Midsommar, Death and Epicurus

“Accustom yourself to the belief that death is of no concern to us since all good and evil lie in sensation and sensation ends with death.” Epicurus

Every culture deals differently with the emotional distress that accompanies death. Take the Hanunuo Mangyan tribe from the Philippines. This tribe dig up their dead relatives after a year and dress them in their former clothing. This ritual, called “kutkot” (the Filipino term for ‘unearth’), involves cleaning the corpse, draping them in jewelry and re-welcoming the deceased to the village with the sounds of gongs and dance. 

As unorthodox and unsanitary as this ritual might seem to Americans, our actions of having a small, black ceremony for someone’s death, and eventually forgetting about this person, can be seen as squeamish and sterile to other cultures that do not fear death as much as we do. 

Courtesy of Variety

From Ari Aster, the brilliant mind that created Hereditary, Midsommar is a folk horror movie that puts its main characters, and the audience, face to face with death. The film follows the main character, Dani, and her boyfriend Christian, as they take a summer vacation to a commune in Sweden with their two American friends.

To some viewers, Midsommar may seem reminiscent of Plato’s Apology, where Socrates, on trial in Athens for corrupting the youth and impiety, says death is either one of two things: a long sleep or a “change and migration of the soul from this place to another”. He who fears death creates the worst intellectual crime because for Socrates fearing death implies we know what death is, and the wisdom is realizing what one does not know. For Socrates, suicide was impermissible and so was escaping after he was sentenced to death. To him, man’s life belonged to God, and man should not try to override God by taking his own life.

Epicurus says that part of people’s misery is attributed to their worry about death. His famous quote, “Death is nothing to us,” suggests that Epicurus believes that we achieve freedom by not fearing death. A life of well-being is health in the body and freedom from a disturbance in the soul. When we are, death is not; when death is, we are not.

Midsommar is an examination of how different cultures attempt to reason with death. Looking back at what Ancient Greek philosophers have to say about death and its relation to life will help the viewers better understand why the commune and Dani are aiming to take control of death. 

As Epicurus counseled not to fear death, the commune in Midsommar attempts to control death. They force their elders to jump off a cliff on their 72nd birthday, whether they are willing to or not. In their eyes, this removes the prideless acts that come with aging and allows people a measure of control over their destiny. However, in the gruesome scene, one of the elder’s lands incorrectly and only shatters his leg. Three other members then take up cudgels and bludgeon him to death. 

Courtesy of Comics Beat

At the start of the movie, Dani’s bipolar sister has sent her a cryptic email about ending it all and taking her parents with her. We later find out that Dani’s sister killed herself and her parents with carbon monoxide, similarly taking death into her own hands. 

Many reviews have considered this a lengthy breakup movie about Dani finally finding the strength to leave Christian. However, these people might have also fallen under the cult’s spell. Dani is in a worse situation than before, stuck in a commune that took advantage of her and her friends for their own sacrificial wants. After witnessing her boyfriend being cooked alive in a bear suit and being informed of her friend's deaths, her smile in the final second of the film is a clear descent into madness. 

Courtesy of Screen Rant

This is a movie about how we deal with death and loss. Neither the American foreigners nor the Swedish commune was right in their practices and feelings towards death. Although it is difficult to be rational in times of emotional distress, Epicurus’ attitude of not fearing death is something we should all strive to follow.