I’ve seen the theatrical release version of Midsommar four times: three times in theaters and once, most recently, on DVD with the subtitles on. I’m not counting the one time that I saw the director’s cut in theaters.  Comparatively writing two reviews, one on the theatrical release and one on the director’s cut, is reasonable, but a third one is necessary to answer some questions that I raised in those reviews that are now answered after watching the theatrical release with subtitles so I would suggest reading those reviews before reading this one. It also elicited new questions that may never be answered. I am disappointed that the DVD does not have commentary by the filmmakers so expect additional reviews if there is ever a home release of Midsommar with commentary and/or the director’s cut. Otherwise I believe that I’m done watching this film. Expect spoilers.

Unfortunately if you waited to see Midsommar at home, then unless you have an enormous screen at home, I don’t think that you’ll see what all the fuss is about. You will not be able to see the level of detail that viewers did on the big screen if they were paying attention. Even if you use your zoom and angle button, the image quality will suffer. Unlike Hereditary, the transfer to the small screen diminishes the impact of the movie, and I don’t see how a viewer won’t mentally check out during the last section. The viewing experience has to be as immersive as the characters experience on the screen. I would almost suggest that you wait until it hits theaters again instead of watching it at home or don’t watch it at all.

For those who have already seen Midsommar in theaters, a home viewing would be useful because it gives you an opportunity to freeze, rewind and fast forward so you can better observe moments that passed too quickly or went unnoticed the during the theater viewing experience. I also highly recommend turning on the subtitles because I was unaware that the accents of the Swedish characters obscured English words more than I thought.

One complaint about Midsommar is that it is pagan without being rooted in an actual religion. I’ve theorized in my first review that it clearly seemed to be Satanic, specifically Lucifer as an angel of light, in origin. There is an explicit reference to Ymir during the initial greeting conversation with Dani and Father Odd regarding the hermaphrodite qualities of his clothes. I don’t know a lot about Ymir, but apparently Ymir is the first living creature, a giant whose name means screamer and hermaphrodite. Ymir’s biological elements seems to be the building blocks of creation and is primeval. I initially found the hermaphrodite qualities interesting, but knowing that screaming aspect of Ymir’s name is fascinating given Dani and the community’s penchant for that activity. Because I’m not familiar with Norse mythology, I’ll leave it to those who are to come up with an explanation how Ymir and Lucifer could play a role in forming a cohesive Harga religion. Fun fact: there is apparently an online user named Lucifer Ymir so less instinctive pairings have occurred.

After watching the Director’s Cut, I began to question whether or not it was preordained by the community that Dani would be the May Queen. I am uncertain. After the Attestupa ceremony, I think that Pelle delays her departure in order to give her more time to acclimate to the community and not explicitly reject the community by leaving, but if he hadn’t, she and Connie could have gotten killed. We hear when Connie gets killed. Dani is cooking with the women, and Mark is just hanging out in the field in front of the triangular structure. I don’t think that the May Queen has to be an outsider, but for Pelle to live, Dani couldn’t leave.

This realization made me ask when did Simon get separated from the group? Mark is skinned and a fool. Josh is hit on the head, the part of him that he values the most, his bare foot is sticking up out of the ground (basically the opposite of stepping on forbidden, holy ground) and his mouth is stuffed with his notebook. Christian is the worst so he gets to be scape bear. Is there significance to the way that Simon and Connie got killed? How do their murders reflect on Simon and Connie’s character as people? Connie is seemingly killed by drowning (her body is wet) and is dressed like the sideways tree ritual that is omitted from the theatrical version. Simon is posed in a blood eagle fashion and is presumably still alive when Christian sees him (based on the fact that it appears that Simon’s lungs are still expanding and contracting). I have no idea if Simon is still alive when he is placed in the yellow pyramid, but I assume not. The blood eagle was allegedly reserved for people without honor, but also could be completely fictional.

Before Josh died, I did freeze and zoom in on his notebook, but the writing was illegible. According to the script, it was about the runic combinations of the sixteen affects and how the Rubi Radr is emotional sheet music. I do think that he had an epiphany, but it was initially based on his sudden preoccupation during the meal. I thought it was the first time that he was disturbed by something that he witnessed in Harga, but it wasn’t. According to the subtitles, the only visitor who witnessed the Attestupa and did not react audibly and emotionally is Christian. Even Josh screamed though he knew what to expect. Maybe he could read their book! Still the scene is open to interpretation. Was his transgression rooted in ambition or fear?

There is one certainty. Josh’s transgression was expected, and his murder choreographed, not supernatural. Depending on where you are in the room, you would not notice that there is a small space between the bookshelves and the wall with the window—a space large enough to fit a man who wants to hide behind the end of the bookshelf. Reuben was lying in his bed in the room. The special features confirmed that Ulf was wearing Mark’s face and acted as a distraction so Josh wouldn’t see when the man left the blind spot to kill Josh. Who is the murderer? I like the idea of it being Pelle, especially considering how he lurks around the corner while Christian is incapacitated, and Pelle is shown gardening, but I can’t say it with certainty. If Josh never went to sleep, and Pelle was sleeping only a few beds away, Josh would presumably notice that Pelle wasn’t there or if he moved before him. On the other hand, Josh was preoccupied during dinner so maybe he wouldn’t notice. I tried to do a close up, freeze frame of the dorm interior from above when Josh was exiting the dorm, but I couldn’t confirm whether or not Pelle was still in bed. A Hargan man killed Josh, but the camera moves too quickly to definitively confirm the identity of Josh’s murderer. It is a blur. Also the flowers used during the mating ceremony are already there, but not in place.

I also tried to look at the illustrations around the maypole dance above Dani’s bed, and it generally appears to be a heterosexual couple engaging in intercourse, but I could not get a close enough look to make explicit reference to the mating ritual. Still the mating ritual is occurring at the border of the May Queen ritual so it is fitting in a vague way.

I was able to pay closer attention to the tables. A lot has been written about the shapes of the tables, but nothing about their surfaces, which surprised me considering that one of Ari Aster’s signature visual trademarks is the sudden flash of light highlighting. During the first meal before the Attestupa ceremony, the tables are covered in a white tablecloth. During the love spell meal and the next morning, there is no cloth, just unadorned the wooden table.  During the May Queen meal, the table is covered in a reflective surface. During the last two meals, the shapes of the tables are simple: a long rectangle with everyone facing someone else. Literally the curtain has been raised, the Hargans have exposed their true selves to the outside world, and they can face who they are while blinding those unaccustomed to it.

Dani’s journey is interesting. In the first scene experiencing a Hargan ceremonially act, she says that she is too scared to join the dancing to enthusiastically dancing with them by the end of the film. She does consent and is no longer afraid. I always wondered after she ran away from the outhouse and just woke up in the field, which parallels Christian waking up after being drugged, what happened to her in between. Did she just run until she got exhausted then passed out? There is missing time. I always thought that Siv was talking to Dani, not Simon and Connie, when she was trying to reassure them after the Attestupa ceremony. She looks right at Dani and states, “We give our life as a gesture before it can spoil. It does no good dying, lashing back at the inevitable. It corrupts the spirit.” This spoil comment resonates with the food during the May Day Queen feast. Dani fears dancing and death, specifically how it exiles you from others. I was so busy feeling second hand social embarrassment because of Dani’s willful obliviousness to Christian’s friends not liking her that I forgot to feel that the same embarrassment for all the guests who thought that they were genuinely accepting hospitality, but weren’t, including Dani.

The real horror of Harga is the moment that we never see: the moment that Dani realizes that she is one in a long line of people who are manipulated to adopt this community and she is actively participating in later ceremonies as just another anonymous Hargan knowing the predetermined fate set for each visitor. Maybe this epiphany fills her with pleasure at being part of a cycle. How does she ignore that these visitors are not consenting? Does she just rationalize that they will die someday so it does not matter since the death will serve a fictional higher purpose? The Hargans prepared for each individual visitor-how the visitor will react, how they will counteract the visitor’s attempt to exercise his or her own rule against them and how they will manipulate the new addition to accept.

In my first review, I emphasized the cult aspects and how Pelle is a victim and a perpetrator. During this fifth viewing, the idea that a baby is deliberately separated from the mother so the baby could be “detached,” and the mother is allegedly away horrified me. How do we know that the mother did so willingly or is alive? Why isn’t she encouraged to return at this special time? If everyone is loved equally, then no one is special to anyone. It does become easier to let someone who is family willingly sacrifice his or herself. Murdering your friends is easy if you would not blink at a friend going into a burning building. Were Pelle’s family deliberately chosen for sacrifice because they were too attached to each other? He still calls himself an orphan.

It also struck me that even though it was a lie, Father Odd’s explanation to Connie that they don’t break traffic laws was absurd on its face. They’re fine with murder. A viewer could rationalize that maybe the Hargans don’t think of it as murder because it is a form of worship, which would also explain their willingness to break stringent Swedish drug laws. Also the regular use of hallucinogenic drugs can put users in psychotic states, substance-induced psychotic disorder, which would explain why the Hargans are so bent, and Dani would eventually sign up to become a part of their community.

I would love an expert on indoctrination and cults to do an analysis of Midsommar. Besides being a rich, visual text and a fascinating interplay of toxic group dynamics with disparate dysfunctional individuals, it also feels like a textbook depiction of mind control, which includes making people witness violence to desensitize them to it. The scariest part of a cult is not knowing that you are in one and instead feel as if you have found a home.