In the religious horror movie an evil cult that engages in human sacrifice and other questionable practices. However, from a certain perspective, the movie's real evil cult is not the Hårga, but instead is Dani's own culture. Its evil nature and the pain and suffering it causes her are the ultimate reasons why she finally accepts the Hårga cult's ways and chooses them over her own.
Despite the fact that the two cultures seem vastly different from each other, they are actually quite similar in many ways, and can both be considered either evil or good, depending on the perspective. From Dani's perspective, there is ultimately one major difference between the Hårga cult and Dani's culture. In Dani's culture, she is considered to be fragile and is conditioned to be weak, whereas in the Hårga cult, she is considered to be powerful and is conditioned to be strong.
Although the Hårga cult might seem more evil than Dani's culture at first, upon inspection they contain elements that mirror each other, differing mostly on the surface. Both cultures practice recreational and therapeutic drug use, engage in rituals of the mind (psychology vs. superstition), emphasize the importance of family and sexuality, and place value on cultural exchange. More importantly, both cultures practice some form of human sacrifice erroneously intended to be for the greater good. All of these elements are presented as aspects of both cultures in the film.
The Main Difference Between The Hårga Cult & Dani's Culture
The main difference between the Hårga cult and Dani's culture is that in of their shared elements, the Hårga cult is a much more suitable place for Dani, at least in her current state of grieving and trauma. Neither society is the perfect place for her or for anyone, and neither can claim an indisputable moral high ground. However, in the context of the film, it is easy to see why Dani finally accepts the Hårga cult.
In Dani's culture, she participates in a life of contradiction and disempowerment. She takes anxiety pills, but seems to use them as a crutch instead of as a treatment. As a psychology student, she presumably has an understanding of the human mind, but fails to apply this understanding to herself. Her family is everything to her, but she is physically disconnected from them and relies on technology to engage with them emotionally. This distance from her family can be seen as a contributing factor in their deaths, or at the very least, as a source of guilt that intensifies her grief. She feels that she is pushing her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor), away by burdening him with her problems, despite her knowing he considers her problems to be frivolous. He says he loves her, but in reality, he doesn't believe in her and considers her to be sexually frigid.
In the Hårga cult, Dani participates in rituals that clarify her mind and empower her. She is given drugs to experience herself, nature, and the community more fully. At first, she doesn't believe in the religious practices and superstitions of the cult, but in the end they actually help her to deal with her grief, something she sorely lacks. The communal openness of the Hårga provides her with an honest, powerful familial connection through which she finds value in herself. Her romantic relationship with Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), who is ultimately responsible for her being there, is much more authentic and alive than her relationship with her boyfriend, despite it being in its infancy. Furthermore, he truly believes in her and is the first person in the film to recognize her power.
How The Hårga Cult Mirrors Dani's Culture
The Hårga cult mirrors Dani's culture in more ways than it differs from it. In the film, Dani's culture uses drugs with the intention to provide people with medical treatment, but those same drugs can also be misused, as Dani seemingly does. Similarly, the Hårga cult's ritualistic drugs in the film are used to either help or manipulate people. The Hårga cult uses its belief in superstition to provide its people with emotional and psychological release or catharsis. Dani's culture uses psychology and psychotherapy for the same purpose. Both require participants' belief to achieve results, and can often feed into an unending repetition of mistakes rather than provide a solution to a problem.
Family and sexuality are equally important in both the cult and Dani's culture; both can also be seen as evil in some way. Dani's idea of family is based on a codependency which limits her growth and development. Similarly, the Hårga cult's idea of family limits the growth of its individuals not through codependency, but by limiting outside interference. Sexuality in both cultures can be seen as turning sex into a ritual act that is expected and often forced. Dani is considered to be sexually frigid in the film, implying that she has an obligation to have sex with her boyfriend. In the Hårga cult, there is also a presumed duty to have sex, up to the point that Dani's boyfriend is essentially raped by cult .
The value of cultural exchange in both cultures is central to the film's plot, and both can be seen as evil or manipulative. The Hårga cult sends its young adults out into the world to gain important experience in their predetermined fields of expertise, as well as to source outsiders for mating and blood rituals. Dani's culture accepts foreign students to selfishly enrich its universities, and its own students go abroad to selfishly enrich themselves. Dani's boyfriend and his friends are perfect examples of this. Pelle leaves the Hårga cult to study abroad. Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Christian go to the Hårga commune to get material for their final theses. Although these cultural exchanges can be seen as promoting diversity, they can also be seen as exploitative and therefore evil.
Finally, both cultures practice human sacrifice, only in different ways. It might be more obvious in the Hårga cult because marginalized because of her mental illness, and as a result, she ends up committing suicide and murdering their parents. Midsommar is an effective, beautifully wrought religious horror film that portrays the Hårga cult as a principal source of horror for the audience. However, the main source of horror for Dani is her own life experience.
