film hoping to find subtext, hidden details, foreshadowing, and clues about the story and its themes. We decided to update this list with a few more hidden details since there are plenty to find.
Head Trauma
Fans of Ari Aster may have begun to notice a trend of seeing head trauma portrayed in his movies. In Hereditary, one of the most disturbing and shocking scenes in the film depicted Charlie getting her head lopped off by a telephone pole when she stuck her head out the window.
In Midsommar, we see the aftermath of the ritual suicide scene and several grisly closeups of a smashed head. According to an article from Esquire, Aster likes to use images that terrorized him as a child. He also stated that he will never stop using gory head trauma shots in his movies, so prepare yourself accordingly.
Tick Phobia
In the film, Mark freaks out about ticks. Several of the other characters tease him about this but it is based on Ari Aster’s real-life fear of ticks. As we mentioned in the above entry, Aster loves to base elements of his stories on his own life.
Some people cope with trauma and their fears by using them in their art, and Aster is definitely that type of person. He would also wear at least two pairs of socks while walking in places known for ticks to try and keep them from latching on to him.
Blood Eagle
Not many people may have understood what was going on during Simon’s death scene. His body was shown flayed alive, his lungs extended like wings in an extremely visceral and gory way. The film only gives viewers a brief look, enough to horrify you but not enough to fully absorb what you’re seeing.
The cult had used an ancient Norse ritual execution known as the Blood Eagle to kill Simon. It’s made even more terrifying because Simon was alive while it happened, and was still alive when Christian found him. It wasn’t just his lungs that were pulled out, either.
Skin The Fool
It can be easy to miss what happens to Mark on your first watch through the film since there is so much going on. Remember the scene where Josh sneaks out at night to take a forbidden photo of the cult’s hidden book? He gets confronted by someone wearing a terrifying mask, but what you might have missed is that the mask being worn is made from Mark’s skin.
Earlier in the film, a group of people was playing a game called “skin the fool.” Mark literally becomes the skinned fool after he pees on the sacred tree branch and gets lured away to his fate.
Fake Scene
This is a hidden detail in the trailer and not the movie itself, but during the official trailer for Midsommar, the editors gave fans a little fakeout. During the above screenshot, we get a glimpse at the infamous final scene of the movie, where bodies are filed into the temple and set on fire.
Except, as you can see, the trailer version is very different from the real one. Eagle-eyed fans in the YouTube comments and other online forums spotted this detail. Instead of seeing the bear or the weird bodily arrangements of the other Americans, we just see big hazmat-like suits, making it seem less sinister than the real scene.
The Opening Tapestry
Midsommar opens with a decidedly creepy tapestry marking the changes between winter and summer. At first, it appears that the tapestry is depicting the passing of the seasons, with two scary faces marking the middle of winter and summer.
However, upon closer inspection, characters from the film appear in each stage of the tapestry, acting out what they will do at various points in the film. Before the plot has even begun, we are given a sense that everything has been pre-planned, as though everything that you are about to see is as natural as the passing of the seasons.
Mirrors
As the film is, at its core, a break-up movie, it naturally requires its lead, Dani, to engage in a lot of self-reflection. One of the most effective ways the movie does this is through the use of mirrors.
We first learn of her parents’ deaths by seeing their bodies reflected in a mirror. Also, the closest the movie gets to a traditional jump scare is when Dani sees the shadow of someone reflected in a mirror. The film deals a lot with the nature of reality and being able to ’truly see’ the world around us. It seems that Aster uses mirrors as a way to reveal reflections, not of the characters themselves, but their inner thoughts and fears. There’s definitely more to be spotted, so keep your eyes out for mirrors.
Flower Crown
One of the key elements of the film’s success is the way it manages to build a sense of dread and anxiety. Perhaps on the first viewing, much like the opening tapestry, it’s not immediately clear that the main characters may not be in control of their actions. After all, Dani only really wants to come on the trip because the loss of her parents has left her feeling very alone and vulnerable.
That is until eagle-eyed viewers spotted a flower crown next to Dani’s dead parents. It’s shown early enough in the movie that the audience doesn’t get the context, and placed subtly enough that they may forget about it by the time Dani gets to Sweden. However, it strongly implies that Dani’s loss may not have been an accident.
Christian’s Drink
Many people will have noticed that Christian’s drink, in the last act, was a different color from everyone else’s. And in hindsight it couldn’t be clearer why; he’d been selected for the traditional mating ritual.
However, on second viewing, the dark red color of the drink has different meanings. A lot of the rituals in Midsommar revolve around fertility and the menstrual cycle. When Christian found a pubic hair in his food, it was a more obvious warning than what now must clearly be seen as the blood mixed into his drink.
Faces In the Woods
There are a lot of drugs in Midsommar. Of course, they are part of the process of seeing the ’true’ nature of the world, but, even so, the main characters do spend a lot of their time tripping and hallucinating. Director Ari Aster shows the effects of the drugs by having the plants and flowers move as though breathing and forming impossible shapes.
However, as the film progresses, the screen is filled with hidden images as a result of the drugs. In one sequence at the end, an entire forest takes on the shape of a glaring face. When you watch it again, see how many images you can spot.
Use of Subtitles
Although it’s set in Sweden, most of the film is in the English language. Some of the characters, however, do speak Swedish, but, interestingly, their lines are not subtitled. This is a deliberate decision to further isolate the Americans from their European hosts, but it also has an interesting effect on the audience.
We feel as isolated as the main characters, and any hope we may have of gaining some knowledge about the hosts as we start to suspect them is taken away by the lack of subtitles. We are trapped, forced to watch the events unfold as they happen without any means of protecting ourselves. It’s a simple but effective way of building dread.
Right-to-Left Tapestry
In one sequence, the camera pans from right to left as the main characters explore their surroundings. The shot ends as it passes over a series of tapestries depicting a ritual. The tapestries each depict one aspect of the ritual playing out as though in a comic book. However, they are also hung and therefore presented in right-to-left reading order, suggesting that the perception of time’s passage may be skewed here.
The guests are already confused by how late the sun stays out, and effects like this are just one of many ways the film plays with a non-linear perspective of time.
Numbers (8 & 9)
Another way the film creates a sense of the preordained and non-linear time is it’s repeated use of the numbers 8 and 9. Flipped on its side, the number 8 resembled the symbol for infinity and is present in much of the architecture in the Swedish village. Also, in a brief moment of explanation, one of the hosts details elements of their culture, particularly the idea that they see their lives split into four main sections — like the seasons —which are made up of a number of years that are all multiples of 8. Death comes to the villagers at 72, the number you get when you multiply 8 by 9, and the ceremony we see happens once every 90 years.
Repeated Use of Symbols
The most obviously repeated symbols in the film are the numbers, as discussed above. But there are other symbols, and they each have the same effect. They have to mean something, but we’re given no clue as to what.
Instead, we’re forced to come up with our own explanations, using these hidden details to explain other hidden details we’ve spotted (like the number 8 or the reflections in the mirror). It’s a highly effective trick for keeping our brains engaged with the guesswork, but we’re still in the dark when it comes to what might happen next.
Two Types of Death
Ari Aster has described this as a break-up movie, and usually, that means watching someone live through a breakup and come out changed on the other side. The way this works is very on par with pagan attitudes to a liminal death. This was basically the idea that once someone dies, their body must be prepared for their new life in the society of the dead. Essentially, they die twice.
Taking in the whole structure of the film, we see this idea played out in two very different deaths; the violent death of Dani’s family, and the ceremonial deaths of her friends, which mark the beginning and end of a change in Dani’s life.
