With Flowers in Her Hair: Midsommar

I, too, would like to braid my hair and wear a crown of flowers.

Ever since I first saw Ari Aster’s Midsommar, I have watched it every year in June, around the time of the solstice. It feels like the most appropriate horror ritual I could have. So this year marks the fourth time I’ve watched Midsommar to mark another shift into summer.

I’ve loved this movie since the first time I watched it. It is perfect despite its many imperfections, and I think that’s true for both its original theatrical release and the director’s cut. Even in spite of the longer cut making the movie better in some ways, and in others making it worse.

I also think my original assessment of “this is the greatest break-up movie of all time” was fairly spot on. Should Dani and Christian have broken up at the beginning of the movie and never gone to Sweden? A hundred and fifty percent. But they don’t. And because they don’t, the only path left for them is one that ends in sacrificial murder and joining a very bizarre cult that feels like home when home is no longer an option.

The thing that really works for me is just how sympathetic Dani is, even when she goes off the rails. There is never a question as to why she makes the choices she does in this story, even when those choices are not ones that would make sense in our reality. That, to me, is Ari Aster’s brilliance here. He sets up his reality violation so comprehensively that the horrors contained within carry the audience with it.

Dani’s whole story is one seeking home and the idea of being held after her own home and family are obliterated by her sister’s mental illness. This is a need that the film’s true villain, Pelle, sees and uses to lure his entire group of friends and Dani to his bright and cheery death-cult commune in rural Sweden.

Thing about Pelle, though, is that his sympathies with Dani are genuine. He also lost his family and found salvation in his community. He knows how badly Dani is being treated by her boyfriend and his friends, and that seems to be why he thinks they might be good candidates for sacrifice. He seems to truly want to help Dani, even if that help comes in the form of his own demented priorities.

Every time I watch this film, I pick up on something new I didn’t quite see the last time around. That’s the case with every movie one rewatches, every book one rereads. But this is the only movie I have on a specific watch schedule. It’s the only movie-specific tradition I have. Midsommar is to my June what Love, Actually is to so many Decembers.

I look forward to watching this movie again next year, and the year after from now until it has burned its course. I have a hard time seeing when that might be. I’m almost tempted to watch this movie again tomorrow.