My review of Midsommar - It's not what it appears to be...
I really did nat-zee this coming...
Welcome to Pagan fantasy land where the sun never sets and every girl is as beautiful as a flower…
Midsommar is one of those horror movies that is actually really deep and symbolical and works on multiple levels and has multiple stories hidden within the surface narrative and in this case it's actually 3 stories that are told at the same time, though only the surface narrative is picked up consciously, the other 2 are picked up subconsciously and that's what makes it disturbing.
Be sure to watch the extended cut, because only there does it really become apparent what the other 2 stories are about. So, here go the spoilers, cause now I am gonna say what I believe those 3 themes are. Obviously, on the surface it's a horror movie about a weird Pagan cult. But beneath that, it's a drama about relationships and about breaking up - some people pick up on that first hidden theme/narrative and so they find it boring because they expected a horror movie, but what they get is an emotional drama.
But no one has consciously picked up on the 3rd narrative - or at least I have never seen anyone mention it - even though it's very obvious when you watch the extended cut. The third genre of movies is that it's a movie about the 3rd Reich and related National Socialist propaganda, ideology, and atrocities committed and that's the aspect everyone only picks up subconsciously and what makes everyone feel uncomfortable watching this movie, but without really knowing why.
Lots of stuff going on in this scene.
Think about it, they look and dress up like one of those volkish cults, and that essentially is what they are. And they practice euthanasia and selective breeding but really are a bunch of inbreeds dressed in white robes and brandishing torches and who like to scribble pseudo-Nordic Aryan runes and sun wheels everywhere.
And of course, there isn’t an ounce of individual freedom or even any privacy at all, to the point that even the most intimate moments are shared with the community, and any individual is expected to be perfectly willing to sacrifice himself for the perceived greater good of the community at any time. It goes so far as there not even being ANYTHING individual left as you aren’t even supposed to be happy or sad on your own.
Instead, when you are happy, your community shares your happiness and when you are sad, they share your sadness. And likewise, when your community is sad, you are expected to be sad and when they are happy, you are expected to be happy. Any aspect of individualism is systematically being destroyed and replaced by a community spirit that is so strong that it takes over everything in your life. “You are nothing, your Volk is everything!”
Oh, and of course right at the beginning the protagonist’s entire family gets gassed.
Could it be any more obvious with what kind of “cult” we are dealing with here? Cause as a German I sure know a cult like that in real life, and so do you.
Yes, that’s a screenshot from the movie. And just like the scene where they literally put an elephant - ahm I mean a bear in the room - they couldn’t have made it any more obvious.
Which also explains some of the criticism, such as Swedes and Pagans complaining that their culture and ideology isn't portrayed accurately. Of course it isn't, because that's not the culture or ideology it's trying to portray! So the 4th and ultimate genre is that it's really a biting political satire that uses all the other genres as a cover.
It's like the travel movies that the Soviet Union published that make the Soviet Union look like some kind of socialist theme park. And as long as you were a tourist who was willing to only go to the places he was told to go and willing to just ignore and gloss over all the labor camps and atrocities, it kinda was!
And so what those movies were for socialism, this movie is for National Socialism - a sorta satirical video travel guide into a promised National Socialist fantasy land and Utopian paradise that never existed and never will and that only a complete psychopath could ever try to propagate as something desirable.
Don’t worry, her sad face will be replaced by a happy smile in just a second - so spoiler alert - the movie DOES have a happy ending - kinda…