Midsommar | 2019 | R | – 8.10.8

Why is “Midsommar” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “disturbing ritualistic violence and grisly images, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an extended sex scene including full nudity, several scenes of death by suicide and murder leaving bloody and broken bodies, several implied murder scenes with the victims being seen later in various states of dismemberment, and some hallucinogenic drug use; and at least 35 F-words. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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When a group of friends travel to a Swedish commune to join in a nine-day family celebration for one of them, they have no idea what lethal surprises await them. Pagan rituals soon devolve from dancing to hallucinogenic drugs to ritual sex and human sacrifice. With Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter, Ellora Torchia and Archie Madekwe. Directed by Ari Aster. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in Swedish with English subtitles and other lines are not translated. [Running Time: 2:27]

Midsommar SEX/NUDITY 8

 – Doors are opened to reveal a dozen or so fully nude women (their bare breasts, abdomens, pubic areas, legs and buttocks are evident) standing behind one fully nude woman (her bare breasts, abdomen and legs are seen) lying on flowers and leaves on the floor; a man is ushered into the room and his robe is removed leaving him fully nude (his bare chest, abdomen, genitals, buttocks and legs are seen), he moves toward the woman on the floor and we see him thrusting between her legs as he kisses her while the other women moan and one woman holds the first woman’s hand and sings to her as the man continues to thrust and another woman pushes the man’s bare buttocks until the man climaxes; the woman on the floor draws her knees to her chest and says that she can “feel the baby.”
► A fully nude man runs out of a building and through a field (his bare chest, abdomen, genitals, buttocks and legs are seen) and he holds his hands over his genitals at one point. A tapestry depicts what seems to be a man and a woman falling in love with hearts in their eyes and they kiss; in one part, we see the woman seated with her legs spread to expose her pubic hair and labia and holding a pair of scissors (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A drawing shows two men with their erect penises exposed. A photo on a wall in a diner shows two women wearing deeply cut dresses that reveal cleavage. Women wear shorts and crop tops that reveal cleavage, bare legs, shoulders, abdomens and backs. A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage in a few scenes. A man pulls a pubic hair out of his mouth after eating a pie made by a woman.
► A man and woman kiss and hug. A man and woman sit on a bed together and the man touches the woman’s hand (she is concerned that her boyfriend might see them). Many people hug and touch a woman and a man kisses her deeply.
► A man talks about how people dress for a traditional ceremony and that it is to represent the hermaphroditic properties of nature. A woman tells a man that he has been “…approved to mate with a woman” and that “she has fixed her hopes on you.” A man tells another man that a rune placed under someone’s bed is a love rune and that it casts a love spell. A man asks another man about incest in a closed commune and the second man says that they adhere to the taboo of incest other than “deliberate inbreeding” for their “oracles” in order to keep them “unclouded by normal cognition.” A woman invites a man to leave a group and he joins her (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A woman invites a man to leave a group with her and he does not go. A man tells another man, “You could be impregnating her,” as they look at a woman in a diner. Four men talk about one of them needing to break up with his girlfriend and find someone that “likes sex.” A man asks another man if there are any “meatball sex clubs” nearby as they travel to Sweden. Men talk about “hot” Swedish women. A woman gives a man a drink that she says will “open you to the influence.” A man tells another man that his sister likes him and that she has been approved to have sex (i.e. she has reached a certain age).

Midsommar VIOLENCE/GORE 10

 – A man and a woman are carried on chairs to the top of a sheer rock cliff where their hands are cut by a man with a knife (we see the wound and blood and the woman smears blood on a large stone with symbols carved on it); the woman walks to the edge of the cliff and falls, slamming onto a large rock below (we see her head and face completely smashed with a lot of blood and unidentifiable matter) as people watching yell and curse in protest; the man then falls and lands on the ground shattering his leg (we see is twisted unnaturally with blood and bone exposed), but he is still alive until four people smash his head in with a large wooden hammer (we see the face and head break apart with a lot of blood and squishing) as people watching yell and curse. A man is struck hard on the head with a wooden hammer and he falls to the floor (blood pools around his head and he twitches). Hay bales in a barn are lit on fire and several bodies are engulfed in flames as one of the two living people inside screams; many people gathered outside the barn scream and writhe as the flames demolish the structure.
► Fire fighters move through a gas filled garage and turn off the ignitions of two cars; they then move through a house where they find a tube (feeding carbon monoxide from the cars’ exhaust) duct taped to the door of a room where a man and a woman lie dead in their bed and another woman dead in another room with a tube duct taped to her mouth and vomit residue on her shirt (we see that one of her eyes is discolored).
► A man finds the body of another man hanging prone from a ceiling with what looks like his lungs exposed (it looks like he is still breathing) and flowers sewn into his eye sockets. Two dead bodies with very bloody and smashed faces and heads are placed on a grate over an open fire and we see the flames begin to engulf them, and then we see the ashes being distributed in and on a fallen tree. A man sees the lower leg and foot of a person sticking out of the ground in a garden bed. We see a person wearing the face skin of a man (blood rings the eye openings) and the person moans; from a distance we see a stain on the person’s crotch but it is unclear if it is blood or something else. We see two dead people with tree trunks and limbs in their mouths and coming out of the sleeves of their shirts (there’s no blood but we see discolored flesh). A dead body in a wheelbarrow is rolled toward a barn (we see the body’s gray-tinged skin). A body stuffed with hay is propped in a seated position in a barn. A dead bear lays on a table with its abdomen cut open (we see bloody flesh and organs) as a man instructs young boys what to do with the intestines (we see the intestines pour out of the animal and into a bucket); a man is laid on the table next to the bear and we then see the man sewn into the bear skin.
► A tapestry depicts what we think is a man and a woman falling in love and we see the woman seated with her legs spread (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) and holding a pair of scissors and the next frame shows blood dripping from her vagina into a cup on the floor. A painting shows a man having slit his wrist and we see the blade and a bloody wound with a puddle of blood on the ground. A woman moves toward a building where she hears rhythmic moaning and looks through a keyhole (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details); she yells and staggers out of the building and vomits on the ground (we see goo), and she is led away by several other women and they all yell and cry together. A woman has a nightmare that her friends leave her in a commune; she also sees her dead parents and sister, and a man having his face smashed with a large wooden hammer and when she screams, black smoke comes out of her mouth. A man runs toward another man urinating on a “sacred tree” and other men hold him back as he yells and curses. A man blows dust into another man’s face and he is later told that he cannot move or speak.
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► Several people take a hallucinatory drug and we see each one of them experiencing some of the effects: a man becomes paranoid and afraid when it is daylight at 9:00PM, a woman imagines seeing grass growing through her hand and the trees breathing and she runs away hyperventilating, and she sees the reflection of her dead sister in a mirror and runs away again and wakes up lying in a field many hours later. Several women drink a beverage that contains a ground root and they seem intoxicated as they dance for an extended period of time; several women bump into each other and collapse on the ground and one woman vomits (we see goo).
► A scene of a car driving turns upside down for a period of time, and then rights itself. A man draws his hand across his throat demonstrating death when he is asked what happens to people when they reach a certain age. A young woman places a pair of scissors under the pillow in an infant’s crib. A woman imagines seeing her dead mother walk through a crowd of people.
► A woman becomes upset when she is told that her fiancé left without her and she storms off (we do not see her again). A woman leads a man away from a group and people become concerned when he does not return. People become concerned when a man disappears overnight. A woman confronts her boyfriend about suspecting that he will leave her. We hear a distant scream in the woods (we do not see what happened). A woman wails and cries uncontrollably when she finds out that her family is dead. A woman cries uncontrollably in an airplane bathroom. An infant in a crib cries in the night in several scenes. A woman cries and moans and breathes loudly in several scenes. A man stares at another man and the second man asks, “Is he going to kill me?” People are questioned when a sacred book disappears. A woman is instructed to choose between two people, picking the one who will be put to death. A man talks about his parents burning up in a fire and that he was left an orphan. People talk about the prevalence of ticks, tick born encephalitis and Lyme disease. A man walking through a field hops around and complains of bugs. An email message includes a phrase about everything being “black,” and that “mom and dad are coming too.” A woman leaves a message on an answering machine asking her parents to call her back, that her sister sent her a scary email and that she “knows they’ve been fighting.” A man tells a woman that she is enabling another woman who suffers from bipolar disorder. A woman worries that her boyfriend might leave her because she has “too much baggage.” A man and a woman argue in a few scenes. Two men argue in a few scenes about the topics of their theses. At the introduction of a 9 day feast a woman calls out, “Back from the dead.” A group dance is called, “Skin the fool.” A woman describes their methods at the end of life in a commune as “recycling.” A reference is made to people dancing “to death” after being inspired by the “Black One.”
► A young man is shown with malformed facial features and he is referred to as an oracle, produced by incest. We see a large bear held in a cage. A mural is shown that contains images of what could represent “heaven” and “hell,” “angels” and “demons” and other spiritual entities. A painting shows a bear engulfed in flames. A painting of a young girl kissing a bear on the nose is seen on the wall of a woman’s room.
► A man urinates on a fallen tree (we do not see flesh or urine). A man pulls a pubic hair out of his mouth after eating a pie made by a woman. A woman hallucinates that her feet are made of dried grass. A woman is given a whole herring to eat for luck and when it is placed in her mouth, she gags and spits it out. Grain, raw meat and a raw egg are placed in a hole in the ground and covered with dirt as part of a ritual.

Midsommar LANGUAGE 8

 – About 35 F-words (there are likely additional F-words that were not clearly discernible due to a few scenes with muffled dialogue), 3 sexual references, 14 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 4 mild obscenities, name-calling (hippy, silly, stupid, leechy, lazy, sad, idiot), exclamations (oh my gosh, eww), 13 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, Oh God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Midsommar SUBSTANCE USE

 – Several people take mushrooms and one drinks a tea made from them, a man on the phone tells a woman that he and a friend just smoked something (presumably a drug), a woman takes a Lorazepam tablet, several women drink a beverage that contains a ground root and they seem intoxicated as they dance, a man inhales a smoke deeply after being told that it will improve his vitality, a man blows dust into another man’s face (it renders him incapacitated), a woman takes a sleeping pill in a few scenes, two men are given something to help them “feel no pain,” and we see bongs and beer bottles in a man’s apartment. A man drinks a beer, people drink shots of an unidentified beverage in a few scenes, and people drink a toast to a man and woman. A man smokes a cigarette, and a man vapes in several scenes in the movie.

Midsommar DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Cults, family, relationships, bipolar disorder, suicide, murder, communes, traditions, Lyme disease, winter and summer solstice, ceremonies, sacrifice, incest, arranged mating, intimacy, taboos, Waco, hermaphrodites, regret.

Midsommar MESSAGE

 – Beware of people in communes in Sweden.