49 Fun Facts About Midsommar

Who was Midsommar's cinematographer?

Pawel Pogorzelski, who had shot the director's earlier work, photographed Midsommar almost entirely in unbroken daylight, an inversion of horror's usual darkness.

Who plays Dani, the grieving student at the centre of the film?

Florence Pugh, born in Oxford in 1996, had her breakout year in 2019, when Fighting with My Family and Midsommar reached cinemas within months of each other.

Who plays Christian, Dani's increasingly distant boyfriend?

Jack Reynor, raised in Ireland, pushed for full-frontal nudity in the final ritual, saying he wanted Christian's humiliation to be complete.

Christian and Josh are graduate students in which discipline?

Anthropology: Christian and Josh are anthropology PhD students, and Christian's decision to write his own thesis on the commune, poaching Josh's topic, fuels their falling-out.

Which personal date of Dani's does Christian forget during the trip?

Her birthday: Christian forgets it until prompted, while their host marks it with a hand-drawn portrait of Dani; the slight deepens the rift the film is built on.

How often does the Hårga's great midsummer festival take place?

Once every 90 years: the visitors are told the commune's great midsummer celebration comes round only once in 90 years, a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Josh's thesis on midsummer customs.

How many days does the festival last?

Nine is also the number of human sacrifices the commune must offer at the end.

Which Swedish friend invites the American students to his ancestral commune?

Pelle, raised in the commune after his parents died in a fire, tells Dani that it became his new family; he is the one who invites the group.

How does Dani's sister Terri kill herself and their parents at the start of the film?

Carbon monoxide poisoning: Terri, who has bipolar disorder, pipes car exhaust into the house with hoses, killing their parents and herself in the murder-suicide that starts the film.

What is the name of the cliff-jumping senicide ceremony the visitors witness on their first full day?

Ättestupa takes its name from the ætternisstapi, the family cliff in the Old Icelandic Gautreks saga from which the old leapt to spare their kin; the practice has no archaeological support.

At what age does elder Siv say every Hårga member ends their life?

The mallet used to finish off the survivor was a replica of one in a Stockholm museum.

What does the surviving elder have done to him after the fall fails to kill him?

His head is crushed with a mallet: after the elder's botched leap the commune first mimics his wails, a shared-feeling habit that returns during Dani's breakdown, then finishes him with a large wooden mallet.

Who plays Mark, the crude friend along for the trip?

Will Poulter plays Mark, whose skinned face later turns up worn by the commune member who bludgeons Josh.

Who plays Josh, the student writing his thesis on European midsummer festivities?

William Jackson Harper, known as Chidi in The Good Place, plays Josh, who is bludgeoned after sneaking out at night to photograph the commune's sacred book.

What is Mark doing when he inadvertently desecrates a Hårga ancestral tree?

Urinating on it: Mark relieves himself on the commune's ancestral tree without realising what it is, the offence that later gets him lured away and skinned.

Which Hårga woman lures Mark away after his offence against the sacred tree?

Inga, played by Julia Ragnarsson, beckons Mark away from the communal meal after his offence; he is never seen alive again.

Which British couple also visit the commune as guests?

Simon and Connie, played by Archie Madekwe and Ellora Torchia, arrive as guests of another commune member; both are later killed for the final rite.

What torture method has been used on the visitor Christian finds barely alive in a barn?

The blood eagle: Simon hangs in the barn with his back opened and his lungs drawn out, the legendary Viking torture; the commune has claimed he simply left for the station.

What title does Dani win by outlasting everyone in the maypole dance?

May Queen: Dani is crowned after outlasting every other dancer around the maypole; the contest echoes the Hårgalåten legend of a fiddler who makes the young dance until they drop.

Which Hårga girl is Christian drugged into impregnating in the sex ritual?

Maja, played by Isabelle Grill, has been courting Christian with a love rune and other charms; the elders drug him for the ritual.

What colour is the triangular temple the commune burns in the finale?

Yellow: the bright yellow pyramid-shaped temple, the only building the visitors are forbidden to enter, is set alight with the sacrifices inside as the festival ends.

Christian is placed inside the body of which animal before the temple is set alight?

A bear: Christian, paralysed by a drug, is stitched inside a disembowelled bear carcass and burned with the other sacrifices in the temple.

Which two Hårga members volunteer to join the elders as sacrifices from within the commune?

Ingemar and Ulf step forward as the commune's own offerings and are told they will feel no pain; as the temple burns, the others mimic their screams.

What does Dani do in the film's final shot as the temple collapses?

She slowly smiles: Dani's grimace of grief gives way to a smile as the temple burns, the director framing the film as a fairy tale in which she loses one family and gains another.

Which studio released Midsommar in the United States?

A24 released it in the United States on 3 July 2019, the same week as Spider-Man: Far From Home; the studio had also handled the director's debut.

What genre had the producers who first approached Aster wanted him to make?

A slasher set among cultists: the producers' pitch was a slasher among cultists; he first declined, then took it on by building the story around a couple on the verge of breaking up.

Aster described the finished picture as 'a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of' what?

Folk horror: the full line was 'a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film'; he also called it 'The Wizard of Oz for perverts' and cited Albert Brooks's Modern Romance.

In which country was most of the film shot?

Hungary: the commune was built from scratch on a field outside Budapest in summer 2018, financial incentives having ruled out a Swedish shoot.

Under what stage name is composer Bobby Krlic better known?

The Haxan Cloak: Krlic's 2013 album Excavation was on repeat while the script was written, and he was hired to score the film before shooting began.

What is the name of the inbred oracle whose scribbles form the commune's scripture?

Ruben, deliberately bred from incest as the commune's oracle, produces the markings the elders interpret as holy writ; Josh dies trying to photograph the resulting book.

How long is Aster's director's cut of the film?

171 minutes: the director's cut restores about 23 minutes, including a longer argument between Dani and Christian and an extra lakeside ritual, to the 148-minute theatrical release.

Roughly how many silk flowers make up Dani's May Queen dress?

Ariana Grande and Halsey both expressed interest before the Academy Museum reportedly bought it for $65,000.

The commune's festival is set in which historical province?

Hälsingland: the commune is placed in this northern province, whose real folk legend of a fiddler dancing villagers to death, the Hårgalåten, shapes the maypole contest.

What rating did the MPAA give Midsommar's theatrical cut?

R: the MPAA settled on an R after trims to the graphic nudity of the sex ritual, avoiding the NC-17 that most cinema chains refuse to play.

Approximately how much did Midsommar gross worldwide?

$48 million worldwide: about $27 million came from North America and roughly $20 million from other markets after its July 2019 release.

What grade did CinemaScore audiences give the film?

C+: opening-weekend audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a C+, the low grade often earned by slow-burn art horror; critics were far kinder.

Which 1973 British film is most often cited as the ancestor of Midsommar?

The Wicker Man (1973), in which Edward Woodward's policeman is lured to a pagan Hebridean island and burned alive, supplies Midsommar's template of outsiders sacrificed by a smiling community.

Who was Midsommar's production designer, who built the commune from scratch?

Henrik Svensson designed the commune, from its painted murals and runic tapestries to the triangular temple, building the whole village on an open field.

What was Ari Aster's debut feature, released the year before Midsommar?

Hereditary premiered in Sundance's Midnight section in January 2018 and grossed over $80 million worldwide, with Toni Collette as the grieving matriarch.

Which surrealist comedy-drama did Aster make after Midsommar, in 2023?

Beau Is Afraid (2023), with Joaquin Phoenix as the anxious Beau, had been teased as a four-hour 'nightmare comedy' and grossed well under its $35 million budget.

What is the name of Aster's production company, co-founded with producer Lars Knudsen in 2019?

Square Peg, the company he founded with Lars Knudsen, went on to produce his later features; Midsommar itself was co-produced with B-Reel Films of Stockholm.

Which Swedish actor, famous as Tadzio in Death in Venice, plays the elder Dan?

A 2021 documentary about his life was titled The Most Beautiful Boy in the World.

In the Hårgalåten legend, what gives away the mysterious fiddler's demonic nature?

A cloven hoof: in the legend a girl notices the fiddler's goat's foot too late, and the youths dance behind him up the mountain until only their bones remain.

For which other 2019 film did the actress who plays Dani receive her Academy Award nomination?

Little Women: she played Amy March from age 12 into adulthood in Greta Gerwig's adaptation, earning a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 2020 Oscars.

What is Dani's surname?

Ardor: the character is credited as Dani Ardor, and the surname, meaning burning passion, suits a story that ends with her smiling at a fire.

Which institution reportedly bought Dani's flower dress at the 2020 charity auction?

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures reportedly paid $65,000 for the dress; the auction's proceeds went to the FDNY Foundation's COVID-19 relief and other charities.

Who edited Midsommar?

Lucian Johnston edited the film, as he had the director's debut feature, shaping both the theatrical release and the longer director's cut.

During her first mushroom trip, what does Dani see growing out of her hand?

Grass: on the mushrooms the visitors take as they arrive, Dani watches grass sprout through the back of her hand before panic sends her fleeing into the trees.

Where did the director's cut have its world premiere in August 2019?

The Film Society of Lincoln Center, by then renamed Film at Lincoln Center, premiered the long cut in New York in late August 2019, before it went to Apple TV as a digital exclusive that September.