How to Watch Midsommar Online

In the summer, Swedish locals get together for a day of dancing, feasting and drinking, with everything ideally outdoors. The festivities include flower crowns, maypole dances and songs of love and friendship.

Midsommar is a beloved celebration across Sweden, and it's not hard to see why. It's a time to rediscover the wonder of nature and to spend time with your loved ones.

What is Midsommar?

Midsommar is a traditional Swedish holiday that takes place in late June and celebrates the summer solstice. It's one of the biggest festivals in Sweden and rivals Christmas for popularity. It's a time of year that's filled with dancing, feasting and drinking in the sun. In fact, it's so popular that people often leave their offices early to enjoy the festivities in the open air.

Aside from the fun and frolics, Midsommar is also believed to be a magical time for love in Sweden. Swedes like to pick seven different types of flowers and put them on their pillow during the festival, which is thought to attract potential partners. Garlands are also a big part of the tradition.

As mentioned earlier, Midsommar is a popular time for weddings and other love-based ceremonies in Sweden. During the festival, Swedes dress up and celebrate together, often at a large communal event or a more intimate gathering with friends and family.

For many, Midsommar is a chance to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air while making some new memories with loved ones. There are plenty of events to choose from throughout the country, from crayfish parties and winter holidays celebrating Scandinavian gnomes, to the more culturally significant midsummer celebrations.

Those who are able to travel to the country for the celebration can expect a wide range of activities and festivities, including maypole dancing, flower crowns and singing drinking songs. The festivities take place in a wide range of locations, and can be enjoyed by all ages, from young children to old people.

In addition to the celebrations, many people also enjoy bathing in the dew on the morning of Midsommar Day. This is a traditional part of the ceremony and is regarded as healthy for the body and mind.

The main character of the film is Dani Ardor (Florence Pugh). She has just suffered a horrifying tragedy that leaves her with PTSD and strained relationships with her family. After learning that her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) has a friend in Sweden who's invited them to a Midsommar festival, she jumps at the opportunity.

Plot Summary

Ari Aster’s Midsommar is one of the most unusual horror films you will ever see. It takes place on a landscape flooded with sunlight, forcing the viewer to be afraid of brightly lit grotesqueries rather than darkened spaces. This is a folk horror film that focuses on a group of foreigners who go to a closed pagan village to witness strange rituals.

A year after her sister commits suicide, Dani (Florence Pugh) is still traumatized and tries to control her feelings, especially with her emotionally distant boyfriend Christian (Josh Hartnett). She also tries to keep up with her bipolar sister’s friends Mark (David Morrissey) and Josh, who are all interested in the trip that Christian has been planning to take to Sweden.

When they arrive in the small, closed community of Horga, Christian and his friends find out that there is a midsummer celebration that occurs once every 90 years. The festival includes the ritual of choosing a May Queen, and Dani decides that she would like to participate. She is able to choose between her own boyfriend, Christian, or the Harga’s chosen final victim; she eventually chooses Christian.

Once the sex ritual is complete, they all head to the main midsummer celebration in a building that has previously been off-limits. They then participate in the final ritual, where nine people are sacrificed to the gods: four of their own, four outsiders, and one chosen by the May Queen.

As the villagers perform the ritual, they mimic the screams and wails of those who have died. Then the cultists put Christian into a bear’s carcass and wheel him into the building, where he is placed with the other sacrifices in a triangle-shaped wooden temple.

They then light the building on fire, a practice that combines both the sex and pagan elements of their religion. Then they act out their pain, screaming and yelling, until they burst into flames.

While Midsommar does not have a huge puzzle to solve, there are some clues that will allow you to decipher the story and its meaning as well. These clues aren’t obvious the first time you watch the movie, but they are easy to spot when watching it a second time. They can help you understand the relationship that exists between Dani and her boyfriend, as well as the nature of her grief.

Cast & Crew

Midsommar is a Swedish horror film helmed by Ari Aster (Hereditary), and it stars Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor and William Jackson Harper. It is set during the summer solstice in a small Swedish village and follows a group of friends who travel there to celebrate a festival that only happens once every ninety years.

American psychology student Dani Ardor is thrown into a tailspin when her sister commits a murder-suicide by filling the house with carbon monoxide. The incident leaves her emotionally traumatized and further distances her from her boyfriend of four years, Christian, a cultural anthropology student. Then, her girlfriend's friend, Pelle, invites them to a traditional Swedish midsummer festival in his ancestral village in rural Halsingland, Sweden.

Pelle seems to be a nice guy, but deep down he's very suspicious of the outside world and holds a lot of contempt for people. He's a member of The Harga, a pagan group of men who live in the forest and bring sacrifices to their ancestor's temple during a nine-day spring celebration called Midsommar.

He tries to convince a group of anthropology students to go with him to Sweden by pretending that it's a vacation and a thesis topic, but that quickly turns into a cultist sacrifice situation. After all, he doesn't just want the students to participate in the Midsommar festivities; he wants them to be sacrificial victims as well.

The villagers perform an elaborate dance to crown the May Queen, but it's actually based on a folk song that tells the story of a devil who brought his fiddle and made everyone dance to his tune. It's a dark, ominous, and very specific scene that makes you realize how important it is to honor tradition even in the face of danger.

In the final minutes of the movie, only Dani and Christian remain. The rest of the villagers are bumped off one by one. They've all broken tradition in some way - Mark peed on the ancestor's tree and Josh was secretly taking photos of the book of runes.

Ultimately, Midsommar is a tense psychological horror movie that takes place in bright daylight and deals with a lot of issues that you might not otherwise expect to be addressed by a horror movie. In addition to a haunting plot, the film also highlights a lot of universal themes that will make you think about your own relationships and whether you're willing to sacrifice for the sake of those around you.

Recommendations

Ari Aster made a splash with his debut film Hereditary in 2018, and his follow-up Midsommar is just as creepy. This time, Aster takes a folk story and enhances it by 100, resulting in a deeply disturbing and powerfully emotional tale that will stick with you long after the final scene fades to black.

The film follows an American girl (Florence Pugh) who, after a traumatic family tragedy, leaves her home and travels with her boyfriend to attend a midsummer festival in rural Sweden. While the trip seems like an idyllic way to escape from her problems, she soon realizes that something is very wrong.

A cult takes over the village and begins to practice a malevolent version of Latin-American witchcraft. The rituals are so gruesome and depraved that the locals can’t help but feel threatened by their surroundings. The community’s seemingly noble ideals of communal living are quickly questioned, and the cult leader (played by Jack Reynor) takes control of the group, leading them to participate in increasingly macabre and dangerous acts of sacrifice.

If you’re looking for a horror film that follows a similar story, you might want to check out Neil Marshall’s 2005 film “The Descent.” This movie also involves a young woman who goes on a spelunking expedition in the woods. While the expedition itself is a lot more gory than "Midsommar," it also highlights the effects of traumatic events on the mind and body.

Another folk horror film is the 1977 classic “Suspiria,” a giallo from Italian director Dario Argento. While this film is a bit darker than “Midsommar,” it still manages to keep audiences on the edge of their seats, with bloody scenes and stunning visuals.

Ultimately, both films have a similar underlying theme: isolation. While “Midsommar” features a traumatic family tragedy, the main character in “Suspiria” is haunted by her sister’s death.

The two movies share similar themes and are both set in isolated communities, which may make them feel more familiar to those who have already experienced a tragic event in their lives. However, they differ in some important ways, as the film from “Suspiria” is a psychological thriller that focuses on the psychological trauma of its main character, while the film from “Midsommar” is a horror movie about a cult that performs ritualistic sacrifices.