Midsommar

In the middle of winter, an American student, Dani, is traumatized after her sister Terri, who has bipolar disorder, kills their parents and herself via carbon monoxide poisoning in a murder-suicide. This strains Dani's relationship with her already increasingly distant boyfriend, Christian. Several months later, Christian and his friends Mark and Josh have been invited by their Swedish friend Pelle to attend a nine-day midsummer festival at his ancestral commune, the Hårga, in the rural Hälsingland region of Sweden. The festival occurs only once every 90 years. Josh, writing his thesis on European midsummer festivities, regards it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Christian had intended to break up with Dani, who is still grieving the death of her family, but reluctantly invites her after an argument. At the commune, they meet Simon and Connie, a British couple who were invited by Pelle's commune-brother Ingemar. Ingemar offers the group psychedelic mushrooms. Dani has a bad trip and hallucinates about her dead family. The day after their arrival, the group witnesses an ättestupa ceremony, whereby two elders commit suicide by jumping off a cliff onto the rocks below. When one of the elders survives, the commune members mimic his wails of pain before crushing his head with a mallet. The commune elder, Siv, attempts to calm Connie and Simon by explaining that every member does this at the age of 72, which is considered a great honor. Christian also decides to write his thesis on the Hårga commune, irritating Josh, who has also decided to write solely about the Hårga commune. Dani is disturbed by the ceremonies, but Pelle convinces her to stay. He explains that he, too, was orphaned after his parents perished in a fire, and the commune became his new family. He questions Dani over whether she feels supported by Christian. Connie and Simon, disturbed by the Hårga's practices, demand to leave. While packing, Connie is told Simon was driven to a train station on his own, as the commune follows the Swedish traffic laws, but that they would retrieve her later. Connie protests that Simon would never leave her without leaving a message, and walks away silently in anger. During his thesis research, Christian is told that outsiders are sometimes brought into the commune for "mating" purposes to avoid incest. He is encouraged to participate but refuses. After unwittingly urinating on a sacred tree, Mark is lured away by Inga, one of the female commune members. That night, Josh sneaks out of bed to take illicit photographs of sacred texts. He is caught by a half-naked man wearing Mark's skinned face and is bludgeoned to death. The following day, Dani and Christian are pressured into drinking a hallucinogenic tea. Dani wins a maypole dancing competition, inspired by the myth of Hårgalåten, and is crowned May Queen. Christian drinks the hallucinogenic tea and is coerced into a sex ritual to impregnate Maja, a 15-year-old member of the Hårga, while older nude female members watch and mimic Maja's moans. Dani witnesses the ritual and has a panic attack. She is surrounded by the commune's women, who mimic her cries of despair. After the ritual, a naked Christian attempts to flee. He discovers Josh's leg planted in a flowerbed and a barely alive Simon on display in a barn, having been made into a blood eagle. An elder blows a powder in Christian's face, paralyzing him. For the final ceremony, the commune leaders explain that the commune must offer nine human sacrifices to purge itself of evil. The first four victims (Mark, Josh, Simon, and Connie) were outsiders lured to them by Pelle and Ingemar, while the next four (the two elderly members who killed themselves in the beginning, plus volunteers Ingemar and Ulf) are from the commune. As the May Queen, Dani must choose the paralyzed Christian or a randomly selected commune member as the final sacrifice. She chooses Christian, who is stuffed into a disemboweled bear's body and placed in a wooden temple alongside the other sacrifices. As the commune prays, the temple is set alight. As the temple and its human sacrifices burn, the commune members mimic Ulf's screams. Dani sobs, but as the temple collapses, slowly smiles.