A Spooky & Gay Crossover! Part 2: Midsommar

After a little unplanned hiatus, Popculty is BACK with Part 2 of our Halloween crossover event! Friend of the pod and Spooky & Gay co-host Carver Casey joins me once again to slice and dice Ari Aster's second film, Midsommar-- the one we actually liked (mostly)! Is it a 'good for her' movie? Cult propaganda? A surprisingly cathartic exploration of grief? We've got thoughts! Plus, side-trips into final girls, the dark history of dance marathons, and of course, Florence Pugh supremacy.

Carver's horror recs:
Next of Kin (1982) dir. Tony Williams
12-Hour Shift (2020) dir. Brea Grant
Pet (2016) dir. Carles Torrens [TW: Not for the squeamish!]

SJ's horror recs:
Evil (4 seasons, Paramount+)
Dead Ringers (1 season, Amazon Prime)
The Last of Us (1 season, HBO/Max)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) dir. Halina Reijn
Fear Street trilogy (2021) dir. Leigh Janiak

References:

• Midsommar, except it's just Dani looking at Christian like he's the shittiest boyfriend ever, set to Wii music
• Florence Pugh on the Off Menu podcast
• The Grim, Depression-Era Origins of Dance Marathons - Atlas Obscura
• Atlas Obscura podcast: Hargaberget

Follow Carver on TikTok.

Chapters

• 0:00 Summary (??) and trigger warnings for 'Midsommar'
• 1:43 Our viewing experiences
• 5:06 Christian: Gaslight, Gatekeep, GTFO
• 8:34 Folk Horror
• 9:09 Foreshadowing FTW
• 11:39 The details!
• 13:18 Florence Pugh supremacy
• 18:54 Good for her?
• 23:39 Florence Pugh: "I felt immense guilt for leaving Dani"
• 27:27 Race: hits and misses
• 33:57 Some things we like
• 35:01 Collective grief vs. individualism
• 41:09 The dark history of dance marathons
• 42:38 The Harga folk legend
• 45:22 Connecting 'Hereditary' and 'Midsommar'
• 46:28 A purging of grief: The end scene dissected
• 49:07 Morals of the story
• 49:55 Ableism (and sooo many white guys) again!
• 53:22 Is Dani a Final Girl?
• 56:33 What would a gender-swapped version of this movie look like?
• 58:20 Horror recommendations
• 1:02:35 Signing off
• 1:04:13 Outro