Ari Aster’s 2019 folk horror film mid-summer festival in Sweden. While the ending initially shocked audiences, Aster included various symbols, artistry, and glimpses that foretold the movie's entire plot.
Following the success of Hereditary (2018), Aster set out to create a film bursting at the seams with what he does best, symbolism. Midsommar was an immediate success among his fans due to its unique story line, characters, and landscape. It showcased that horror did not have to exist in darkness or haunted houses but it could also show itself during the daylight and in moments of celebration. Despite its slow progression towards truly disturbing events, it succeeds in provoking tension and absolute fear of what is to come.
Ultimately, Dani becomes the May Queen she was always destined to become and sacrifices Christian to complete the mid-summer ritual. The most unexpected element in the film is not his death nor is it her being crowned the May Queen, it is actually how many times Aster overtly foreshadowed these events.
Dani Was Destined To Become The May Queen
The first instance that the audience is faced with Dani’s fate is the art piece that opens the film. It tells the story of Midsommar from beginning to end. This is by far the most overt foreshadowing that occurred throughout the film but ten minutes later, Aster offers another symbolic moment that dictates Dani’s crowning. When her parents die, a picture of Dani is shown next to them with flowers that resemble her future crown above the picture frame. In this moment, she has already been crowned the May Queen.
She is also the perfect match for becoming the May Queen as her birthday falls within the mid-summer celebrations and she is in her mid-20s, which is considered to be the mid-summer of a person’s life. Furthermore, nearly every piece of artwork featured in the film details either her future relationship with Pelle, Christian’s death, or their trip to Sweden. Aster’s masterful ability to foreshadow the events of the entire film is impressive in itself but the capability of ensuring that it is not always overt is even more astounding. He created the perfect character to embody the May Queen and displayed it in both overt and covert ways.
The film was released in 2019, and fans continue to look back on it to uncover even more symbolism that the director cleverly tucked into different frames. Midsommar contains so many hints to every character’s fate that it necessitates several views to try and find every single one. Despite this fact, Dani’s destiny was the most overt of them all with the opening sequence with covert imagery sprinkled throughout, such as the photograph in her parents’ room. Ari Aster’s Midsommar is a perfect example of how foreshadowing can be utilized as a tool to assist in framing the horror that is to come, especially in Dani's case.
