Midsommar 2019 Director's Cut Review

Does the Director's Cut make Midsommar better?

Midsommar is a 2019 cult horror movie notable for its use of bright settings and colors while depicting a slow burn terror. Smiling faces and open dwellings are tinged with impending doom.

The main characters are a group of graduate school students traveling from the USA to Sweden for a multi-day midsummer festival. William Jackson Harper plays Josh, an anthropology graduate student working on his thesis about Medieval Midsummer Festivities in Europe. Josh's friend Pelle is a member of the Hårga, a secretive and isolated community in Sweden that celebrates midsummer with a series of big festivities every 90 years. Pelle invites Josh to spend the festival with them as part of his trip to research his thesis.

Their friend group includes Will Poulter who plays Mark and Christian who is played by Jack Reynor; both of which have their own motivations for attending. Mark comes along on the trip for fun, not caring about the cultural aspects but rather the stereotype of Swedish women being attractive while Christian's motivations are a bit more guarded, him also pursuing his thesis but without a declared topic.

Two other outsiders are brought by Pelle's commune brother, Ingemar, from London, England where he’s been living. The two are a couple, Connie played by Ellora Torchia and her fiancé Simon played by Archie Madekwe.

The commune is called the Hårga, living in remote Sweden the fifty or so member group comes off as friendly and light. Grandma Siv and Father Odd, played by Gunnel Fred and Mats Blomgren respectively, are two of the elder leaders that orchestrate much of the rituals and coordination of the cult.

Other members include Maja played by Isabelle Grill, a younger member who pursues Christian upon his arrival. A group of women members surround Dani as the plot progresses, some of which are Inga played by Julia Ragnarsson, Ulla played by Liv Mjönes, Hanna played by Louise Peterhoff, Dagny played by Agnes Westerland, and Karin played by Anna Åström.

Some of the other members include Dan played by Björn Andrésen, Irma played by Anki Larsson who has since passed away, Ulf played by Henrik Norlén, and Ylva played by Katarina Weidhagen who play essential roles in the rituals that make up the 9-day midsummer festival.

CAUTION: This is the one and only trigger warning in the video for images, audio, and subject matter. Gruesome images have been blurred but subject matters in the movie will also be in this video so please proceed with caution. Topics like cults, brainwashing, toxic relationships, murder, and more are all included in the Midsommar plot. From this point on the video will also contain spoilers about the Midsommar Director's Cut.

PLOT BREAKDOWN

INTRODUCTION & PRE-TRIP

Prior to the trip coming together the film opens with Dani's sister sending her a handful of messages late at night while Dani is in her studio apartment. She is trying to get ahold of her sister but instead calls a close friend and then Christian to check in if she is overreacting or if she is rightfully worried. Off rip it’s clear she doesn’t trust herself and what happens next only deepens her mistrust in herself.

Christian is at a restaurant with his friends, Mark, Josh, and Pelle, discussing Christian’s need to follow through with his plan to dump Dani. He complains that her reliance on him emotionally is too much due to her sister and family life being unpredictably unstable and her needing his support. It’s clear that the group has a varying degree of opinion on the matter, with Josh being quite uninterested and mostly focused on the trip, Pelle seeming concerned and wanting to provide the other side, and Mark being a typical d-bag recommending that he break up with her based on how many hot women he could pursue and sleep with then.

While there he receives another call from Dani and through the phone we can hear her guttural sobs, so harsh on her throat she breaks into whooping coughs from deep in her chest. The despair is striking, and he immediately rushes to her apartment in the snow. We learn that her sis commit suicide while also killing their parents. She does so by carbon monoxide poisoning via gas she has pumped directly into their room from the exhaust pipes of their cars.

We cut to inside and Dani and Christian appear in the center of the room with minimal lighting on the couch, him holding her as she grapples with the grief of her new reality. Dani and Christian keep heading towards breakup after her family's deaths. In a cool pan outside the window into the title card and then back into the window following sunshine that informs there’s been a time jump. Dani is dealing with depression following her family's deaths and Christian looking to get back to normal life sooner rather than later, wants to go out to a party. At this party Dani struggles to focus on the conversations, drowning out the world around her until the summer trip to Sweden is mentioned.

An awkward and uncomfortable interaction ensues of the party group all poorly trying to figure out what they can and cannot talk about in the convo due to Dani’s prescence. This interaction is interspersed with their car ride home and Christian on his phone being weird.

In a scene from the director's cut we see Dani talking with Christian about the trip after she finds out at the party and this scene adds crucial context to their relationship. Christian has obviously done something hurtful in this scenario but rather than feeling badly that he hurt someone he loves he flips it and makes her apologize for her reaction.

He comes up with the flimsy excuse that he had planned to ask her in a romantic way, saying her being a part of the trip had always been the plan. It's vaguer in the theatre release without details about their relationship like this one, rather than feeling like Christian gaslights Dani and is awful we see it in real time and have it as an example to refer to during the movie when more behavior like this is displayed.

Christian tells the group that he invited Dani as she's arriving at the apartment to talk about the trip. They're put in the position to not say no when presented with this as it would mean telling Dani, who's family just died, they don't want her there on their bro-trip.

Director's cut includes a shot of Christian behind Dani, hunching over her like a bear in the reflection behind the group as we see their reactions. It's clearly awkward for everyone but they all believe there's a different cause for that awkwardness. Christian has built Dani up to be a villain to his friend group, we have no idea how true or untrue this is but he's implied at this point she's overbearing and expects too much emotional support from him.

FIRST ARRIVING IN SWEDEN

The movie transitions from the apartment in the college town to an airplane bathroom that Dani has just entered to cry in another moment of panic. The door slams behind her and she covers her mouth to muffle her panicked screams. She returns to her seat with red eyes and worried awkward looks from the group, making it seem like a similarly uncomfortable situation had ensued that triggered her panic.

The group arrives in Sweden and makes it to a camp where they'll stay overnight before continuing onto the community. During the long car ride Dani notices that one of Josh's books he's brought is a book about Nazi symbols. She asks about this, and he explains the connection but not in a way that is at all calming. This peaked my mind to the fact that they already seemed very Aryan-race cult-like without this detail prior.

Stopping to camp overnight just outside of the Hårga commune and at the camp they all do shrooms. Expectedly Dani has a bad trip, at first feeling like she's one with the grass beneath her in a disturbing image but then Mark mentions that they feel like family, his actual family and she snaps into panic, running down the hill towards other groups. She further panics after thinking another group is laughing at her and she runs into the outhouse nearby.

In a jump scare we see Dani look in the mirror and think she sees her sister with the hose in her mouth behind her in the mirror and she runs into the forest after rushing out of the outhouse.

She blacks out and wakes in the clearing the next day being informed from a seemingly annoyed group that they'd found her, and she'd slept for a long time. While asleep she has an eerie dream about her parents and sister sitting watching TV in the dark. They meet two other outsiders at the camp, from London and brought by Pelle's brother, Ingemar. The couple met briefly after Ingemar tried to unsuccessfully date the woman, Connie around the same time she met her now fiancé, Simon.

ARRIVING AT THE HÅRGA COMMUNE

Following the very awkward waking they make their way to the commune by traveling through the forest to another clearing where they reside. Immediately they are given shots and a treat while meeting various community members already dressed in traditional garb. Particularly striking for the open spaces filled with bright colors and white clothed commune members. They meet several Hårga members who all seem friendly, nice, and accommodating to the outsiders.

Josh has lots of questions about the community, being knowledgeable but wanting clarification on details of their midsummer festivities. Despite asking about the yellow A-frame hut he's brushed off and we begin the never-ending obscuring and assuring from commune-members when things seem wonky. No one really gives direct answers ever about what is going on or why, they often speak in motivational sounding phrases or philosophies about life rather than direct information.

They end up seated as dances are done around them, Maja, a young girl in the commune kicking Christian as she goes by denoting, she is interested in him. Pelle gives Dani a drawing of her that he has done for her birthday, and she tells him that Christian forgot.

At the place they'll be sleeping they are informed about some of the key practices and values of the commune including their philosophy on seasons of life. Pelle informs them they'll be doing an "attestupa" ceremony the next day which only Josh knows the meaning of. Josh teases the group and refuses to tell them what the ceremony is.

FIRST CEREMONY

The first ceremony starts the next day with a feast and two elder members of the commune come out during it, starting the eating, and leading the feast to a close with some odd chanting. After a group shot, they are carried in chairs up a cliff while the rest of the Hårga stand below.

The ceremony is the two elders cutting their hands and smearing their blood on ruins at the top of a cliff and then jumping to their death on the below rocks in front of the Hårga and group of friends. Shocked and appalled Simon and Connie want to leave immediately and even try to stop the ceremony. The man doesn't die on impact and part of the ceremony is other members using a giant mallet to crush his head four separate times. Not only brutal but disgusting each hammer blow intensifies Simon and Connie's calls to leave. Siv, the leader, talks to Connie and Simon about the ritual and explains that it's a sacred honor and something each member does when they turn 72.

Dani starts to panic similarly to how she did after taking shrooms or back in the apartment when she ran to the bathroom. She rushes to the edge of the commune rather than back to the main lodge with the rest of the group to cry.

While she is breaking down Christian decides he's not only inspired by the Hårga but is fascinated enough to do a thesis on the unknown and mysterious death cult. Immediately following the ceremony, they end up back in the lodge, both finding they're not as impacted by the ceremony as Dani, Simon, and Connie had been.

Christian tells Josh that he plans to do his thesis on the Hårga community and their midsummer festival, the same thing that Josh plans to do his on. The trip having been a creation of Josh's desire to do his thesis on medieval celebrations of midsummer.

This scene confirms that the things we're seeing between Chris and Dani are features of Chris' personality. He is selfish and gaslights his way out of admitting when he is in the wrong. Chris suggests he's open to collaborate with Josh but that he'll do his thesis on the Hårga regardless of what he does. Following this back and forth when Josh finally tells Chris to fuck off.

Chris starts making his rounds in the community, meeting Maja and having an uncomfortable conversation while as part of his quote-unquote, "research" for his thesis. Dani decides to leave after witnessing the ceremony and Pelle comes across her when she's packing, coming to convince her to stay.

He offers her a sniffing herb thing to calm her down that she ends up using of her own volition later in the film and shares his own personal loss of his mother and father in a fire earlier in the film. He explains to Dani that the cult took him in and made him part of the family--which to that I wonder, were his parent’s victims of the cult also?

The timeline of the cult is in question particularly around the May Queens and whether they do that each year or once every 92 years as suggested earlier. In addition to this detail there is a wall of photos said to show the May Queens of the past but the number of photos is far too many to suggest it occurred only once every 92 years considering the probable age of the cult.

The way Pelle explains the loss of his family and the Hårga picking him back up sounds like a roadmap of cult control. They find him in (or create the circumstances surrounding) his lowest and darkest state. They then prey upon his need and desire for family, community, and purpose. He is brought in like one of their own immediately, something he cites as a positive and reason he loves the Hårga. Pelle even suggesting to Dani that that could be a possibility for her this early on, reminiscent of love bombing tactics.

Josh finally talks to Pelle about covering the Hårga traditions and people in his thesis to which he's informed Chris has already done so. Chris had already asked, and Pelle had passed along the request to the elders of the community. He makes it clear that they'd probably have to do it in tandem with one another and that they'd need to change details to keep the true identity a secret.

Chris catches up with Dani outside and calms her despite concerns and discomfort around the ceremony he's able to make her question her feelings by brushing their differences as simply cultural. Chris compares their suicide ceremony to out the conditions of nursing homes in America. His intentions are to selfishly stay for his thesis despite her being uncomfortable and wanting to leave. While they're going back and forth the group passes by where they're chatting on their way to another ceremony.

THE SECOND CEREMONY (DIRECTOR'S CUT)

The group comes by on their way to another, secret ceremony and they go along. At this ceremony a badly acted skit plays out with a young boy in the community offering himself as a sacrifice to the universe. The ritual entails him wearing a vest covered in locks, metal, pictures, and other trinkets then being thrown into the lake nearby by two other Hårga and a boulder on his lap.

Dani panics during this skit but since it's not real it ends with them deciding not to sacrifice the boy after all citing his bravery as good enough. This further upsets Dani and she rushes off into the woods, more steadfast in her decision to leave but also now believing the group to be dangerous.

Dani and Christian have a fight after she rushes off where he accuses her of being conniving and transactional with acts of kindness towards him. He goes as far as to claim her collecting flowers for him earlier in the day on a whim had been calculated. It is so out of left field that she doesn't register what he's even talking about when he references her gifting him flowers.

Whether intentional or not I like that at first Chris is rightfully going after Dani, as the circumstance would shake out with rational adults. Mid conversation however Chris starts to storm off instead and they switch sides on screen with her chasing after him in the conversation. It's a visual representation of the shifting of blame in their relationship.

During this fight Christian reveals he hadn't wanted Dani to come originally and Dani reveals she sensed the impending breakup. She states he had been in the devaluation stage, having already passed through depersonalization towards her.

Dani is a psych student and I felt that reminding the audience while she's mid brainwash was a smart tool to reengage the viewer if they'd started to see through the cult, heightening the WTF of the movie more so in the director's cut.

There's a stigma around cult members and an idea that one would be impervious to a cult's tricks and mind games unlike the members. A stigma rooted in the belief that cults only brainwash the weaker or less intelligent. This however leaves us more susceptible because without this reminder to humble your perception you find yourself questioning if the Hårga are really that bad when watching the theatrical release.

This stigma makes it seem less scary when the Hårga is doing seemingly innocuous things because you feel you'd be able to tell, you'd be able to stop it, but Dani is a seemingly smart woman who is literally noticing the cult behavior and bizarre nature and has the educational background to know what she's talking about but is still victim to them.

IMPORTANT RISING ACTION

They return to the lodge to sleep for the night and it's unclear where the two-stand other than a fundamental disagreement about who's in the wrong. Dani has a nightmare that the group gets up in the middle of the night and leaves without her. She goes outside to scream but only black smoke comes out, she sees flashes of her family's bodies on the rock the two elders had jumped onto earlier in the day.

Dani dreams that night that the group leaves that night without her and that they drive off in a car, Mark laughing at her. She screams but no sound comes out, only black smoke. Her largest fear is abandonment which makes sense and makes her perfect for Christian who does reckless and selfish things but expects apologies if you're upset about it.

Maja is awake and places a rune underneath Chris' bed, something we know from earlier in the film to be part of an ancient love spell that begins with the rune under the bed. Josh is awake and witnesses her do this, he seems to be starting to question the group's transparency with them. The following day Mark pisses on the tree where all the elder's ashes are spread, inciting Ulf to lose it. This understandably upsets and angers another member, leaving him distraught and looking for retribution against Mark.

Mark doesn't understand what the issue is and protests it's just a tree more than a few times. Christian laughs at the Hårga's upset reaction, having not witness Mark piss on the tree and just approaching to Mark being called out. He brushes it off as Mark-being-Mark, no biggie.

At dinner that night Mark is pulled aside and led into the forest with a woman he believes has been making eyes at him since they arrived. Tensions at the dinner build between the group of friends and Christian eats a meat pie with a pube in it, presumably from Maja. Christian also consumes what appears to be her menstrual blood in his juice which had been earlier alluded to in a tapestry portraying a pagan love spell. Josh sneaks out of their cabin at night and into the temple where he takes loud and bright photos of their sacred text. He's caught by a commune member wearing Mark's face with his penis out and is bashed over the head. His body is dragged off camera leaving a blood trail.

Dani dreams that night that the group leaves that night without her and that they drive off in a car, Mark laughing at her. She screams but no sound comes out, only black smoke. Her largest fear is abandonment which makes sense and makes her perfect for Christian who does reckless and selfish things but expects apologies if you're upset about it.

THINGS GO SOUTH & DANI'S TRANSITION

The next day Dani accidentally starts participating in their May Queen dance competition after drinking hallucinogenic tea. Having befriended some of the women they dance gleefully and at one point Dani believes she can speak Swedish and that another commune member can understand her. The girls are all falling into one another while following instructions to stop, reverse, and go in their drug induced state.

Dani ends up being the last one standing, which made me wonder if her ability to deal with a panicked state and loss of control of her body if that made her more likely to be able to stay standing and dancing during the dance competition or if they intentionally kept her going and knocked themselves out. Dani is crowned the May Queen, and they settle into a feast that she is now commanding.

At the feast Dani hallucinates that the plants on the chair are moving and the group takes more shots. The food is pulsing on the table, and we start to see and hear details we hadn't before, like flies buzzing around the table and that the food is rather grotesque looking. Christian is starting to panic, not having wanted to take the hallucinogenic drinks earlier and fearing something is amiss.

Post feast Dani is taken in a carriage drawn by women Hårga members to a clearing to complete another ritual. During this ritual they bury meat, eggs, and rice and do a dance with torches atop this mound while singing.

Christian is led away from the feast by a path of flowers to the temple where Hårga men undress him and dress him in a white smock, all the while he's having a bad trip. He's led into a room where naked Hårga women stand around Maja in a semicircle with her on a bed of flowers, also naked.

They begin to have sex and the women in the room start moaning along, mimicking Maja. This whole scene is wild and a total escalation in a less than expected direction. Prior to this scene it seemed like despite the cult ritualistic practices and ceremonies they generally had free will and didn't do much weirdness. This however is extremely weird, even at one point a Hårga woman assisting with the completion of the ritual and Maja exclaiming she can feel the baby already post-nut.

Dani decides to go into the temple during the ceremony because she hears the moaning from outside and has a bad feeling. She peeks through the keyhole in the door and witnesses the ceremony, instantly sickened and distraught. She goes outside, vomiting right outside the temple and being held up and carried off by women in the commune.

They lay Dani in her bed and try to comfort her but in her distraught state she crawls to the floor wanting to leave only to be mimicked by them. They match her cries of pain, and all of the women scream and cry on the floor together. An example of trauma bonding in real time through actions on screen rather than words.

Christian gets post-nut mid-drug induced haze clarity and runs out of the temple. With no where else to go he hides in the chicken coup only to find Simon in a medieval torture method not even confirmed to have taken places called a blood eagle. His lungs are ripped from his back and hung like wings above him, still breathing in the movie.

In complete shock and fear Christian turns to run out of the barn but is met by a community elder who blows dust into his face. He's paralyzed and falls to the ground, seeing Pelle peering in from outside watching his demise with glee. Hårga men approach and close his eyes, turning the screen to black.

THE CEREMONY'S FINALE

Our POV is through Christian's eyes first, opening one at a time to show Ulla in his face telling him to come to. Dani sits on a platform stage on a flower throne, looking like a bee's fantasy covered head to toe in flowers. She's informed that the midsummer festivities will culminate in the final sacrifices of nine. One of which will be drawn from a rusty, busted lottery machine with wooden balls inside, each with a name written in runes on it to represent a community member.

We're informed that 5 of the 4 of the sacrifices are Hårga and are the man and woman who commit suicide, two volunteers Ingemar and Ulf while the other 4 are Mark, Josh, Simon, and Carrie the latter two having been brought by Ingemar. The May Queen picks between a random community member chosen via the lottery and Christian.

Dani chooses Christian as the 9th and final sacrifice and the Hårga get to work with final preparations. The yellow A frame that had been off limits before is the final ceremony site where all 9 will be sacrificed. Christian is put inside of a disemboweled bear that the cult had brushed off when asked about earlier. He's placed in the center of the temple with the other sacrifices all of which are dead except the two Hårga volunteers.

Mark, Josh, Simon, and the two elderly are brought in, and Connie is wearing the same tunic that the boy had been wearing in the skit, she's soaked seemingly drowned as part of the ritual they claimed not to do. The A frame is set on fire from the inside and the cult members watch as it burns, the flames engulfing the frozen and silent Christian while we hear the screams of Ulf burning alive.

THE ENDING IS THE CLIMAX

The screams of Ulf dying are mimicked by the cult members who all break into crazed screams and Revelations the spirit is within your body movements. What had felt ordered not long ago was now fully out of control and Dani sobs as the group descends into madness.

As the temple collapses and the ritual is complete Dani looks at it falling and smiles, her eyes exhausted and red from crying. Rather than watching a midsummer festival we had watched a cult induct another member while strengthening and solidifying the ties of the current cult members.

CAMERA ANGLES

Director Ari Aster and cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski used camera angles to add context to relationships, foreshadow, and cause distress. For example, atypical camera angles induce discomfort or disgust, and wide angled shots are used to show that a lot of things are always happening. In addition, the use of reflective surfaces to build tension and show both actors during conversations adds suspense and at times a physical cringe.

The way that Christian grabs onto from behind Dani in the apartment that the group is hanging out in adds a layer of discontent to his actions that confirm the weird feelings about him are founded despite the manipulation.

Scene changes in the start building the plot are beautifully seamless going from a dingy college apartment hallway to an airplane bathroom and an upside down shot while they travel to Pelle's hometown, where the midsummer festival will take place.

Wide shots while at the Hårga commune is contrasted with closer shots back in the college town. Open, wide spaces on screen give the appearance of freedom and juxtapose the very unfree feeling circumstances of the outsiders. The bright colors also serve as an eerie juxtaposition to the dark imagery and actions of the cult. Elders present you with terrible options while smiling with encouragement, young ladies pursue you to steal your sperm, everything is drugged and apparently the food sucks.

Their tapestries and walls covered in violence, genitalia, and sex depicted in bright and flowery designs causes you to do a double take and question yourself, "am I just being judge mental and weird?" rather than an immediate association with darkness and danger. Details are included, and sometimes tucked away, in the background of a shot in half focus. The attention to detail gives you something to look at that adds to the plot no matter where you look, like looking at a perfectly crafted diorama of the scene, Hereditary reference intended.

The Hårga smile, are calm and reassuring as awful things are happening around them, the most emotion seen is mirroring in the final scene. Most of the mirroring scenes are close shots, focused on the human participants rather than the scene itself. Florence's ability to break down in a way that comes across as gut wrenching as her performance is chef's kiss good. She's truly amazing in this movie but I will also add that everyone plays their roles exceptionally well.

THE HARGA CULT

One thing we do know for sure by the end of the movie is the Hårga's connection to real world cult conspiracy theories like that of the Nazis and Elder Euthark runes. In addition, some runes have become associated and co-opted by hate groups typically of a white supremacist nature, so not good.

To add to those clues most of the characters are blonde haired and blue-eyed people which is typical in groups based around Aryan heritage. At one point we see Josh's book cover that talks about the connection of Nazism to the Uthark language.

Prior to the first ceremony we learn about the life cycle of the Hårga and the significance of each stage. Those stages are 0-18 which is childhood and the spring of life, 18-34 is a pilgrim which is the summer of life, 34-54 age group are laborers and in their fall, and then 54-72 Hårga are considered mentors in their winter. It is asked what happens after 72 and the ceremony is alluded to, but Mark and Chris say they know and won't say anything. That is even wilder when considering what Dani recently went through and their knowledge of her attending said ceremony the next day--bizarre behavior from both.

They sit at an Rahdio rune shaped table at the start which means ride or journey, it can also have to do with rhythm and land travel which the Hårga proceed to do up to the top of the cliff. It isn't fully clear what the overarching goal is of the midsummer festival. The Hårga believe it's a time of thanks and sacrifice to purify themselves and the land for the next harvest.

On the other hand, it seems to be at least one if not the one recruitment audition and ceremony coupled with a hopeful impregnation and additional member. It also seems to serve as a bonding celebration of hard work despite that hard work seeming to in part go to the celebration itself. Dani's background and displayed fear of abandonment makes her a perfect target and possibly more susceptible to the tactics of the group in the theatrical release in particular.

In the director's cut however with the added details on Dani's mental state and her argument with Chris after the second ceremony her reaction at the end, albeit extreme and probably coerced, makes more sense. The scenes of the ritual by the lake and Dani's requests to leave right after shocked me, I had the perception of her being less aware of the cult's behavior.

Rather than being appalled by the man burning in the bear suit I became more shocked by Dani's full transition into a cult member by the end.

I also noticed just how much they drugged them which I hadn't before. I think with more time in the innocuous scenes of the group engaging with the cult allowed me to pick up on more details and hints that heightened the viewing experience. The cult becomes far more sinister with more dialogue, especially regarding details like the cult members having the same rehearsed stories for disappeared guests, and the ability to slither out of any questioning with plausible deniability.

DIRECTOR'S CUT DIFFERENCES

I'm always left with questions at the end of Midsommar, as I'm sure many are. The director's cut answered a good portion of those questions like did Dani know what was happening? How complicit is Christian? How did they manage to get her into the state she ends up in? Prior to watching this version, the cult's main points had felt a little choppy and hadn't felt like enough to warn about the events later in the film to make them more impactful. Rather than confused this time I had gone, "oh shit?" when the pieces came together in the final scene.

In the theatrical release we didn't get nearly as much detail about Dani and Christian's relationship--much of it left to inference before. Christian reveals that he has no clue about his thesis which is implied before and we also see direct gaslighting from him towards Dani. Christian is more transparent in his unabashed desire to fail upwards while being rather callous and elitist in multiple scenes towards the Hårga individuals, their rituals, and cultural norms.

We also don't get as much detail about the group's dynamic going into the vacation. It makes sense to cut a lot of that due to the cult being the focus and much of the group's dynamic not mattering once things start to fall apart. However, without that it's a lot harder to care about those characters and their fates, it's easier to just write them off as stupid Americans (which they kind of are) rather than cult victims.

The original group becomes so separated, going on their own journeys with the cult and the festivities, that their interconnected story can be sparred to keep things closer to 2 hours rather than 3 even though you lose that element that deepens the plot.

So many little details had either been cut out in the theatrical release or hadn't made any sense without other building details and that took my opinion of it from, "it's good--I like that Aster experiments with a daytime horror with bright colors and settings “and now, "oh--I get it now". The theatrical releases' timeline of events felt a bit choppy and rushed but with the added scenes it's obvious where fluidity got lost on the cutting room floor.

I know it's wild to recommend watching something you didn't love at 2.3 hours at closer to 3 hours but believe me when I say, it's worth the extra details for the overall movie if you do get a chance to rewatch Midsommar and didn't love it before.

CONCLUSION

Every month of 2024 I'm posting a video, in part to grow my skills and also as a creative outlet. Currently I'm working on an iZombie video that will be posted at the end of August covering the comics and seasons 1-2 of the show which will be followed by a part 2 posted in early September covering seasons 3-5.

October's video will cover 69 (as of now, this could grow or decrease as movie releases are announced or release dates are changed) different horror movies coming out this year that'll be posted on 10/6. This will include a brief overview of each movie and spoiler free reviews of the majority of the movies already out.

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