Midsommar is my favorite movie of all time and I was really excited when I saw this movie on the list. It is about a girl who travels to Sweden with her boyfriend after losing all of her family. While there, the commune is celebrating a once in a 90-year tradition which involves sacrificing visitors, two elders committing suicide, and Dani being crowned the May Queen. After Dani’s boyfriend cheats on her, she decides that he is the last sacrifice and he is placed into a bear costume and burned along with the corpses of everyone who died during the festival. The Witch is a movie about a Puritan family who is riddled with problems by a coven. First, the baby is killed for witchcraft and then the son and it leads to everyone except Thomasin dead and she joins a coven after a man, presumably Satan, offers her a better life.
One of my favorite things about Midsommar is the visuals. The film is bright and filmed in seemingly happy colors. This is done to put your guard down and make you practically do a double take whenever something bad happens. I think the brightness of the movie perfectly juxtaposes Dan’s lack of a stable metal health and all the horrible things that the commune does during this celebration. Additionally, the director marketed this as a break-up movie, and I think it is brilliantly symbolic. From the very start, the audience can see the cracks in Dani and Christian’s relationship. The trip to Sweden is symbolic of the breakup as it begins. Dani has trouble dethatching herself from the relationship but is able to find happiness, as symbolized by the maypole dancing competition and a support system shown by all the girls crying with her. In the end, she is able to completely let Christian go, as shown by her deciding to bun him rather than allow him to live.
This week’s reading discussed the monstorous feminine and how they are potrayed in horror movies. Whe looking at The Witch it was clear to see how it comes to play. In the 14-16th century, witchcraft was one of the biggest worrieds from a religious standpoint, but also because it threatened the power complex of men presiding over women. Men believed that if women possessed this supernatural power, then they would be able to take power from them. Instead they turned it into a religious matter as “the male-dominated Puritan society believed that women’s bodies and souls were weak, submissive, and passive; thus, it was easier for the Devil to attack and penetrate them” (Chusna, Mahmudah, 15). This is shown with Katherine believing that Thomasin, a teenage girl who was seemingly the most susceptible to the lures of the devil, is capable of the horrible things that happened and does not accuse her other children. Ultimately, Thomasin decides to join the coven which is a form of her rejecting her society’s morals and embracing the fact that she wants more than to be a submissive girl.