10 Most Hysterical Characters In Horror Movie History

With a country-fair colour palette and matching visual aesthetic, Ari Aster's Midsommar took us by surprise in the summer of 2019, offering up a harrowing ordeal of drugs, death and dangerous Swedes.

Florence Pugh stars as Dani, a college student grieving from the sudden death of her entire family at the hands of her suicidal sister. Accompanying her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and a few of his closer classmate, she opts to get away from it all by going on an anthropologically-informed trip to backwoods Sweden for a traditional summer festival. All is not as it seems, however, and the happy locals begin picking off the group one by one.

Dani spends the trip in the throes of an emotional rollercoaster, dealing with her past and present in unison, and never quite knowing whether she's coming or going. Aster manages to spin the hysterical trope on its head, as her anguish and visible signs of distress are totally justified, and not the product of being a Hitchcockian 'emotional woman'.

At the height of her hysteria, after witnessing Christian cheating on her, Dani breaks down, sobbing and screaming, and is joined by the other women of the commune, who almost seem to be twistedly mocking her by reflecting her out of control emotions.

Her knowing smile at the end, however, suggest something inside Dani may have shifted for good.