The 'Midsommar' Deaths You Just Can't Unsee
Ari Aster’s follow-up to Hereditary, 2019’s Midsommar, is no less traumatizing and graphic. The Midsommar deaths range from medieval acts of torture and mutilation - like the blood eagle - to slowly burning alive. Below you will see the nine sacrifices, along with photos and descriptions.
The small community of Hårga holds a festival every 90 years, and it is certainly the once-in-a-lifetime experience that cult member Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) describes to his friends. Of course, he fails to tell them that one of the reasons it’s once-in-a-lifetime is because attending will mean the ends of theirs. The juxtaposition of the beauty of nature, and the joy of the commune members makes their sacrifices all the more unsettling. Being lit on fire is arguably a horrible way to die, but to be paralyzed and stuffed into the body of a bear beforehand is unimaginable. Read more about the Midsommar deaths below.
Christian
After discovering Simon's ripped-apart body, Christian (Jack Reynor) is paralyzed by an elder. He wakes up unable to move, forced to simply lay still as members of the cult stuff his body into a disemboweled bear carcass. That would be bad enough, but he is then placed in the triangular wooden temple, where he can see all of his dead friends around him. The temple is then set on fire, and all Christian can do is stare ahead in horror, motionless, as he hears the screams of the two Hårga members who volunteered to be sacrificed.
To make matters worse, he is chosen to be sacrificed by the May Queen, who happened to be his traumatized (and drugged) girlfriend, Dani (Florence Pugh). The final words to Christian before his death are from a member of the cult, who says, “Mighty and dreadful beast. With you, we purge our most unholy affects. We banish you now to the deepest recesses, where you may reflect on your wickedness,” before the temple is lit on fire.
The Ardor Family
Midsommar immediately lets viewers know they are in for a brutal film, as it opens with the shocking death of Dani Ardor’s entire family. She receives a foreboding email from her sister, Terri, that says, “I can’t anymore - everything’s black - mom and dad are coming too. Goodbye.” Dani panics, as anyone would, but her boyfriend Christian has no sympathy for her. He blows it off, ignoring the fact that Terri is bipolar, and seems depressed, and something could really be wrong. Dani was right to be worried, as her sister completed suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning, and brought their parents with her.
Less than 15 minutes into the movie, and there are three casualties. Their deaths set the stage for what's to come, as Christian can’t break up with Dani, like he wanted to, because he feels guilty. That guilt extends their tenuous relationship, and opens the door for Dani to join Christian and his friends on their summer trip to Sweden. The lingering, close-up shots on the bodies, especially Terri’s, are deeply disturbing… and things only get worse from here.
Two commune members
The ritual in Midsommar requires nine sacrifices, four of which must be from Hårga, and four of them outsiders. Mark (Will Poulter), Josh (William Jackson Harper), Simon (Archie Madekwe), and Connie (Ellora Torchia) were chosen as the outsider sacrifices, while Ylva and Dan were clearly volunteers from Hårga. The May Queen - Dani - chooses Christian to be the final sacrifice, rather than another member of the commune. That leaves room for two more volunteers from the commune, who walk into the triangular wooden temple of their own accord. They are given drugs so they will not feel pain, but they don't seem to work as well as you would want them to.
The pair watch each other, the only fully functional humans left alive in the temple. When the flames reach one of them, the man immediately begins wailing in pain, and in an unsettling display of solidarity, the rest of the members of the commune mimic his screams of agony.
Josh
Josh's murder is particularly disturbing, because the person who commits it is wearing the face of his dead friend, Mark. Josh was explicitly told not to take any pictures in their temple. However, the student valued his thesis more than his personal safety, as he snuck in in the middle of the night to take photos.
A member of the Hårga cult goes after him with a large mallet, like the one they used to put the old man out of his misery at the ättestupa ceremony. Later, Christian sees Josh's severed leg coming out of a flowerbed. In the end, Josh can be seen inside the burning temple, along with the rest of his friends.
Simon
The body of Simon strung up in the barn is one of the more haunting tableaus in the film. Christian discovers him when he's naked, and trying to flee the commune. It's horrifying for a number of reasons, one being that his ribs had been severed from his spine, and his lungs pulled through the opening to create the illusion of wings, a famous method of execution called the blood eagle.
When Christian sees him, the look in his eyes seems to confirm his realization that all is not right with this group, and he might be in a lot more danger than he realized.
Dan
Dan (Björn Andrésen), another voluntary sacrifice, jumps after Ylva (Katarina Weidhagen), so you'd think it would be less shocking. However, he doesn't immediately expire the way she did, so commune members carrying a large mallet have to help him finish the job. It's an act of mercy, but it's so bloody that the intent doesn't make it any less disturbing.
After the initial shock, the scene feels even grislier, because it lets the audience know that the horrifying death of Dani's really was just the beginning, and there is much more gore and death to come. The fact that the commune members already had this fail-safe in place shows this tradition is something they've been doing for ages.
Ylva
Ylva's death wasn't shocking to her or the commune members, as she volunteered to be sacrificed. Elders who reach 72 take pride in volunteering to be sacrificed so they can help the cult, rather than growing old and dying. However, it is a deeply unsettling scene for the audience - including Dani and friends.
Pelle opts not to tell his friends the gruesome nature of the ritual, making it a draw-dropping reveal when the little, old lady throws herself off of the massive cliff. The visual of the woman hitting the rock - and the sound! - stick with you after the credits roll.
Connie
Connie and Simon demand to be taken to the train station immediately after the traumatizing ättestupa ceremony, in which everyone watched two elders jump to their deaths. Connie goes to grab her things, but when she comes back, a commune member says Simon has already been taken to the train station.
Connie clearly doesn't believe their whole “there's only room in the car for two” claims, but she also doesn't really have a better option. She is told the driver will take her to the train station once he returns, but instead, commune members ritually drown her to make her one of the necessary nine sacrifices for their festival.
Mark
Mark establishes himself as the proxy for the jester the Hårga people need for their sacrificial ritual, after he pees on a sacred tree. He is led away by one of the women of the commune, and believes he is going to get lucky. However, that could not be further from the case, as we later see Mark stuffed with hay, and looking like a human scarecrow.
His method of death is skinning, and it's quite the shocking reveal when we see a member of the cult wearing Mark's face. Though Connie and Simon have been killed by this point, the audience does not know yet, so seeing that one of the main friend group has been killed also adds to this horrifying discovery.
The original publication of this article is on Ranker.
