10 Horror Movies That Purposefully Mess With Your Head

Okay, so this headf*** from Hereditary director Ari Aster may seem impenetrable at first glance, but fortunately the Internet has been flooded with attempts to decipher the darkly funny folk horror's endless symbolism and hidden layers in the year since its release.

There's nowhere near enough room here to summarise every fan theory about Midsommar's "real meaning". But a deep dive into the flick’s symbolism suggests that there may be a dark satire of contemporary culture’s grief tourism and the resultant inability to empathise hidden in its bleak fairy tale framework.

After Florence Pugh's shattered protagonist loses her family in a tragic murder-suicide, her life is uprooted and transplanted into a starkly white (in clothing and ethnicity, notably) Swedish commune.

It's obvious that her brutish American compatriots can't tell help with her grief, as illustrated by their cartoonishly uncaring attitudes, but the community she seeks comfort from is so busy centring and celebrating her that it's easy to miss the fact that they're leading her to lean into her cathartic depression without offering any actual support.

In this cynical reading, the film suggests that anyone claiming to have an answer for your hardship is ultimately selling you a long jump off a short cliff.