Midsommar (I). An analysis of postmodern terror.
Cultures usually have the study of the stars as a point of reference, with the Sun being a central element in their beliefs. Once a year, between June 20 and 23, the Sun reaches its highest point, so the Summer Solstice is celebrated with different rituals. However, in the Southern Hemisphere it is celebrated during December.
We associate St. John's Eve with bonfires, with other customs such as jumping into the waves to bring good luck, and it is in the Nordic countries where it is celebrated in a peculiar way that would serve as inspiration for the film Midsommar.
In Sweden, this pagan holiday is celebrated, considered by locals as their National Day. At first, the harvest season was over, so on the first night of summer customs associated with flora were carried out, such as picking seven flowers and putting them under the pillow.
The most striking was the cross-shaped post, prior to the Christian cult. As this religion became established, criticism grew of this figure (Midsommarstang), which was assigned a phallic connotation, being associated with fertility. In its attempt to redefine the festivities, it was called the day of San Juan Bautista and the date was changed to the day of the solstice as such.
Although at first glance it could resemble the May Crosses decorated with flowers in Andalusia, (Ari Aster makes a strange mix between the pagan rites of May and those of June) this figure would also be associated with the Nordic Yggdrasil, according to scholars.
These pagan beliefs have been followed by Wiccans and especially by the Asatrú community. In the film you can even see reminiscences of the Wicker Man who appears represented in the film of the same name The Wicker Man (1973), being a direct inspiration for Midsommar (2019). in its terror with folkloric elements. In this film we see how an island surrenders to Celtic customs, such as the burning of these figures, which is very similar to the end of the film on which we will focus.
There is a theme that serves as a common link in these sacrifices: The moral superiority of judging, of knowing through investigation, a religious fact by rationalizing it.
As cultural anthropologists, the couple's friends have a "religiocentric" framework, seeing reality from our hegemonic religion with the Judeo-Christian values of respect for the integrity of others, contrasting the cultural dynamics of this community.
This moralizing fact extends to other horror works such as Canibal Holocaust, where another group of researchers are devoured by a man-eating tribe while trying to record a documentary, or The Texas Massacre, where a group of young urbanites spend a vacation in the area. rural southern United States and find a decadent reality that was foreign to them.
In the ritual scene, one of the members of the community looks directly at the camera in a "meta" moment as if telling the viewers that when we watch a scary movie, we also want to consume those bodies as a ritual and that we do not We are so different anthropologically, we just channel those desires through fiction.
The most common way in the cinematographic world to identify the sect and at the same time make the viewer curious is the way of dressing, community life and the performance of strange rites for one's own culture, in this case, magical rituals. , which will be analyzed in the second part of this article.
The difference between religion and sect is complex, having several factors to consider:
Firstly, sects are associated with small groups, while religions are widely spread. The structures of religions, despite being hierarchical, do not have a personality cult typical of sects, which is usually associated with partial economic or other interests, taking advantage of third parties.
Christianity can be considered a sect if we take the above into account, until it was established as a religion with its impact on the Roman Empire.
What happens in the film is that there is a certain proselytism in seeking the isolation of the protagonist by welcoming a new social group to cover her previous alienation. Although the character who invites the rest may seem more charismatic due to the "halo effect" of being attractive to the protagonist, the leader is the entire community as a whole.
In line with this, it is worth remembering that the need to belong, to connect, is what fuels political radicalization. Whether in the form of extreme right-wing groups or in the form of nationalism, we cannot ignore that this topic is touched on in the film:
It is well known that neo-Nazi groups use futhark rune imagery, with other symbols such as the Black Sun or the Sowilo rune for the SS, being part of the distorted interpretation that underpinned the ideology of propaganda during Nazi Germany.
At the beginning of the film, when they arrive at the community, we can see an inverted sign that says in Swedish "Stop mass immigration to Hälsingland, vote for (a) Free North this fall"
Along with the vulnerability of the main character, we could consider that they focus on her to be captured by having Nordic features such as blonde hair and blue eyes associated with racial eugenics, proclaiming her as the May Queen.
Despite this, racism does not seem to explain the behavior of the community either, since although the first of the research group to be murdered is black, he is killed for having broken a rule of great importance for the perpetrators, sacrificing the rest of the group. selectively being white.
The other racialized couple that came to the community opposed their cultural ways, so the situation escalated because they wanted to leave there and denounce the situation, leading to their death.
These deaths as punishment are actually premeditated, as they are part of the magical and social rites of the Harga on the solstice, "congruent" with the fertility rites (both of the countryside and animals and of young people, obtaining "new blood" through outsiders) and energization of the sun on these dates. Ari Aster takes advantage of the lack of ritual human sacrifice in the vast majority of cultures today to add a touch of horror.
The concept of simpler times leads to a philo-fascist association between certain primitivist positions and tradition, at the same time as it is related to radical positions that reject modernity. In this context, communities that are atomizing seek to find a sense of belonging in the face of contemporary reality.
For this reason, at the beginning of the film we are shown unfathomable contemplative footage of nature, when the montage immediately cuts to a city full of manufactured houses.
Regarding her psychological content, the traumas that occur to the protagonist along with the disconnection that she felt towards her partner with her own social circles, made her feel isolated before arriving at the settlement. It is only when she manages to cry, when she shares her crying with the other women of the village, that she feels herself.
The film is constructed so that the viewer convinces themselves that if she is happy, we are no one to judge her if she surrounded herself with people who did not contribute to her. Despite flashing a smile for the camera, the film closes with a false catharsis in a kind of toxic positive thinking disguised as empowerment, terrifying in its consequences and twisted in its approach.
The viewer himself has been abducted along with the protagonist to become part of this "community."
Nuria Acquaviva - nacquavivaps@gmail.com
