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Midsommar
The Screenplay from the new horror film by Ari Aster (Hereditary).
Dani and Christian are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing. From the visionary mind of Ari Aster comes a dread-soaked cinematic fairytale where a world of darkness unfolds in broad daylight.
Dani and Christian are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing. From the visionary mind of Ari Aster comes a dread-soaked cinematic fairytale where a world of darkness unfolds in broad daylight.
118 pages
Published July 3, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
November 21, 2021
"It is horrible and it is beautiful."
"Cut to BLACK."
"Cut to BLACK."
July 14, 2019
This review contains some spoilers for Midsommar (though I have tried to double-lock the more serious twists) and spoilers for the director’s previous feature, Hereditary.
Ari Aster describes his latest offering as ‘a post-apocalyptic break-up movie’. As with the marketing for Hereditary, this is not exactly misleading but does not really tell the whole story. The human interest is what draws me to his films, but in some ways I would like a bit more context here where Hereditary supplied it pretty generously. . I enjoyed both the above elements, and although I would have liked to see the ‘apocalypse’ come sooner, I respect that Aster’s style is more ‘slow burn, big payoff’.
In my opinion, the screenplay is more ‘freaky’ than scary, and not a straightforward horror film at all. This seems to be a bit of a pattern for Aster — some of his short films, like Munchausen, are more sad than scary; Hereditary was originally conceived as a family drama without the supernatural elements; and Midsommar is apparently his last horror film for a while, although he consistently doesn’t discuss it like he considers horror a major element, describing it more with the vocabulary of a dark fantasy: “The Wizard of Oz for perverts”, there’s a big emphasis on the visual and artistic elements, and it has a lot more humour, which is also reflected in the marketing. In fact, audiences probably won’t find it as frightening as the trailer implies, and specific scenes in particular do not really culminate in a scary way. You might even say our expectations are subverted. (Please note that I’m not trying to be edgy by saying I didn’t find the screenplay scary; I thought Hereditary was terrifying. I just get the impression that artistic concerns, visual interest, and general opportunities for experimentation took precedent here.)
In particular, I think it helps to go in knowing that Hereditary was originally not conceived with a supernatural element. Here, the ‘magic’ is much more ambiguous because the characters spend so much of the film on drugs. I’m inclined to include that the rare moments that ‘appear’ supernatural are non-diegetic (i.e. they’re not ‘really’ happening within the world of the film), and that the antagonists and conflict are sourced entirely from the human cult members, and not any kind of supernatural force. A more questionable element is , but this remains very ambiguous. As with Hereditary, Aster takes considerable liberties with lore (partly as artistic license, and partly to maintain mystery and suspense), and I actually would have liked to see a closer connection to the Norse origins of the Midsommar traditions (at least one or two references to the cult’s beliefs about higher powers would have helped), and what exactly governs all their beliefs about .
The characters are significantly less sympathetic than Hereditary. Christian and Mark are quite stereotypical ‘bros’, and apparently not very serious Grad students of Anthropology, while Josh is the more serious, studious friend. Some of the insight into American academia surprised me — I had no idea you could get away with starting a PhD without a topic! — but other parts didn’t seem entirely realistic (or, at least, it was hard to suspend my disbelief). . On a minor note, I liked that Pelle’s moral code .
The sexual element is . Arguably it also factors in to the theme of cultural dissonance: .
I found the ending .
Anyone reading should take this with a grain of salt, of course, because the film released will inevitably look somewhat different from the screenplay: the most obvious additions in the trailer are the motif of labour breathing exercises (or what looks like them), and the scene of someone wiping the blood from their wrists on a rune-stone, though I’m not sure what this actually signifies. . There will undoubtedly be divergences more relevant to the plot as well, but pretty much everything that’s been released so far is consistent with this screenplay. I hope screenplay-readers have the general picture of what to expect, so we can steel ourselves accordingly.
Ari Aster describes his latest offering as ‘a post-apocalyptic break-up movie’. As with the marketing for Hereditary, this is not exactly misleading but does not really tell the whole story. The human interest is what draws me to his films, but in some ways I would like a bit more context here where Hereditary supplied it pretty generously. . I enjoyed both the above elements, and although I would have liked to see the ‘apocalypse’ come sooner, I respect that Aster’s style is more ‘slow burn, big payoff’.
In my opinion, the screenplay is more ‘freaky’ than scary, and not a straightforward horror film at all. This seems to be a bit of a pattern for Aster — some of his short films, like Munchausen, are more sad than scary; Hereditary was originally conceived as a family drama without the supernatural elements; and Midsommar is apparently his last horror film for a while, although he consistently doesn’t discuss it like he considers horror a major element, describing it more with the vocabulary of a dark fantasy: “The Wizard of Oz for perverts”, there’s a big emphasis on the visual and artistic elements, and it has a lot more humour, which is also reflected in the marketing. In fact, audiences probably won’t find it as frightening as the trailer implies, and specific scenes in particular do not really culminate in a scary way. You might even say our expectations are subverted. (Please note that I’m not trying to be edgy by saying I didn’t find the screenplay scary; I thought Hereditary was terrifying. I just get the impression that artistic concerns, visual interest, and general opportunities for experimentation took precedent here.)
In particular, I think it helps to go in knowing that Hereditary was originally not conceived with a supernatural element. Here, the ‘magic’ is much more ambiguous because the characters spend so much of the film on drugs. I’m inclined to include that the rare moments that ‘appear’ supernatural are non-diegetic (i.e. they’re not ‘really’ happening within the world of the film), and that the antagonists and conflict are sourced entirely from the human cult members, and not any kind of supernatural force. A more questionable element is , but this remains very ambiguous. As with Hereditary, Aster takes considerable liberties with lore (partly as artistic license, and partly to maintain mystery and suspense), and I actually would have liked to see a closer connection to the Norse origins of the Midsommar traditions (at least one or two references to the cult’s beliefs about higher powers would have helped), and what exactly governs all their beliefs about .
The characters are significantly less sympathetic than Hereditary. Christian and Mark are quite stereotypical ‘bros’, and apparently not very serious Grad students of Anthropology, while Josh is the more serious, studious friend. Some of the insight into American academia surprised me — I had no idea you could get away with starting a PhD without a topic! — but other parts didn’t seem entirely realistic (or, at least, it was hard to suspend my disbelief). . On a minor note, I liked that Pelle’s moral code .
The sexual element is . Arguably it also factors in to the theme of cultural dissonance: .
I found the ending .
Anyone reading should take this with a grain of salt, of course, because the film released will inevitably look somewhat different from the screenplay: the most obvious additions in the trailer are the motif of labour breathing exercises (or what looks like them), and the scene of someone wiping the blood from their wrists on a rune-stone, though I’m not sure what this actually signifies. . There will undoubtedly be divergences more relevant to the plot as well, but pretty much everything that’s been released so far is consistent with this screenplay. I hope screenplay-readers have the general picture of what to expect, so we can steel ourselves accordingly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 17, 2020
میدسامر را، مثل فیلم دیگر آری استر، میشود جزو فیلمهایی گذاشت که در دههی 2010 ساختشان اوج گرفته و قرار است فیلم ترسناک "ارزشمند" باشند؛ فیلمی که به سلیقهی مخاطب "باسواد و فرهیخته،" که معمولن میانهای با این ژانر ندارد، بخورد. در فیلمهای اصیل این ژانر شما با روایتی طرفید که میتوانید وحشت نهفته در داستانش را به شکل نمادین تفسیر کنید یا نکنید. در حالی که فیلمهای دستهی جدید کل موجودیتشان را نمادین میدانند و اصرار دارند که مخاطب "فرهیخته"شان هم آنها را نمادین ببیند و بفهمد. وجه تمثیلی که در فیلمهای اصیل ژانر در دل میزانسن و ماجراهای فیلم پنهان شده بود، اینجا در فیلمهای دستهی جدید خیلی رو و واضح خودش را درچشم تماشاگر فرو میکند. توزیعکنندهها و منتقدهای جریان اصلی هم عوض تاکید بر وحشتناک یا ترسآور بودن فیلم، روی خوشساختی و "ارزشمند" بودن فیلم مانور میدهند و آن را فیلمی معرفی میکنند که یکی از "مشکلات بزرگ زمانهی ما" را به تصویر کشیده. منتقدانی که فیلمهای اصیل ژانر را به خاطر نمایش عریان خشونت و باورناپذیری پلات و رفتار کاراکترها تقبیح میکردند، حالا هیچ مشکلی با همان ویژگیها در فیلمی چون میدسامر ندارند
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July 17, 2024ari aster might keep articulating different artistic expressions of grief until the day he dies but he sure as hell is good at it.
April 18, 2020
I really enjoyed reading the screenplay, it gave me some new insights into the film that I didn't necessarily get from a first watch in the cinema. I don't have a review as such, just a collection of thoughts:
1. The script magnifies how abusive Christian is. He certainly comes across as a bad boyfriend in the film, but reading scenes with Dani and Christian on paper really accentuates how much he gaslights her, twists situations when he's done wrong and makes her feel guilty for questioning things.
2. There is little justification for Ruben as a character. He often appears in the background of scenes doing minor things that don't serve the plot in any way. It seems that he is being used as a stock character (person with disability having some 'special power'). In terms of positive representation, it's not great.
3. The script seems to put a lot of emphasis on family and suggests that this is Dani's biggest desire. It begins and ends with an image of Dani being embraced by a family - her own and then the Hargas. This is interesting because I don't find that it translates in the film. From a first watch, I found that what Dani really wants and needs is emotional support (which she wants from Christian but doesn't get). This doesn't necessarily come from a family; early on in the film, we see Dani giving a lot of emotional support to her sister and checking in on her parents but getting nothing back. She is especially in need of emotional support after the loss of her family, which she eventually finds in the Hargas.
4. The Hargas have a physical language called 'affect' which is based on emotions rather than words (which reinforces the idea that emotional support is what Dani is really looking for). Either I missed this when watching the film, or it wasn't clear enough. It's a really fascinating detail that comes out in scenes where the Hargas seem to be imitating the raw emotion of people in distress, as if it empathise. Are the Hargas actually a very compassionate society?
5. I found it odd that Pelle doesn't get sacrificed. There is a line in the script that suggests that Hargas who bring in outsiders to be scarified (like Pelle and Ingmar did) are rewarded with being sacrificed. Ingmar (who brings the two Brits) is sacrificed, but Pelle isn't. By the end of the film, I didn't feel particularly attached to Pelle as a character, so I thought this was an unusual decision. The only reason I can think of is that if Pelle dies, it doesn't give Dani much of a reason to stay because everyone she knows that connects her to the outside world is dead. Plus (aside from being an accomplice to all the killing) Pelle seems like a decent guy, and the only guy who actually listens to and supports Dani, so maybe it sets up the potential for a romance if he lives.
6. How the comedy translates from page to screen was interesting to see. I remember finding the love scene between Christian and Maja funny in the film because it's so bizarre, but reading it is a different experience. It's quite disturbing, especially as Christian has been drugged and isn't in his right mind. I also found Christian's woes about his PhD and Josh taking him to task for stealing his topic much funnier in the script. 'You didn’t even know how to use J-Stor before I taught you' is a great line.
Some final questions: Does Pelle ever go back to America and finish his degree? Does Dani go on a pilgrimage or stay with the Hargas? What are the midsommar festivals like in a normal year, do people still get sacrificed? Assuming Dani stays with the Hargas, how does she cope with seeing Maja with Christian's baby?
1. The script magnifies how abusive Christian is. He certainly comes across as a bad boyfriend in the film, but reading scenes with Dani and Christian on paper really accentuates how much he gaslights her, twists situations when he's done wrong and makes her feel guilty for questioning things.
2. There is little justification for Ruben as a character. He often appears in the background of scenes doing minor things that don't serve the plot in any way. It seems that he is being used as a stock character (person with disability having some 'special power'). In terms of positive representation, it's not great.
3. The script seems to put a lot of emphasis on family and suggests that this is Dani's biggest desire. It begins and ends with an image of Dani being embraced by a family - her own and then the Hargas. This is interesting because I don't find that it translates in the film. From a first watch, I found that what Dani really wants and needs is emotional support (which she wants from Christian but doesn't get). This doesn't necessarily come from a family; early on in the film, we see Dani giving a lot of emotional support to her sister and checking in on her parents but getting nothing back. She is especially in need of emotional support after the loss of her family, which she eventually finds in the Hargas.
4. The Hargas have a physical language called 'affect' which is based on emotions rather than words (which reinforces the idea that emotional support is what Dani is really looking for). Either I missed this when watching the film, or it wasn't clear enough. It's a really fascinating detail that comes out in scenes where the Hargas seem to be imitating the raw emotion of people in distress, as if it empathise. Are the Hargas actually a very compassionate society?
5. I found it odd that Pelle doesn't get sacrificed. There is a line in the script that suggests that Hargas who bring in outsiders to be scarified (like Pelle and Ingmar did) are rewarded with being sacrificed. Ingmar (who brings the two Brits) is sacrificed, but Pelle isn't. By the end of the film, I didn't feel particularly attached to Pelle as a character, so I thought this was an unusual decision. The only reason I can think of is that if Pelle dies, it doesn't give Dani much of a reason to stay because everyone she knows that connects her to the outside world is dead. Plus (aside from being an accomplice to all the killing) Pelle seems like a decent guy, and the only guy who actually listens to and supports Dani, so maybe it sets up the potential for a romance if he lives.
6. How the comedy translates from page to screen was interesting to see. I remember finding the love scene between Christian and Maja funny in the film because it's so bizarre, but reading it is a different experience. It's quite disturbing, especially as Christian has been drugged and isn't in his right mind. I also found Christian's woes about his PhD and Josh taking him to task for stealing his topic much funnier in the script. 'You didn’t even know how to use J-Stor before I taught you' is a great line.
Some final questions: Does Pelle ever go back to America and finish his degree? Does Dani go on a pilgrimage or stay with the Hargas? What are the midsommar festivals like in a normal year, do people still get sacrificed? Assuming Dani stays with the Hargas, how does she cope with seeing Maja with Christian's baby?
July 12, 2019
I went to see this movie last week and loved it. I didn't really feel like I was watching a horror movie, though - which was what I was expecting after seeing Hereditary. It felt more like watching a cultural documentary to me that just had some dark rituals, but I never just felt dread and he didn't go for any jump scares. In fact, I left the movie feeling kind of good about everything. The ending was very polarizing for people, but it just left me feeling like "oh well, it is what it is."
After seeing the movie I feel like I've been thinking about it constantly and looking into what I saw a lot more. I saw yesterday that Ari Aster was doing an Ask Me Anything on Reddit (link/address below) and I didn't hesitate to read it, although I was disappointed that I didn't find it sooner so I could ask some questions I've had. He essentially gave people his blessing to read the leaked script after seeing the movie, so I ran with and downloaded the PDF (link/address below).
I was not disappointed. It was very interesting to be able to see the Swedish translations as there weren't really any subtitles on screen during the movie except for the gibberish translation. I loved seeing where things had changed to end up on screen and I hope to see more of what I read in this script when he releases an extended edition of the movie at some point.
Ari Aster AMA
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comme...
Midsommar PDF
https://www.docdroid.net/39EggEN/mids...
After seeing the movie I feel like I've been thinking about it constantly and looking into what I saw a lot more. I saw yesterday that Ari Aster was doing an Ask Me Anything on Reddit (link/address below) and I didn't hesitate to read it, although I was disappointed that I didn't find it sooner so I could ask some questions I've had. He essentially gave people his blessing to read the leaked script after seeing the movie, so I ran with and downloaded the PDF (link/address below).
I was not disappointed. It was very interesting to be able to see the Swedish translations as there weren't really any subtitles on screen during the movie except for the gibberish translation. I loved seeing where things had changed to end up on screen and I hope to see more of what I read in this script when he releases an extended edition of the movie at some point.
Ari Aster AMA
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comme...
Midsommar PDF
https://www.docdroid.net/39EggEN/mids...
October 6, 2019
3,5/5
Loved the movie, the screenplay was very interesting, I liked the added scenes, they added more context to this interesting story.
Loved the movie, the screenplay was very interesting, I liked the added scenes, they added more context to this interesting story.
May 10, 2020
I read this script in one go in the middle of the night, and I was just blown away by how good it was, and I haven't even seen the film. The story was just amazing.
October 7, 2025
Midsommar, written and directed by Ari Aster
8.8 out of 10
How on earth did I know that the elder people would jump off that cliff and hence I anticipated the peculiarness of this feature?
There are, as always, a few ways to approach this film and its content…either following the positive paradigm – ‘be a merit finder, not a fault finder’ or ‘there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so’ Shakespeare – or indulging in criticism of the various shortcomings of the motion picture, which may not abound, but believe me, you can find them.
First off, it seems rather odd and rather ineffective to prolong the plunge into the substance of the film, which lies with the Swedish cult and its outlandish, cruel, autarchic, primeval rituals, with a long, even tedious segment in America, where the group of young people have an awkward dynamic and finally – it looked like it would never happen – decide to travel to this strange place in Europe…
Dani, her somewhat unhappy with their bond boyfriend, Christian, and his friends, Josh, Mark and Pelle decide to take a trip to the place where Pelle was born, in Sweden and spend time in the community there, after some back and forth, hesitations caused by the fact that the men would not want Dani to come along, but she does.
The natives seem friendly enough, when they arrive, and their attire appears innocent enough, with white dresses with traditional motives, a temple with naïve paintings on the wall, instead of the icons we see in other places of worship on the old continent, and some really bizarre decorations and art forms, with one showing the sexual organs of a woman and some peculiar operation that takes place there…
It is a slow introduction to what becomes a horror film and the question asked at the start may have an easy answer, for all viewers might have expected some horrible thing to happen – especially if they had looked up the genre of the film, which I did not – after this segment where we see that the Swedish members of this cult seem friendly, but they have some outlandish answers to almost all the questions asked.
Pelle is the one introducing the guests – and we would later learn that he had been actually on a mission and he brought the Americans to the camp with a definite, nefarious purpose -and explaining some of the traditions, the habits they have in the group, where spring is the period up to 18, followed by summer, until the person reaches 36, then we have autumn, finished at 54 and finally winter, between the ages of 54 and 72…what happens after that?
It is the end!
And that is the start of the gruesome, ghastly part of the film, where we have the ceremony in which and elder couple, presumably out of winter and ready for the next stage, climb on top of two cliffs, watched from below by the whole assembly of children, women and men and then they jump to a terrifying death in the case of the woman and to an agonizing crash, in which one leg is severed and the man is conscious, up to the moment when his kind friends come with something like a huge hammer and bash his head in…the special effects are good and we are shown in quite a few scenes remarkable imagery of skulls crushing, brains coming out, entrails and other resplendent pictures.
We could pause here and state that reading Influence by Robert Cialdini or other psychological classics would help understand some of what is going on in the film, for we have had in real life tragedies that resemble Midsommar, one mass suicide that took place in Guyana for instance, is explained in the book using the Principles of Conformity and Reciprocity…people tend to imitate what others do, especially when they are in situations that are extreme, there is also the Principle of Respect for Authority and here they look at the elders to see what they have to do…
From the moment when the older couple dies and it is explained that they wanted it, they all do the same when their time comes and the guests are first horrified – or are they really? – but then try to use this Communicating Across Cultures bulshit, wherein they start accepting that this is a different thinking, ‘they also feel that taking old people to homes and leave them there to vegetate is inhumane…’ and finding excuses for something which absolutely monstrous and unacceptable…
Furthermore, Josh had known that he wants to have a thesis on what is going on here, taking notes throughout, but then the undecided Christian wants to do about the same and a dispute ensues between the two, when they should have been on the same side and both – actually all – needed to face the cruelty, abjectness of the event wherein a large group of people condone suicide, which arguably could be seen as premeditated murder, for the man and woman might have had no option but to surrender to the will of the mad ‘friends and relatives’.
Just like other fanatics, The Manson Family, the Reverend Moon and other mad religious leaders, the cult in Midsommar have a series of awful traditions, which include inbreeding, to produce a descendant that has some special capabilities, having sex with partners assigned based on astrology, coitus in the presence of a dancing group of women, old and apparently young, that dance when intercourse take place, come to the man involved in the act and push his behind, sing some outré, rather unstimulating, hoarse chants and the list is much longer.
Worst of all, they kill human beings – and the poor bear that had been kept in a small cage, for animal or human rights have not reached this remote place in the north – and they call it sacrifice, but then Australopithecus may have used some similar term…
8.8 out of 10
How on earth did I know that the elder people would jump off that cliff and hence I anticipated the peculiarness of this feature?
There are, as always, a few ways to approach this film and its content…either following the positive paradigm – ‘be a merit finder, not a fault finder’ or ‘there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so’ Shakespeare – or indulging in criticism of the various shortcomings of the motion picture, which may not abound, but believe me, you can find them.
First off, it seems rather odd and rather ineffective to prolong the plunge into the substance of the film, which lies with the Swedish cult and its outlandish, cruel, autarchic, primeval rituals, with a long, even tedious segment in America, where the group of young people have an awkward dynamic and finally – it looked like it would never happen – decide to travel to this strange place in Europe…
Dani, her somewhat unhappy with their bond boyfriend, Christian, and his friends, Josh, Mark and Pelle decide to take a trip to the place where Pelle was born, in Sweden and spend time in the community there, after some back and forth, hesitations caused by the fact that the men would not want Dani to come along, but she does.
The natives seem friendly enough, when they arrive, and their attire appears innocent enough, with white dresses with traditional motives, a temple with naïve paintings on the wall, instead of the icons we see in other places of worship on the old continent, and some really bizarre decorations and art forms, with one showing the sexual organs of a woman and some peculiar operation that takes place there…
It is a slow introduction to what becomes a horror film and the question asked at the start may have an easy answer, for all viewers might have expected some horrible thing to happen – especially if they had looked up the genre of the film, which I did not – after this segment where we see that the Swedish members of this cult seem friendly, but they have some outlandish answers to almost all the questions asked.
Pelle is the one introducing the guests – and we would later learn that he had been actually on a mission and he brought the Americans to the camp with a definite, nefarious purpose -and explaining some of the traditions, the habits they have in the group, where spring is the period up to 18, followed by summer, until the person reaches 36, then we have autumn, finished at 54 and finally winter, between the ages of 54 and 72…what happens after that?
It is the end!
And that is the start of the gruesome, ghastly part of the film, where we have the ceremony in which and elder couple, presumably out of winter and ready for the next stage, climb on top of two cliffs, watched from below by the whole assembly of children, women and men and then they jump to a terrifying death in the case of the woman and to an agonizing crash, in which one leg is severed and the man is conscious, up to the moment when his kind friends come with something like a huge hammer and bash his head in…the special effects are good and we are shown in quite a few scenes remarkable imagery of skulls crushing, brains coming out, entrails and other resplendent pictures.
We could pause here and state that reading Influence by Robert Cialdini or other psychological classics would help understand some of what is going on in the film, for we have had in real life tragedies that resemble Midsommar, one mass suicide that took place in Guyana for instance, is explained in the book using the Principles of Conformity and Reciprocity…people tend to imitate what others do, especially when they are in situations that are extreme, there is also the Principle of Respect for Authority and here they look at the elders to see what they have to do…
From the moment when the older couple dies and it is explained that they wanted it, they all do the same when their time comes and the guests are first horrified – or are they really? – but then try to use this Communicating Across Cultures bulshit, wherein they start accepting that this is a different thinking, ‘they also feel that taking old people to homes and leave them there to vegetate is inhumane…’ and finding excuses for something which absolutely monstrous and unacceptable…
Furthermore, Josh had known that he wants to have a thesis on what is going on here, taking notes throughout, but then the undecided Christian wants to do about the same and a dispute ensues between the two, when they should have been on the same side and both – actually all – needed to face the cruelty, abjectness of the event wherein a large group of people condone suicide, which arguably could be seen as premeditated murder, for the man and woman might have had no option but to surrender to the will of the mad ‘friends and relatives’.
Just like other fanatics, The Manson Family, the Reverend Moon and other mad religious leaders, the cult in Midsommar have a series of awful traditions, which include inbreeding, to produce a descendant that has some special capabilities, having sex with partners assigned based on astrology, coitus in the presence of a dancing group of women, old and apparently young, that dance when intercourse take place, come to the man involved in the act and push his behind, sing some outré, rather unstimulating, hoarse chants and the list is much longer.
Worst of all, they kill human beings – and the poor bear that had been kept in a small cage, for animal or human rights have not reached this remote place in the north – and they call it sacrifice, but then Australopithecus may have used some similar term…
November 15, 2021
Horrifying! Though, while the screenplay is very engaging and descriptive, I kept getting the sense that it was missing something in this format. It's clear to me that Midsommar was meant to be a visual thing - which isn't a flaw in itself, it just changes the reading experience somewhat. Whether or not I want to see in live action, well...
July 12, 2019
1. god bless ari aster's script editor honestly
2. GOOD FOR HER
2. GOOD FOR HER
Read
June 28, 2021finally saw the movie and I'm obsessed.
October 6, 2022
I don’t read screenplays often, but I felt like I needed to after watching the movie because what the actual hell was that? It was over two hours long and I couldn’t even tell you what was going on. I feel like so much happened and yet nothing at all. As a horror fanatic, this definitely wasn’t for me.
March 23, 2025
Oh my!!! This screenplay was excellent. Now I must watch this movie. The story ends up taking place in Halsingland, North Sweden. Nothing is as it appears. Can you say, "Pagan Nature Worship". What a cult.
August 17, 2021
the films been on my watchlist forever i got bored and read the screenplay in one sitting not bad i liked it im sure the movie will be better
November 15, 2023
Okay Ari what is WITH the thumb jokes
November 18, 2023
i could write essays about ari aster’s films (and have) so i have a lot to say but i don’t wanna type it here so i’ll just say: so amazing and heartbreaking and shocking and dark and beautiful!!!!!
December 30, 2021
I'm not sure how to rate a film script!! Insofar as story, I prefer Hereditary, but they are also wildly different. Midsommar is, at times, hilarious. These intensely, obviously wicked things are happening all around the main characters, and they act like any cliche horror movie character: oblivious, if not amused. The three who are not all about this are swiftly silenced by force--two through the usual horror means, and Dani through disinterest and manipulation. She tries several times to point out that, actually, this is completely fucked up, can we go home? Then her friends are like, "but this is so neat how they just jump off cliffs and sacrifice animals whats even your problem"
My recommendation is that if you liked or were at least curious about the movie, you will probably enjoy the script. There's additional scenes that are pretty cool (I like the river theater, with the kid), and it will give some additional perspectives.
My recommendation is that if you liked or were at least curious about the movie, you will probably enjoy the script. There's additional scenes that are pretty cool (I like the river theater, with the kid), and it will give some additional perspectives.
July 4, 2025
la pelicula no es suficiente... necesitaba leerme el guion 🚬🚬
muy interesnate todas las escenas que no llegaron a la peli definitiva, mola haberlas conocido pero me alegro de que no llegasen al corte final, hubiese sido demasiado larga jijiji
muy interesnate todas las escenas que no llegaron a la peli definitiva, mola haberlas conocido pero me alegro de que no llegasen al corte final, hubiese sido demasiado larga jijiji
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November 22, 2020Believe me when I say, I am just as surprised as you are that I liked this movie. It wasn’t so much enjoyment as it was...morbid fascination? It’s like a horrific car accident where you just can’t seem to pull your eyes away... but also artistic. Anyway, reading the script was an especially interesting experience: getting to know what creative decisions were kept in the movie and what things changed or were altered.
July 4, 2022
🌟5 Stars🌟
This was sooo good. I recently rewatched the film and wondered if the screenplay would provide more context, and I was pleasantly surprised! Every line in this screenplay feels intentional and every scene moves the plot forward while adding more meat to the characters and the cult. I have to read Hereditary now!
I definitely recommend this to anyone who loved the film and want to dive deeper into the story.
This was sooo good. I recently rewatched the film and wondered if the screenplay would provide more context, and I was pleasantly surprised! Every line in this screenplay feels intentional and every scene moves the plot forward while adding more meat to the characters and the cult. I have to read Hereditary now!
I definitely recommend this to anyone who loved the film and want to dive deeper into the story.
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July 13, 2025(Shooting script)
Would have loved to see the longer mushroom trip and fallout scene included here—they did film it, in fact, because of a promotional image released by A24 in which we see a sweaty Dani being consoled by Christian (in attire that was only worn the day of their arrival); but perhaps leaving her alone (even if unshown) for the trip only to awaken to Christian and co. was more effective? In any case I’m always a proponent for Aster projects to be as long as he wants them to be.
Would have loved to see the longer mushroom trip and fallout scene included here—they did film it, in fact, because of a promotional image released by A24 in which we see a sweaty Dani being consoled by Christian (in attire that was only worn the day of their arrival); but perhaps leaving her alone (even if unshown) for the trip only to awaken to Christian and co. was more effective? In any case I’m always a proponent for Aster projects to be as long as he wants them to be.
December 31, 2022
Christian, Mark and Josh are even more unlikable in the script. Like, I’m sorry, but they deserved that shit lmao.
The final lines are chef’s kiss:
“She has surrendered to a joy known only by the insane. She has lost herself completely, and she is finally free. It is horrible and it is beautiful.”
The final lines are chef’s kiss:
“She has surrendered to a joy known only by the insane. She has lost herself completely, and she is finally free. It is horrible and it is beautiful.”
November 12, 2023
This is one of the most concerning things I ever read. I watchedthe movie and it was horrible. I either didn’t understand what was going on or was completely horrified. So mich was happening but at the same time absolutely nothing. A horrible plot that was tried to be covered up by way too much gore. Which fucked up person thought of this.
April 22, 2024
The amount of research that Aster does for his scripts really shines when you read them and Midsommar is a prime example of this. It's a phenomenal script. The relationship dynamics within it are incredibly well done and play into the plot. The amount of manipulation within the script is truly a testament to how cults work from the inside out.
October 5, 2021
Somehow reading the screenplay hyped me up where I thought I could watch a couple scenes from the movie. Was sorely mistaken. Only read this because it's my best friend's favorite movie and I refuse to watch it, do I think she is deranged? Yes. But did I enjoy it? Somewhat(?).
September 8, 2024
The script is good and interesting, and there are a couple minor details/moments not in the film (only a couple), but outside of that, it's quite dry. The movie is amazing because of the cast, cinematography, soundtrack, etc. The script is just...there.
August 8, 2025
Het is leuk om af en toe iets in een andere stijl te lezen, zoals dit filmscript. Het geeft een leuke, andere benadering van de film (mijn lievelingsfilm!) en de film is zelfs nog iets minder uitgebreid dan het script, dus het geeft wat extra informatie. Voor de fan van de film zeker een aanrader.
July 18, 2020
It does no good, dodging.
Lashing back at the inevitable.
It corrupts the spirit. (65:00)
Lashing back at the inevitable.
It corrupts the spirit. (65:00)
November 17, 2020
Scary screenplay, not much dialogue but the descriptions are very good. But, ofcourse, a bit predictable. Nevertheless recommended!
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