Nationalism, Folk Horror, and the Ecopolitics of ‘Midsommar’

Season 1, Episode 4

  • The camera turns upside down as the Americans enter Hälsingland
  • Part of the Ättestupa ritual 
  • The fall off the cliff during the Ättestupa ritual
  • The Hårga in their white clothing
  • The painting at the beginning of Midsommar
  • Dani as May Queen (and the famous ‘frown’)
  • Christian sewn into the bear suit
  • Dani running and choking in front of the burning building
  • Dani during the maypole dance
  • Grass growing from Dani’s hands 
  • Grass growing from Dani’s feet 
  • Josh’s foot sticking out of the ground
  • Stig Lindberg, ‘Melodie’ (1947), image from the Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Francis Bacon, ‘Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X\ (1953), image from Des Moines Art Centre, Des Moines
  • The face-smashing part of the Ättestupa ritual
  • Facial difference: the Hårga’s inbred oracle
  • A member of the Hårga wearing Mark’s face

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Emma and Christy look at Ari Aster’s 2019 folk horror film Midsommar and talk environmentalism, nationalism, community, grief, horror (obviously), folk art, facial transplants, whiteness, screaming, and IKEA.

IMAGES DISCUSSED:
The camera turns upside down as the Americans enter Hälsingland
Part of the Ättestupa ritual (and the fall off the cliff)
The Hårga in their white clothing
The painting at the beginning of Midsommar
Dani as May Queen (and the famous ‘frown’)
Christian sewn into the bear suit
Dani running and choking in front of the burning building
Dani during the maypole dance
Grass growing from Dani’s hands and feet
Josh’s foot sticking out of the ground
Stig Lindberg, Melodie (1947)
Francis Bacon, Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953)
The face-smashing part of the Ättestupa ritual
Facial difference: the Hårga’s inbred oracle
A member of the Hårga wearing Mark’s face
The yellow and blue A-frame building (IKEA vibes)

REFERENCES:
Adam Scovell, Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange (Leighton Buzzard: Auteur, 2017)
Dawn Keetley, ‘Midsommar, dir. by Ari Aster (A24, Nodisk Films, 2019)’, Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies 18 (August 2020), 266–271
Robert Spadoni, ‘Midsommar: Thing Theory’, Quarterly Review of Film and Video 37.7 (2020), 711–726
Richard A. Cohen, ‘Dialogue with Emmanuel Levinas’, in Face to Face with Levinas (Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1986), 23–24
Emmanuel Levinas, Ethics and Infinity, trans. by Richard A. Cohen (Pittsburg, PA: Duquesne University Press, 1985), 87
Gilles Deleuze, Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation, trans. by Daniel W. Smith (London and New York: Continuum, 2003)
Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. by Brian Massumi (London and New York: Continuum, 2004)
Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 1: The Movement-Image, trans. by Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam (London and New York: Continuum, 2004)
Changing Faces, ‘I Am Not Your Villain’ Campaign
Suzannah Biernoff, ‘Theatres of Surgery: The Cultural Pre-History of the Face Transplant‘, Wellcome Open Research 3.54 (2018)
Angelique Chrisafis, ‘Transplant woman tells of her life with a new face’, The Guardian, 5 October 2007

‘Drawing Blood’ was made possible with funding from the Experimental Humanities Collaborative Network. 
Follow our Twitter @drawingblood_
Audio postproduction by Sias Merkling
‘Drawing Blood’ cover art © Emma Merkling
All audio and content © Emma Merkling and Christy Slobogin
Intro music: ‘There Will Be Blood’ by Kim Petras, © BunHead Records 2019. We’re still trying to get hold of permissions for this song – Kim Petras text us back!!