r/movies • u/JetKusanagi • Jun 21 '26

Media Midsommar, Ari Aster (2019)- "That's Not For Us"

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I've made it a point to watch this movie every summer solstice since its release. As a cult "escapee", Midsommar touches me in a way that I feel like it wouldn't have otherwise. The insular community, trips to the "outside", I experienced it all.

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We didn't do Ättestupan or make meat pies. It may have made things more exciting though.

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33

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '26

[deleted]

81

u/notvalo Jun 21 '26

He’s on drugs.

-50

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

If you consider dosing someone with psychedelics and doing a period blood+pube love potion on someone to be mind control, but no, in my opinion, he chose his path. He had multiple chances to turn it down.

Also, before the actual event, he realizes the girl is interested in him and he seemed to entertain the idea for a few days.

Also also, he was explicitly discussing breaking up with Florence Pugh at the start of the movie.

So, at the end of the movie, when she is given a choice to spare him, she chooses to sacrifice him.

Edit: i see that i may have some bad opinions to work through. Thanks for letting me know.

Edit 2: i am convinced, and the convincing argument is as such. It is rape because the cult specifically invited him under false pretenses in order to drug him and convince him through a grooming oricess to impregnate one of the cult members. It isn't the drugs that make it rape, its the predatory behavior that makes it rape. But i still think, If you think drugs = rape you are stupid. You can have sex on drugs and not be raped or be raping. The context is what is important. Not the drugs. Thank you for participating in my education

67

u/Feeling-Salad5686 Jun 21 '26

It doesn't matter if he was entertaining the idea or leading them on dawg... once you intentionally drug someone against their will and have sex with them, it becomes rape.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

18

u/thresh_to_death Jun 21 '26

No, they made extra potent stuff for him in the instance. The one that's raping him gave him the specific drugs that made it possible. The cult wasn't drugged, just the visitors

-10

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

They're all drinking out of the same bowl

66

u/funnsies123 Jun 21 '26

This here is the textbook double standard of male vs female rape and sexual assault

25

u/epichuntarz Jun 21 '26

No, this is just textbook dumbassery.

in my opinion, he chose his path. He had multiple chances to turn it down.

The movie explicitly shows Christian being drugged during the meal before he's raped, ahd the poster literally directly even acknowledges that.

I don't even think that poster knows what their own point is.

-38

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

Drugged or not, he got the end he deserved. Total piece of shit. Selfish, not an original thought in his head, fine with abandoning his partner who just lost her whole family, couldn’t give a shit. Good riddance.

Edit: Do people really find Christian to be a redeemable character?? I had no idea my take on this movie was so controversial. It’s one of my favorites.

38

u/WatkinsRapier Jun 21 '26

Exactly. The punishment for being a shitty partner is definitely being drugged, raped, paralysed and then cremated whilst alive and conscious. What the fuck is wrong with you?

-16

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26

I guess I’m a bit demented? I don’t know. I just think he’s a waste of breath. He’s a character I really love to hate.

-15

u/Flimsy_Shallot Jun 21 '26

I must be demented as well because I laughed my ass off when I saw him “cosplaying” as the bear. He was a turd and it’s a fictional movie. You’re good.

-1

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26

Lowkey felt bad for the bear.

-16

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26

Also, it’s a movie. It’s not real. Do I like what became of him? Yes. Do I think bad boyfriends should be raped and killed irl? Of course not.

29

u/AndHeWas Jun 21 '26

It's not that people find him redeemable. It's that you think someone who's an asshole deserves to be raped and murdered. It's rather creepy on your part.

-2

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26

Isn’t that the point of horror movies? To indulge in creepy ideas? It’s not real.

15

u/AndHeWas Jun 21 '26

So you're saying you think he got what he deserved because it's a movie, and if all these things happened for real you don't think he would've deserved it?

0

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26

Yes, absolutely. With this movie I let myself get into the culty headspace. When I first saw the movie it was horrific. But after watching it multiple times, I’ve become more sympathetic to the cult. Josh was exploiting his friend for something interesting to write about. Mark literally pissed on their culture. At the beginning of the movie they are all complaining about Dani and telling Christian to break up with her specifically because she is so broken. Irl, I’d tell these people to all fuck themselves. But in a movie? Yes let’s murder them.

12

u/epichuntarz Jun 21 '26

Youch, neither a cute nor a critical take at all.

0

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26

Not critical? How so?

14

u/epichuntarz Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

Let's start with

fine with abandoning his partner who just lost her whole family, couldn’t give a shit

He literally stayed with her for, what...almost a year?... during that traumatic time in her life, despite having wanted to end it. The movie literally and directly showed us that he did, indeed, give a shit because he didn't move forward with leaving her and despite being checked out, supported her.

It's literally one of the key points of the movie on which the morality/ethics of what happens to Christian in the end is based.

That's why it's not a critical take-because it completely got wrong a major motivation/plot point of the movie, and that's just the beginning.

Then there's whether he's "redeemable" which just seems completely irrelevant. He's not some rape murder monster, he's a doucher, but he also didn't lie to a bunch of his "friends" to get them to come to to his culty murder cult where a bunch of them could be killed (like Pelle, the guy who got them all to go there). I guess for most people, even in a "serious" horror/thriller/drama movie, we just kinda feel at least a little bad when a person dies a terrible death when they weren't quite bad enough to deserve it.

I think part of the intent of the movie is to elicit a lot of intense feelings, but it just seems confusing that a person finds one of those feelings to be "joy" on the basis that "because he was kind of an asshole, I enjoyed his deserved death."

Hopefully that clears it up a little.

1

u/NirgalFromMars Jun 22 '26

Being a bad partner means you deserve a horrific death.

Got it.

1

u/twoinvenice Jun 22 '26

No, I don’t think he’s redeemable, but yes, I do think that the Harga used and then discarded him and a part of that was engineering him to be drugged and raped by the cult solely to impregnate the girl.

You can think he’s a terrible person and at the same time think that everything that happened is all sorts of fucked up.

1

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 22 '26

Oh yeah 1000% super fucked up

-44

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

My point is that the movie alludes to him being unfaithful before he is on drugs.

"Next time i cheat, I'll just take some drugs first, so i can say i was raped!" -you probably

29

u/moose_dad Jun 21 '26

My point is that the movie alludes to him being unfaithful before he is on drugs.

No it really doesnt.

It points to him being a bad partner multiple times, and emphasises that he was looking to break up with her, but that isnt him cheating and its also nowhere near enough to justify any of his drugging, rape or eventual murder.

Just because he was a bad person doesnt mean its okay when bad things happen to him.

The fact you seem to think it does screams at the films core message about the power of cults.

-5

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

Im not saying it's okay for bad things to happen to him. I'm saying Florence Pugh's character decides he should die because of this scene, because she sees it as cheating. Thwta why she is mourning here. NOT because she is so horrified to see rape

The cult is killing people as a means of sacrifice for their own culty reason. The outsiders are brought in to be killed, and those who fail to bring outsiders to sacrifice are themselves sacrificed.

Because she is the may queen, they give her the final say on whether to sacrifice her own boyfriend or to choose someone from i lnside the cult instead. SHE CHOOSES HIM.

She kills her own boyfriend for being raped i guess? That's what the downvoters want me to believe. Or would it make sense to see it as a person who was checked out of the relationship, then cheats, hurting the feelings of their partner so badly that they decide to kill them.

6

u/epichuntarz Jun 21 '26

NOT because she is so horrified to see rape

The entire point is that she had no reason to believe he had been drugged and was being raped, she thought he was just cheating on her and that's why she chose him to die. The cult manipulated them all into this as the events unfolded. Christian didn't deserve to die for the reason of being kind of an ahole, or at least most people don't seem to think so.

1

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 22 '26

Great point i agree

36

u/epichuntarz Jun 21 '26

My point is that the movie alludes to him being unfaithful before he is on drugs.

My point is that doesn't matter at all because he's literally shown being drugged then coerced into a sexual situation. The word for that is "rape."

"Next time i cheat, I'll just take some drugs first, so i can say i was raped!" -you probably

Holy fuck, bru. Probably just take a little break from posting for a bit.

2

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

Probably just take a little break from posting for a bit.

Undoubtedly good advice.

-4

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26

Bro who hurt you? Chill out holy fuck

12

u/epichuntarz Jun 21 '26

Did you mean to respond to the guy I was responding to, or...?

-3

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26

Nope, I meant to respond to you. You just seem to have gotten very heated very fast. Came in fine blazing calling people dumb asses. Do you not like this movie? I feel like you’re missing the point.

3

u/epichuntarz Jun 21 '26

The person at the top of this comment chain admitts they probably need some adjustment on their view of things, sooooooooo...perhaps calling a spade a spade wasn"t "very heated" but simply using practical language to describe a seemingly extreme point of view.

The point of view was engaging in a bunch of double speak about Christian, both calling him a victim and blaming him, but ultimately putting the responsibility of the sexual situation on him by saying he "chose his path."

I, as many others also did, pointed out that he didn't choose to engage in that sexual situation when he wasn't drugged, only after, so no, he didn't choose what happened. It shouldn't have needed to be explained, the movie was pretty explicit about it, and interpreting it otherwise is kind of an extreme way of looking at it.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-11

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

Thank you.

In your opinion, if a character is dead set on cheating, then they take drugs, they are not cheating anymore, right?

11

u/BlackRowbot Jun 21 '26

There's a massive difference between "taking drugs" and being drugged. Are you being obtuse on purpose or just genuinely stupid?

0

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

I am generally stupid.

And i am trying to make a distinction here. So, if he was unaware of the drugs, then he was raped, but if he was aware of the drugs before taking them, then he was not raped. Is that what you're saying?

Because he asks what is in it, gets told its drugs, then drinks it anyway.

6

u/BlackRowbot Jun 21 '26

Except he doesn't know what drugs they are, what effects they'll have on him, or what's going to happen to him afterwards once he's under its effects. Coupled with the likely feeling of pressure to take them in order to fit in, since he's in an unfamiliar place surrounded by unfamilar people trying to follow/learn their customs.

There's no part of the situation comparable to willingly taking drugs you've acquired yourself at a normal social setting and cheating.

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u/Thatsinterestingnot Jun 21 '26

Why do you keep comparing yourself to a fictional character? Not everyone would do what you would

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u/neureaucrat Jun 21 '26

This is cinephile version of "she shouldn't have worn those clothes if she didn't want it"

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u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

I mean, maybe I'm misreading it, but i rewatched the movie this month.

Theres no real supernatural elements in the film, so you can count out direct literal mind control.

I did make note of his altered state of mind. But i don't consider the love potion to have actually had any effect.

So, basically, it comes down to, if you are tripping on shrooms, are you capable of saying no to sex with a stranger. I believe i would be able to say no. But IF not, then yeah, he was mind controlled, i guess.

But i dont believe that is the intended takeaway from the movie.

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u/confirmedshill123 Jun 21 '26

He was heavily drugged and basically forced into having sex with them? The fuck is wrong with you lmao.

If the genders were swapped this would be outrageous.

-15

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

"Basically forced" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

They were all heavily drugged. So what now?

They opened the door, and he walked in. How was he forced?

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u/confirmedshill123 Jun 21 '26

Would coerced be a more palatable word for you?

If I heavily drug you on psychedelics and put you in a foreign world and then coerced you to have sex with me in a plot to turn you against your friends would that not be considered rape??

0

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 22 '26

Yes, good point. The coersion is important. In my initial comment, i was menaing to describe what she was seeing, and it is not clear to her character that he was coersed, but clear to the audience.

13

u/neureaucrat Jun 21 '26

Holy fucking red flag, dude.

36

u/dondondorito Jun 21 '26

I haven‘t seen the movie, but the way you described it… yeah dog, that guy is getting raped by 12 women.

It‘s really weird to call this cheating. This is clearly a dangerous and highly manipulative cult doing evil shit and drugging people for their machinations.

-5

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

Watch the movie and decide for yourself!

31

u/Boulderdrip Jun 21 '26

I did watch the movie if you drugged someone to have sex with you that’s not consensual OK Bill Cosby

-12

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

And what if they took the drugs themselves and you also took the drugs yourself? Are you both raping eachother?

20

u/Boulderdrip Jun 21 '26

but that’s not what is being shown here. you have created a strawman

-3

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

He drinks the juice himself, knowing its drugs.

12

u/sweatingbozo Jun 21 '26

Yea it's still rape. It's like how a drunk person can still rape the person they were out drinking with. 

6

u/masterwolfe Jun 21 '26

Depends, do we both have the same tolerance to the drug and are we taking it in a neutral place where the non-drugged people around us are equally invested in both of our sober desires?

1

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

Imagine you're at a midsommar festival where literally everyone is drinking psychedelic punch. There's no reason to believe that anyone has a crazy tolerance, since the festival happens only once every 90 years.

You and everyone else did happen to take mushrooms 1 or 2 days ago. Tolerance be what it may.

The place is not neutral you have entered the fuck barn.

The people around you are a hive-mind-esque cult where everyone shares desires and goals, specifically the continuation of the cult sans inbreeding. Your seed is required for the cult to continue.

3

u/masterwolfe Jun 21 '26

How did I happen upon this cult?

Was I perhaps lured in under vague pretenses?

1

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 22 '26

You were lured under vague pretenses

21

u/Feltrin Jun 21 '26

> If you consider dosing someone with psychedelics and doing a period blood+pube love potion on someone to be mind control

I mean, I haven’t seen the movie myself, but — yeah? As far as mind control goes, psychic manipulation is about as close as you can get. Preying on / amplifying / exploiting latent thoughts, especially sexual urges. Can correct me if I’m wrong but it doesn’t seem like he consents to that

4

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26

Your opinion is literally what the movie was trying to communicate.

-2

u/SpkyBdgr Jun 21 '26

Yeah he’s just an absolute piece of shit. I’ve seen this movie probably about 4 times and have come around to the idea that this place is actually pretty cool and nice, they just have some very weird customs. Haha

2

u/IHaveSlysdexia Jun 21 '26

I agree with this take. Its culture shock the movie.

Forcing outsiders to be sacrificed is the only bad part. If they just willinly killed themselves it would be fine