The Inner Logic of Neo-Paganism in Sweden Why All Porno Films Get Remade as Horror Movies

The Inner Logic of Neo-Paganism in Sweden Why All Porno Films Get Remade as Horror Movies

Midsommar is an overly long, ultimately incoherent American horror film set in Sweden. It is the fruit of cross-cultural collaboration. Ari Aster, the film’s director, is a Jew from New York City who was born in 1986 and grew up fascinated with horror movies. Aster felt the film was personally cathartic because it allowed him to combine fascination with the horror genre with the experience of breaking up with his girlfriend, which felt “apocalyptic, like the world is ending.” So, from Aster’s perspective, Midsommar is “a perverse wish fulfillment fantasy,” in which sex leads to horror. Aster is, however, quick to add: “Nobody in the movie is a surrogate for my ex-girlfriend. It’s not like this is what I want to do to my ex, but there is a feeling of you want to set fire to that part of yourself and that part of your life and move on clean because it’s so painful.”

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