Summary of Midsommar - The Complete Guide (Everything Explained)

This comprehensive guide to Midsommar dives deep into the film’s rich symbolism, folklore inspirations, and complex character dynamics, offering a masterclass in unpacking Ari Aster’s layered horror masterpiece.

Foundations and Inspirations

The video opens by positioning Midsommar as Ari Aster’s bold follow-up to Hereditary, highlighting how it deliberately breaks from traditional horror tropes—bright daylight horror, sprawling folk rituals, and unsettling paganism—to create something fresh and haunting. It’s not about perfection but risk-taking, blending sharp precision with wild, surreal imagery.

Aster’s main inspiration is the 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man, sharing core themes like pagan sacrifice, fertility rites, and communal belief—but Midsommar subverts expectations, adding modern anxieties and a distinctly Swedish folk horror flavor. The film’s concept originated from Swedish producer Patrik Andersson and psychologist Martin Kalqvist, who crafted the idea of the Hårga commune, later fleshed out by Aster.

Symbolism: Color, Myth, and Folklore

A major highlight is the detailed analysis of the film’s color palette—especially the interplay of yellow and blue, which simultaneously symbolize life, death, and the cyclical nature of existence in Hårga belief. Yellow, the color of blooming life and the sun, is also a bait-and-switch for death; blue, tied to winter and old age, likewise represents death but also shadows new life. Together, they embody the cult’s twisted life-death cycle and serve as a critique of Swedish nationalism (the colors of the Swedish flag), which the film condemns.

The opening mural, painted in the Swedish kurbits style by artist Mu Pan (likened to Hieronymus Bosch), foreshadows the entire plot with vivid imagery of severed familial bonds, the bear (Christian), and the blue cow (Maja), representing masculine and feminine energies locked in a deadly dance.

The bear motif is unpacked thoroughly, linking Christian to Norse mythology’s shapeshifting bears and the “inverted Prince Charming” archetype, culminating in his symbolic death inside a bear skin—a “sending off” that Ari Aster found fitting for the character.

Plot and Character Dynamics

The guide meticulously breaks down the film’s opening tragedy: Dani’s family is murdered by her sister Terri in a psychotic episode. The video clarifies a common fan theory: the Hårga cult did not orchestrate this killing. Instead, the film explores how trauma and vulnerability (Dani’s grief and fear of loneliness) make her susceptible to cult indoctrination.

Dani’s relationship with Christian is portrayed as toxic and manipulative. Christian is selfish, emotionally distant, and unfaithful, while Dani is terrified of being alone, which drives her to endure his gaslighting and eventually accept the Hårga’s embrace. Florence Pugh’s performance during the opening phone call is praised as a powerhouse display of emotional nuance, capturing Dani’s fragility and desperation.

Christian’s friends—Mark, Josh, and Pelle—are introduced as self-involved outsiders, each embodying fatal flaws that lead to their downfall:

Mark’s disrespect
Josh’s academic obsession
Pelle’s manipulative opportunism

Pelle is the Hårga’s recruiter and the film’s biggest creep, carefully grooming Dani and the others.

The Hårga Cult and Real-World Parallels

The Hårga commune is a chilling metaphor for far-right nationalist and neo-Nazi groups, drawing on the Volkisch movement and Nazi occultism’s appropriation of Norse mythology and runes. The video explains the fabricated nature of the Hårga’s “holy books” (the Rubi Radr), their incestuous bloodline practices, and their racial purity obsession, all cloaked in pagan ritual and folk tradition.

The film’s setting and aesthetics—bright, open, sun-drenched landscapes with surreal folk art and communal rituals—are designed to lure both Dani and the audience into a false sense of safety before revealing the cult’s brutal core.

Key Rituals and Scenes Explained

The Attestup: A horrifying ritual where elderly Hårga dance themselves to death by falling off a cliff, embodying the cult’s belief in cyclical death and rebirth. Dani’s hallucinations link this ritual to Terri’s act of murdering her family, suggesting generational trauma or ancestral cycles of violence.
May Queen Ceremony: Dani wins the May Queen crown in a dance competition, symbolizing her full induction into the cult. While the role is not a leadership position, it’s a ceremonial title that binds her to the community and its dark traditions.
Christian and Maja: Christian is coerced into mating with 16-year-old Maja in a disturbing fertility ritual, symbolizing his betrayal and the cult’s manipulation. The film leaves Christian’s level of consent ambiguous but clearly condemns