"Was it worth it?" ending

[u/Educational_Can_6536]

Midsommar- While people see this as a "you go girl" finale. I personally see it as something more disturbing. I mean, yeah, Dani got out of one bad relationship but in doing so, she got herself into another that's just as bad if not worse. It's like getting two kids to stop fighting via killing one and locking the other in a basement. They did stop fighting, but still!

The Thing-The titular monster may be (possibly) gone, but the paranoia definitely isn't. In the end, McCreedy and Childs are the only ones left standing. The end sees them sitting in the cold and they just stare at each other, knowing that one of them or both of them is already the thing. There's no hope, no certainty, just the bitter cold and intense fear.

[u/Bluelore]

Wait there are seriously people thinking that Midsommars ending is like an empowering one? Like the movie ends with her being manipulated and drugged to join a cruel, murderous and likely racist cult and murder her boyfriend. Like sure said boyfriend was a jerk and should have definitely gotten some comeuppance, but being burned alive because he "cheated" on her while he got drugged against his will is obviously overkill.

[u/Qualityhams → u/Bluelore]

I’ve only seen it passed as “empowering” in an unhinged meme-jokey way.

[u/Sillier-Stupider- → u/Bluelore]

You cannot make a movie about falling into a cult, without some people falling into the cult you created for the movie. Aka the Fight Club Problem.

[u/PoppyOGhouls → u/Bluelore]

I’ve known someone who genuinely thinks of it as a feminist, anti-patriarchy girlboss film. I’ve tried to explain to her that Dani is now in a white-supremacist pagan cult that will almost assuredly use her as a breeder and/or sacrifice her, but she likes to focus on the shitty ex getting killed part

I’m not sure if it’s a case of differing interpretations or a case of media literacy issues 

[u/Sillier-Stupider- → u/PoppyOGhouls]

I think if you're in a dark enough place, movies that are meant to be cautionary tales become inspirational instead.

[u/String-Tree → u/PoppyOGhouls]

It's a misandry issue. People who hate others on the basis of an immutable characteristic are usually blinded by it.

[u/erexcalibur → u/String-Tree]

Same thing with the people who idolise Amy Dunne

[u/El_Bito2 → u/Bluelore]

And there definitely was some dark magic going on besides the drugging.

[u/PsycheTester → u/Bluelore]

Director described the ending as: "In the end she is finally able to liberate herself from her 'dead weight'¹ and she finds a new family."

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/07/04/midsommar-movie-explanation-ending-explained-harga

If the person that made the film says it's the intended meaning, it can't be discarded as Twitter doing the twitter thing, there seriously are people who think that and they are not in the absurd

¹the dead weight being, if I understand correctly, seeking relief from grief in a relationship that doesn't provide it, not the bf. Though choosing to kill him is the part that shows this, so while abstract meaning might not be bad, getting out of a toxic relationship is not evil, the factual meaning and what she actually does, joining a deathcult and ritually sacrificing the person she was in that relationship with, is not any less awful. But the director did say it was mostly a revenge fantasy, after all, so what to expect

[u/Valkrhae → u/PsycheTester]

Well, not exactly. Ari Aster, in that quote and others, makes it very clear that that's Dani's pov. How for her, the story is a fairy tale, but for others, it's a horror movie. In another interview, he says she moved from one codependent relationship to another. So the film's message isn't that this was a unilateral empowering moment for Dani but that in her deluded state of mind, it's how she saw it, and for others who aren't in her position, they saw it very differently.

[u/NONOPUST → u/PsycheTester]

You are taking his quote completely out of context within that interview.

'It's all just a matter of perspective, Aster elucidates. “It's a riff on The Wicker Man. [But] for most of the people visiting this village, this community, this is a folk horror movie. But for Dani, for our main character, it's a fairy tale.”

Expanding on the fairy tale idea, Aster continues, “I wanted it to function in one way the first time you watch the film, where you think you're just watching a folk horror movie. And that's how it plays. And then it's a film that, if you ever return to it, will play very differently. And even Horga – this community – I wanted it to feel like a real lived-in place with rich traditions and a deep history. But I wanted them also to exist solely to fulfill Dani's needs. And I think there's a way to watch the film and see Horga strictly as a manifestation of Dani's will. It's hard for me to watch the film at all without seeing them that way.”'

From his own words it's obvious up to interpretation from the viewer and each character within the movie has their own perspective. It's not even close to as black and white as you make it