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Cinema was changed forever when Ari Aster released Midsommar in 2019, with the film still ‘traumatising’ viewers to this very day.
Starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, and Will Poulter, the film follows Dani (Pugh) in the wake of her sister and parents’ murder/suicide, with her apathetic boyfriend Christian (Reynor) offering little comfort.
When Christian and his friends plan to visit Sweden with their pal Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) for the annual Midsummer festival, Dani is reluctantly invited to tag along and is taken aback by the picturesque village and its strange customs.
However, she soon finds herself drawn into a nightmare as she falls deeper and deeper, and becomes more involved with the ancestral commune.
The iconic folk horror celebrates its fifth anniversary this week, with many fans taking to social media to celebrate the ‘horrific’ and ‘life-changing’ film, available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now.
‘I know it’s become the cool thing to hate on Aster/this movie specifically/any shred of sincerity BUT- this movie changed my life. It made me realize how important horror is to me and my heart. It inspired me to start writing up my reviews. And now look,’ film critic Amber T wrote on X.
Midsommar shocked fans upon its release in 2019 (Picture: AP)
It stars Florence Pugh in the lead role alongside Will Poulter and Jack Reynor (Picture: AP)
The Ari Aster film sees Pugh’s character pulled into the clutches of a cult (Picture: Csaba Aknay)
Many dubbed it the ‘best’ Ari Aster film, with the director also releasing Toni Collette’s groundbreaking Hereditary and Joaquin Phoenix-starring disturbing comedy Beau Is Afraid.
Author Steve Goodwin said the film ‘still gave him nightmares’, while Paulina Plazas shared a gif of Midsommar’s eerie ending, with Dani dressed in a gargantuan flower dress watching the demise of her cheating lover.
‘I love this ending. That smile is everything,’ she wrote.
Celypufo added: ‘What can I say, five years have flown by and Midsommar still haunts me. Ari Aster’s unflinching gaze at the darker side of human nature is both mesmerizing and unsettling.’
Reddit user Other-Witness5014 additionally wrote: ‘Midsommar was a journey to madness for me. The fact that you can deal with sadness and loss like how the protagonist does, shook me to the core, as I was dealing with something similar at that time.
‘There were lows and moments of weakness when I wished I was part of a community like that and it took great effort to come out of them. And when I did, the horrors stayed in my mind.’
It holds a strong Rotten Tomatoes rating five years on (Picture: A24)
Dune star Pugh has opened up on filming Midsommar and its downsides (Picture: Jim Spellman/Getty Images)
At the time of its release, Midsommar became an instant hit receiving critical and public acclaim.
The A24 film grossed a huge $48 million (£37.4 million) and holds a strong 83% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaking about making the landmark film, Dune star Pugh said she ‘most definitely abused herself’ in her role as Dani.
‘When I did it, I was so wrapped up in her and I’ve never had this ever before with any of my characters,’ Pugh told podcast hosts James Acaster and Ed Gamble on Off Menu in 2023.
‘I’d never played someone that was in that much pain before, and I would put myself in really shitty situations that maybe other actors don’t need to do but I would just be imagining the worst things.’
She continued: ‘Each day the content would be getting more weird and harder to do. I was putting things in my head that were getting worse and more bleak. I think by the end I probably, most definitely abused my own self in order to get that performance.’
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