RFYL 258: Midsommar

You are listening to the Run for your Live Podcast.

Hey everyone, welcome to the show. I'm Daphne.

And I'm Pake.

And this is the Run for Your Lives Podcast.

This episode is two hundred and fifty something episodes in the making. It's something we've talked about, we've joked about, we've run in circles around. And now it's finally here. We dun dang did it. This week, this episode, the folk horror film Midsummer, written and directed by Ari Astor and released July 3rd, 2019. Which 2019? It feels like it was even earlier than that. Like it doesn't feel like it was the year before the pandemic started. Like I feel like I was earlier than that, even when I saw this, because I saw this in theaters. I know.

That's when we were living normal lives without even thinking about the pandemic. There was no talk of it. It was business as usual. It was going to the theater, it was living life, having fun. I didn't even know you at this point this movie came out.

Yeah.

I was in the Z Head group, but I really hadn't talked to anyone that much in it. I had was just part of it. So I didn't I didn't know anyone.

Yeah. Yeah, we I think it's been on the record on this podcast a number of times that we will never cover this movie. So now that we're covering this movie Now that's frozen over.

Well, the reason behind this is we spun the wheel, it came up, and I guess I just in a moment of I don't know, a brain fog or my guard was down. I said, okay, but if we're going to cover midsummer, I want to do the wicker man first. And so we did the wicker man last week, which means that this week because we trust the wheel, or rather, we do what the wheel tells us, here it is. I don't know how fans of this movie are gonna react to this episode. I hope you see where I'm coming from or you process through it with me because I remember back when we did um episode six of Run for Your Lives, which was the ritual. I came into that movie and I didn't like it the first time I saw it.

Yeah.

But through discussing it and watching it again, I grew to really appreciate it. We are gonna see if that is what happens today.

We'll see. Um, I don't know. And I I don't even set that up as like, oh yeah, we'll see about that. Like, I honestly don't know. I'm curious to see how this goes. Because I've been on record saying I didn't care for this movie very much, and I don't know if it was when I first saw it in theaters. I had not seen Hereditary. I still haven't seen Hereditary. I want to, I need to, just to get it done and see it. Especially, and I'm kind of teasing, you know, cutting ahead a little bit, especially now after watching this a second time, and I'm like, okay, I think I get Ariaster a little more, and I'm curious to see Hereditary with that. Because yeah, I don't know if I was expecting something different, and it's just not what I was expecting. But seeing it again today, to take notes, really breaking down some of the themes and some of the things that I remembered from the first time I saw it, and then seeing how they foreshadow and set those things up, plus having the Wicker Man in my head from last week and seeing the parallels. I enjoyed this movie immensely more than I did the first time I saw it. I actually really liked this second watch of this movie. Knowing what it was, not being like expecting one thing, getting another, but knowing exactly what I was getting into and then being able to focus on that and figure out the themes in the story within that. I did turn around on this movie. I actually was like, oh no, this is very good. I do like this a lot on the second watch. I did appreciate going back and revisiting this one.

Well, I have seen Hereditary, and I hated Hereditary even more than Midsummer. Eddington was the first movie that I saw by him that I actually got and enjoyed. Um, I did not see Bow Is Afraid. I will never see Bow Is Afraid because I've seen the entire Wikipedia synopsis of it, and I'm grateful to have not put myself through it. If you want to do hereditary on this podcast, can we please wait until next season? Because I don't think I have it in me to go through another one. No.

Yeah, we've got to give him two chances to win director of the season, right?

No. Uh-uh. Not today, tomorrow, or next season. When I went to see this in the theater, I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I got, and I was really irritated and bugged by the end of it. And so this movie has had a basement level um place in my heart, meaning I didn't ever want to hear it or see it again ever. But it was on the wheel. And we're gonna we're gonna cover it. We're gonna process through it. Because sometimes talking about it will help me look at things differently. There were some things when I was watching it, I kind of took this mindset of I need to find things to like. I need to find things to understand because the first time I watched it, I didn't like it or understand it or care about it. I was more irritated by the end. In my house, it's a source of irritation because every time I mention it, Chris is like, you hated that movie. I don't understand why you hated that movie. And so maybe he can listen to this and understand it better. If I've just put it out in words why I don't like it.

I'm curious too, because we've never really had the discussion because as much as we've joked about it and even said, like, we're not gonna cover it because you didn't like it, it's always been on the back burner. We always kind of knew that eventually this day would come that especially as you mentioned with the ritual, because that happened, it was like, well, we have to do I mean, that experiment will have to take place. We're going to have to force you to relive this movie to see if that also changes things if it affects like now it has to be done. So we haven't talked about this movie and what we do or didn't like. We've never been specific when we when we bring it up because I think we always kind of knew this day was coming and we were gonna talk about it.

Yeah, I think so too. I think that also I just put it off because I did not want to watch it again, and I knew the wheel was gonna pick the time. I knew it. But I at least wanted to w do the Wickerman first because I think I said this last week. That's a movie that lies very close to my heart. I own it in a lot of different versions and Midsummer was compared to Wickerman a lot of the time. And I just preferred the Wickerman and the way that that story was told, even if it is 50 years old, I still preferred it. I still prefer it. We'll see what I learned to appreciate or not appreciate in this version. I did come out of it. What I will say is I did come out of it with a different perspective and thoughts than I did the first time I watched it because I was paying attention to certain things. Because I remember stuff that bugged me in the first time around that I wanted to see. Does it still bug me or do I understand it better? And so there are some themes in this that I hadn't really thought about until I was watching it this time, and it was like, oh, yeah, that is not okay. This this group, wow, there's a lot to talk about that we will definitely get into. But not before we do a few production notes. Was filmed in Budapest, Budakese, and Etiak, Hungary, as well as Utah and New York City in the United States. It was Ari Astor's second feature film, and Ari Astor has written all of his movies. He created the story while going through a breakup of his own and described the film as quote, a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film.

Yep, that's accurate.

The budget was $9 million, and it grows 48.5 million at the box office. It's 141 minutes long. No, we did not cover the one that's like 171 minutes, I think. This big director's cut. No, we're covering the straight-on version.

So As far as I know, it's whatever was on Max. Yeah.

That's the version we're covering. Paik, give us a synopsis.

All right. A group travels to Northern Europe to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish midsummer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre ceremony at the hands of a pagan cult.

Wow. Well, it's a different type of story than what we got last week with Sergeant Howie. But it also involves a pagan cult, so there are some similarities that we'll more than likely talk about.

Yeah. With a May like queen, and there's May poles, and it's it's very much midsummer festival. It so the Wickerman comparisons make sense because it is a folk horror based on the same kind of pagan rituals and ancient kind of things. So in that case, yeah. I mean it does end with a big fire, a big wooden structure on fire, so there is also that, with human sacrifice involved. So like, yeah. I get the comparisons.

Definitely. Um, people have made fun of me for calling this movie Midsummer, but I have uh, you know, I have Clout behind it now. That's how Ariaster pronounces it. Not Midsummer, Midsumar. And so I feel vindicated by that. Um, I may not agree with him on anything else, but I do agree and am supported by the fact that this is how he pronounces the title of the movie. I already mentioned that Eddington is the only Ariaster movie that I would probably watch again. He does have a tendency to work with the same people. Uh, Joaquin Phoenix has been one of his regulars. Um, he also has um a very distinct point of view with his movies, and people have compared him with Robert Eggers, who is another director that I am like hot and cold on.

I I get their stuff confused sometimes to the point where I was like, I need to watch more Ariaster stuff because I've never this is the only one I've seen. I still haven't seen Hereditary, I haven't watched Bo Was Afraid, I haven't watched Eddington. And then while I was thinking, I was like, man, this is the only Ariaster movie I actually seen. And in that head, I was like, and I haven't seen The Witch, and then I had to go back and go, no, wait, that's Eggers. Which I've seen more of Egger's stuff, and he's also, I get there is a similarity because also, based on like the way you feel that Ariaster, Robert Eggers is one that I'm like, I appreciate his point of view and what he's doing, but there's certain things, and I think when we We talked about this when we covered Nosferatu.

Yes.

That like there are Eggersisms. There are things that he does that I don't like that are very his style, and so I'm not a huge Eggers fan. I've seen more, I haven't seen The Witch yet, but I did see The Lighthouse and did not care for it.

I did not go down that road because the commercial alone for it made me realize that I was never gonna want to watch it.

Yeah. Uh The Northmen I really liked, except for the handful of Eggersisms that bothered me. There were things that are very Eggers in that movie that I was like, I wish he wouldn't have done that. I don't but but then overall it was a very good movie. And so Nosferatu, obviously, if you've listened to this podcast and listened to our coverage of that, you know how much people adored that movie. So like he hit a home run there, so I'm like, okay, we'll see.

It's hot and cold. It's like, okay, I will give you a chance. Eddington gave me a reason to give you a chance.

Yeah, so that that's you know, bringing up Eggers is yeah, the reason. So I'm like, now I'm like, because I was kind of put off of Ariaster because of my first like thought on this movie, and now re-watching it and enjoying it a lot more and getting a lot more of what I missed the first time, going, okay, I should dive into more Ariaster and and see for myself really how those other films feel for me.

Yeah, well, enjoy Bo is Afraid. I cannot and will not ever touch it. A couple of thoughts off the top before we jump in deeper. Is this movie a testament to how cults actually trap people through subtle manipulation, care, love bombing, and uh drugs? One thing I won't complain about with Ari Aster is the scenery and how in this movie was bright and beautiful, which is such a contrast to hereditary, but things are so vivid and colorful, and the sound design is so solid. The score, everything all works together.

Oh yeah, I have specific, even outside of Oscar season where I'm usually paying even more attention to these things, or I have specific notes pointing out sound and cinematography and and things like that. So yeah, it's solid.

He's really good. The overhead shots, the flipping the camera in the 180 degree, like 180 degree flipping, which he did that in Hereditary 2. Those are things that just, you know, they stand out. One big question that I started with at the beginning of this, because it's something that I was frustrated about or irritated about at the end of seeing it the first time. Who is the real villain? Because I think when I watched it the first time, I thought Christian was supposed to be the real villain. And I've come out of it this time feeling different with who the real villain is. And it's funny because a character that I really like is not a good guy in this. Um I I have paid attention throughout and just noted some of the things that he did. Whether he did it maliciously or if it was just uh, you know, part of his upbringing, I don't know, but we'll see.

I'm curious to see if we have some of the similar thoughts when talking about Pele. So yeah, I know what you're referring to because I'm like looking at my notes and going, like, yeah, that's also something kind of new I picked up, and there's some thoughts on that. So I figured we're going in the same direction on that. Yeah.

I ended first watch seeing it in the theater, hating Christian, and liking Pelle. And this time I have very different thoughts on those characters. They're complicated, but you know, we'll get through we'll get through it. But there's so much about this that I didn't notice the first time through. Because when you're in a movie theater, even if you're a podcaster, which I wasn't at the time I was doing this, um you're not sitting there taking notes on your phone. You're watching a movie and you're just taking it all in. When you can watch it at home and take notes, it's a different beast.

Yeah. We we could break it up by character and stuff, but a lot of it is, again, kind of one linear story following Danny mostly, and then there's some stuff with with Christian and I'm confused because it's like Christian is what I want to say, but like she like calls him Christian. Like she puts emphasis on that when talking about him, so I'm like, maybe that is Okay.

I don't know.

So I I don't know.

I called him Christian, though, like that's what I see, so So we'll see.

Yeah, so I mean there's definitely things that I want to talk about with him, but I figured we'll just run through it in, you know, chronological order. And it's also, again, just the kind of laziness where I'm like, I don't have to reorganize or compile my notes in any way. I just get to do them the order I took them while I watch the movie, and that saves me like 30 minutes.

So Well, I also I also think that this is one of those stories that lends itself to being covered that way. We try with most of our movies to have it be that we can do them character-based, but not every movie lines up that way. And so I think we're doing a better service to the movie to cover it this way.

Yeah.

So we do start with Danny, who is in a complicated relationship with her boyfriend, um, who seems to want to dump her, or at least his friends want him to dump her. Um I paid more attention to that relationship between the two of them because to me it just seemed like he was a jerk right from the beginning. This time through, I got a different sense. I do think he cares about her. I think his friends they don't like that she's clingy or needs him, and so they give him a lot of shit about it.

Right. Yeah, it's the same, I'll say I gave him more credit and more grace, but then also I rip into him a little bit too because it's not that because at first, whenever I'm doing my notes, because like my first things is I'm like, he's a dick, but then only thinking about it, and it's like the more you see him, it's like, no, it's that he surrounds himself with dicks. Um the company you keep, and it's it's a different character flaw that he has that creates that problem, and I'll get into that, you know, some of the the other things that that are there's definitely some major flaws with him that he should have worked on uh that make him not a you know, not the best person, but also he's not the worst either.

No, he definitely isn't. And that's how I ended my first watch, thinking he was a terrible person, and that is not what I took away from this because I watched him in this movie with a critical eye right from the beginning, and I'm like, why did I think that when I was watching it the first time? Have I been podcasting long enough that now I just look at things more objectively, or I I don't know, but Yeah.

Yeah, and we see her in a very anxious state. I mean, we see, I mean, she's taken Atavan, like she's already suffering from legit like anxiety issues and disorder. Like, so that's one thing. We know, like, you know, the mental health issues are in her family. Her she mentions her sister's bipolar, and we we pick up with her getting this message from that sister, very disturbing message, and she's not responding, and so Danny's spiral. And she's spiraling in multiple ways because not only is it with like her sister and her parents, but then she keeps reaching out to Christian. And then the way that he's responding, the things he's saying, his tone of voice, she's reading into it, which I mean, she is hearing kind of what is going on, but then she's she's like, Oh, well, every time I keep calling him or texting him, I'm driving him further away, and he's he's tired of me, and it's she just keeps freaking out. And then I was just like, it's not all her fault, like he's kind of not great either, but again, it's because of the people who are around him, specifically Mark, uh, which is crazy because I love Will Poulter, but man, Mark is such a big uh I was like, I'm gonna have to watch the bear after this just to get wholesome Will Poulter back. I need Will Poulter back in my head, wholesome. Uh, and then even Josh isn't like super great, he's just kind of very self-absorbed and like better than thou kind of mentality.

Yeah.

Um I get that. I just wrote down Josh is dark Cheaty. That's what he is.

Okay.

Because it's it's William Jackson Harper, who he if if anybody knows the reference, he plays the character of Cheaty on the good place. And their character the characters are very similar as they're they're brilliant philosophy people who are constantly reading into social behavior and talking about and wanting to understand. But Cheaty is friendly and nice and moral and cares about others. Josh is dark Cheaty. He's too smart for his own good, and he knows that he's smarter than everybody else and holds out above them.

You know what? That makes sense. I've never seen the good place, but I knew that he was in it. Um, I get the impression he thinks he's better than everyone.

Yeah.

Like he the bar is set very high. With Danny, I feel like she's saying out loud things that women actually feel in the real world. I think at least in my generation, we were brought up to kind of believe no one's gonna stay with you if you're too difficult or too much. You've got to just you gotta give in, you've gotta be diplomatic, you shouldn't be too much, you're gonna scare him off, you'll be overwhelming, you've got too much baggage. It's societal expectations.

Yeah.

Um, and that's really difficult. So I honestly related to her going through feeling that, and I wanted to give her a hug and just say, Danny, it's okay. It's not you, the right person is gonna want to be with you no matter what, because they're gonna care. And you can don't lock yourself down and not reach out when you need something. And I think personally, I've learned through various friendships that even though you think someone's gonna disappear from your life because you're too much, or you need too much, or you're you know, you're just too there all the time, that they're the right people that are not gonna do that. They're gonna love you no matter what. Even with your flaws, it's okay. And I do feel like, like you said, um, Christian was a little dismissive about her concerns about her sister and the message that she got.

Yeah. There is that where it there's that self-blame that she already has that he feeds into. It's like, well, if you'd stop and you know, if you'd stop responding to her, if you she just does this to get a rise out of you, and it almost makes it Danny's fault. Where it's just like, well, of course that you know she's not responding because she knows it gets under your skin, and the more that you feed into it and keep freaking out that she's winning, and you're you're it's your fault that this keeps happening.

And Yeah. And he keeps push he doesn't exactly push back, but what he does say is he doesn't want to break up with her because he doesn't want to regret it later, which made me think he does care about her. He's just he's got the peer he's the people he surrounds himself with, the peer pressure. They don't have girlfriends, they don't have that anyone to tie them down, and but he navigates between the two worlds, not in the best way possible, really.

Yeah, he There's a few of the different things that that are wrong. That that ties into one of his big flaws that I'll I'll talk about is yeah, the way that he says, Oh, you know, I don't want to break up with her because what if I regret it and then I can't get her back, and it's like, well that's life, you know, like that's how things are. And so it ties into, you know, and I'll talk about it way more later, but that's that's his big thing, is just that he is he doesn't have his own personality. No, he bases uh he bases everything about himself on the people around him or who he's in a relationship with. He's too afraid to be somebody is his biggest thing.

And being on his own would probably do him a world of good to figure out who he is before he's with someone else. Because sometimes when it's like that, if the relationship goes sour, someday you wake up and you're like, Well, I'm not with them, who the hell am I? If everything I was is about my friends and her, if I don't have them, who am I? Like, what what am I? Like they get confused because they just don't people get confused because they don't know who they are. Sometimes parents will put all of their effort into like their kids. And then when their kids move out of the house and go off to college, they're kind of faced with now what do I do? And I'm not saying that's a bad that it's bad to do that because I I think family's very important, but that does happen to people where you have to figure out, okay, who am what do I do outside of that?

Yeah. Uh so yeah, we get this kind of opening, Danny's freaking about, you know, freaking out about what's going on, and then it turns out that her fear is justified. We get kind of the first big horror turn here. Uh, you know, we learn that, yeah, her sister just kind of snapped and in a murder-suicide situation took her life and both of their parents, and leaving Danny alone without family. I mean, it's just her, and then she's got Christian to lean on, and she's not even sure that that ground isn't shaky. Like, she doesn't even know how solid that is. I will give Christian some credit that he does he's immediately there for her in the wake of this tragedy, that he just heads straight to her place and and holds her and consoles her and is there for her. And then, but you also feel like even though it's not spelled out, there's something in the back of his head going, Well, I can't break up with her now. That's just cruel, so now I'm stuck here even longer, you know. Like you could tell that those thoughts are still probably going around in his head.

Yeah. Because how do you break up with someone when they're traumatized in front of you? It's like Danny is in this headspace of like a post-traumatic stress of not only losing her family, but how they died. She's also prone to anxiety and panic attacks. So she's dealing with a whole host of things. And as someone who had a parent that died under natural, like somewhat natural causes, losing a family member is not something that you just automatically get over. It's not something that you're just like snap your fingers and oh, I'm all better now. It's something that stays with you your whole life. And so looking at this movie through her eyes and what she's going through, it's like her her her whole cocoon, her family, who she is, her identity is gone. Yeah that piece of her is not there. And so she's truly, truly alone. Except for Christian.

Yeah. And then he again with one of his flaws, he's shitty at communication all around, which leads again to now that she's going with them to Sweden, but it's shaky ground. Mm-hmm. I I feel like she knows that Christian's friends don't like her, but she's just trying to like play into this, like, hey guys, you know, but you know, the fact that he's going to Sweden at all was a com was completely surprise news to her. She had no idea about it. And then now on the other foot, it's like he invited her to join, and that's a last-minute surprise to the guys. Like, he's like, by the way, she's I invited her to come, and it was your idea. You told me I should tell her and go along with it. Okay, thanks. She's here. Yep.

Like last minute reveal to them, and as soon as she even comes in and they talk through just the basis of yes, she's gonna come, the others just leave the room. Like they're out of the room except for Pele, they are gone. Like quickly, Josh and Mark are off, not around.

Josh sits around for a minute, but you can tell he's just kind of because he's like, Oh, you're coming, great, and then he like goes to do his own thing. And and of course, like Pele is the one that really kind of leans in, you know, with her and and kind of is is the the the nice one there. Yeah, Mark, he's not even gonna try to put that mask on. He's like we gotta let's I've gotta talk to you about this uh paragraph that I'm working on. Like, you know, he's obviously very anti-Danny out of all of them. He's the one that's constantly trying to get Christian to break up with her.

I think he's jealous, honestly, that Danny has someone that is that in his life and he doesn't. I think that's part of it. I think it's a probably a bro thing where okay, he's got a cute girlfriend and he's not spending all of his time with the bros, so I don't like that. And their ideas of relationships are kind of weird because relationship in relationships you you have to communicate. And for Christian to not tell her he was going to absolutely go to Sweden in two weeks is that's not a sign of a healthy relationship. Like you should not be afraid to tell the person things.

It gives credence to when they're sitting at the table way later in Sweden when she is finally getting fed up with like where she's just like, I have to say something snarky. Where she's like, after you know, Simon left, quote unquote, where she just has this little moment where she's like, Well, I could totally see you doing that to me, doing something like that. And he's like, What do you mean? It's like let's go all the way back to this moment where you are going to leave for Sweden without even letting her know.

Like, yeah.

Yeah, of course you would do something like that.

He probably would have told her the day before or on his way to the airport. He probably would have stopped by, or I'm not sure if they lived together. Like, he was at her house or at her apartment I don't know what the living situation is. He probably would have stopped by, given her a hug and a kiss goodbye, and gone off. Like, I don't think he would have told her anything about it. And so him not telling her, he should have apologized about that. But somehow, with all of it, it turned around to her apologizing to him.

Never mind, it's my fault. Yeah.

Yep. And that is not healthy either. That it but that is something that absolutely happens in relationships where the person who should apologize twists it around. Some people, women or men, um manipulate things around so that the person who was wronged ends up apologizing. And that's that's not okay. And Christian absolutely has flaws, like he absolutely does.

Yeah.

I think he walks a thin line in between his two lives with his friends and with her, and he does everything at the last possible second. I think he hopes that things will secretly work out by some fairies behind the sc you know screen that can wave wands and just fix it for him so that he doesn't have to deal with it.

Yeah.

Because I think his choice would be never to deal with any of this.

Yeah, he's a coward. Like, truly. He just he's not going to take any kind of initiative or responsibility for anything. It's just that that's his biggest flaw. Uh yeah, so we we've talked Mark and Josh a little bit, but then yeah, we meet Pelle a little bit more. We see him kind of talking with them at the bar wherever they're at, the restaurant, and then here, but it's yeah, as you mentioned, he's the one that really talks with Danny more, and you know, that he's this is, you know, he came from this small community, this little village, that, you know, this is a big deal. There's these, you know, midsummer festivities that he's bringing his friends to. And he seems very interested and excited at the prospect of Danny actually joining them now. Like he likes that. Which makes me wonder. It's like, I mean, he can't orchestrate that necessarily, but like there's something to where like he sees something in his favor here, which we'll learn about, we see, but we will.

We definitely will. I did not see it the first time watching this, but I definitely see it now. Um, the way that he talked to her. It was vi it came across as very kind. Like he was the only person genuinely happy she was coming.

Yeah.

And he seemed friendly to her. And over time, it was it wasn't that he wore her down. It was just that the way he presented himself was the polar opposite of Christian.

Yeah. And he's he's kind of preying on her in that way. I feel I didn't pick up on it on first watch either, really, but this time he seems very manipulative.

Yes.

Picking the time and place that he brings up her parents dying. And well, my parents died too, and it's trying to like bond, but he's trying to like show, yeah, like you said, that there's a lot of things that he says or does where it's like, see, here's the things that are bothering you, here's the things that you don't like, but here's the exact opposite.

Here's the alternative, here's what you really deserve, here's what you he chooses the time, yeah, to bring up these things, like you said. Um, there's a conversation they have later that he brings up these questions to Danny at a crucial time to get her thinking about Christian in a certain way.

The do you feel held, which is pivotal to this movie. Mm-hmm. And we'll we'll get there when we get to those points.

But when they first arrive, first of all, I want to know if they just left the I thought maybe they left the car in the middle of the road.

I know. I was kind of bothered by that. I was like, that's is that where you part? No, you pull off into the grass a little bit. That's a small road. Other people might have to drive through there. What are you doing?

Yeah.

Where are the other cars from all these other people?

Uh I wondered about that. It was like a magical thing because there were other people. It wasn't just the four of them plus Connie and Simon. There were additional people who would come in, at least for the first day that we saw. Um Yeah.

I will say before they get over to Sweden though, uh, I had to point out when we talk the cinematography stuff, whatever. The transition shot where you know, where they the parent thing comes up, and Danny gets upset by that and walks into the bathroom in Christian's apartment or wherever they're at. And then it immediately she walks in there, and that overhead shot that flips right into it becoming the plain lavatory. Fantastic editing.

It was fantastic.

I was I love that shot. I was like, it is such a great way to push the story forward. We we need to just skip ahead to there on their way there now. Now we don't need to like continue circling. But it's an artistic shot that's used to like, and now we're in the future. And I just thought that was very cool.

I liked it as well. I like those things. Like I said earlier, there are things Ariaster does very, very well when it comes to creation of movies. And the music and cinematography are two of those things. Effects is another thing. And not just actual effects in the sense that we normally talk about them. It's scenes and dialogue and the way that things are conveyed. It's those effects, it how it comes across, those also count for something as well. One thing I noticed when they did get there, there were mushrooms that um they were going to do. And this is where you see the peer pressure come across. And it wasn't just to Danny, although she was the main person that was like, no, she really didn't want to do them. Christian said, no, I'm gonna do this with you. And that again, I was like, why did I hate him so much when I watched this movie the first time? Is it because he he's a jerk sometimes? I I don't know. But I kept getting alienated with him. This time I sided with him where he's like, no, we'll we'll do them together until his friends pressure Danny to do it so they can all be on the trip together. Because they don't want to be tripping at different times.

Yeah, we we see yeah, Mark specifically. You're just like, God, this guy's such a whiner. I thought it was what you know, it's like, how far do we have to go? It's like it's a four-hour drive. And he goes, Oh my god. I was like, calm down, Mark.

Are you 12?

I thought four-hour drive is nothing. I'm doing that next week for fun. Um and coming back the same night. So that's eight hours of driving in a day, and you don't see me complaining about it. In fact, I'm looking forward to it. That's plenty of time for me to listen to some albums I've been wanting to jam. So, you know.

You make it a game when you're in the car and you don't, you know, you just put music on and just sing along and just get time to yourself. You can't do anything else except drive. So it's honestly time to give your brain a break from constant stimulation of TV and phones.

And then, yeah, you mentioned also before, you know, on their way there, that upside down shot as they're entering Halsingland. Uh, it's it's like they've entered a whole new world. Like everything is different than what they first expect. It's a great way of showing that as well.

Yeah, it really was like they were in oz. It's like they followed the yellow brick road, and here we are.

Yeah.

It's just a different place.

And then yeah, like the staging area where so Pele's not the only one, like there's others from the community that were were sent out and have brought people back. We get um Ingmar, uh, his brother, but again, as we learn more from Pele, like his parents died when he was young, and then this whole community is kind of his family. So his brother and his sister are just people that are similar in age to him that he was raised alongside and grew up with in this community. They're all kind of a family together, which ties into what he says to Danny later about, like, no, it's all a family, you have somebody who's there for you, can hold you. So that's where he's coming from, but but yeah, the mushrooms. Mark's even more disagreeable when he's tripping on shrooms. Uh he somehow doesn't mell out, he gets worse. He's so offended by the thought of it staying daylight for you know into the late hours. I don't like that. No, that's wrong. That's bad. Everybody lay down. Like, what the fuck is wrong with you, dude?

He he's very bossy, especially when he's on shrooms. He's incredibly bossy. It's an overnight experience, this trip.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's that's typically the the case with mushrooms and things. It's hours sometimes for things.

Okay.

Um that's pretty usual. Uh yeah, her trip much worse. Uh it was going very beautifully until the word family came up, and then that sent her spiraling into a pretty dark place.

It did. It did.

Also, I felt just as lost as she was with all the Swedish that was being spoken, and because it wasn't translated on the screen, they didn't do any of it like in the captioning. So I felt lost. Like I didn't know what they were saying.

It's not at this point, they do later, but yeah, at this point they do.

But not now. It's kind of, I think that was the point was to keep people in the dark.

Yeah, where she just has this idea they're all looking at me, they're laughing at me, because she doesn't know what they're talking about, and she's just very alone. Uh yeah, sleeps it off eventually, and next day they finish their little hike to where they're going. Uh it's quite a beautiful entrance into the village. It's a big old structure for them to walk through. There's music being played, people attending to them, kids running around handing them things. It's just it's a very nice little like, okay. Yeah. A warm welcome.

Yeah, not as warm as the the the later times.

Yeah. And I'm watching a lot of this like early like setting up for this stuff where they're like walking around and meeting people and seeing, you know, the things that are going on and like the pre-ceremony rituals and things. And I was like, you know, honestly, I would love to attend something like this. Without the whole ritual sacrifice and stuff, you know.

And murder, yeah.

But like a normal celebration of nature and community looks very peaceful and joyful. I'm like. I would because I I do know of people that yeah do travel to to Europe to do these like midsummer festivals and stuff, and it's like that would be really cool. Just don't go to one that's in an isolated community village that nobody knows about. Make sure it's a good public place.

Yeah. But I mean, why would you be scared when there are all I mean, there are community members, but there are also a lot of other people there were other people there, not like hundreds or anything. But there were like more people that were brought into this that are not there the next day.

Yeah.

Or at least two days later, they're they're gone. And I don't know where they ended up. Because I rewound it a couple of times because I'm like, I know there were other people there, but they were not there when we did the cliff diving, so I'm not sure what happened.

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, we we see like the midsummer thing is like every year, so there's like certain parts of the ceremonies and stuff that are every year. The May Queen seems to be like an every year thing, and even maybe the Atastupa may be, but like certain things, but as far as like the nine sacrifices that we get at the end of this, and like bringing outsiders in and all that, that's not an every year occurrence. We we do hear that she says something about this is a specific special celebration, and these rituals are every 90 years, so it's like as Pelle even says, a once in a lifetime experience.

Oh, yeah, once in a lifetime.

Yeah.

If you're one of the people sacrificed, it's definitely once in a lifetime.

Yeah.

You know, and he he said he thought that they would appreciate coming and being part of something that was once in a lifetime. I'm not sure that your once in a lifetime thing matches up with what everyone else's once-in-a-lifetime thing is. I think that they probably thought they would not die on this adventure. Honestly, Mark just wanted to get laid. That was all he was thinking about. The whole thing.

Yep. Uh yeah, we've talked a lot about Danny, but I have a note here that's, you know, just again, picking up, we see the way that she's, you know, reacting and interacting with people is that she's just quick to blame herself for anything. Nothing is somebody else's fault. She should have reminded them of something. Because it comes from like the, oh, it's my birthday. And she's talking to Pelle about that, and he's just like, wait, Christian doesn't remember that it's your birthday. And he's like, she's like, I didn't remind him. Like, well, that's not necessarily your job, but it's still, I should have said something. I shouldn't have said this, I shouldn't have reacted this way. Like, everything is what she did or didn't do, and nobody else is at blame.

It's a mindset that you have, and it's very hard to get out of because you do. It's the way that, you know, some women, that's how they think, that's what they see, and that's what they understand is if I take the blame, then it will smooth things over. It's if if I don't make it their fault, then it and I make it my fault instead, then they won't be mad at me. And you're so afraid of making someone mad at you because you think they'll leave. Because she's afraid. All she has left is Christian.

Yeah.

She's lost everything else. And so she's so afraid of losing him at this point that she's trying to twist herself into a pretzel, basically. And still deal with the residual, you know, trauma of losing her family the way that they died.

Yeah. Uh, and so that is really pinpointing a lot of those traits about her helps the arc of this movie, and especially her character arc, land a lot better. Because you realize as traumatic and horrific as a lot of this thing is, it's this experience gives her a power and sense of herself mattering that she's never had before.

Yeah. The way that they continually welcome her the way she is, and don't expect her to be anyone else other than who she is. They just accept her, and she's brought into different things throughout this movie. Like baking bread, uh the meat pies and the dancing and all of those things. It gives her that sense of family that's part of a community.

Yeah.

And it's a different type of family than what she's used to, but it makes her not feel like she's all alone.

Mm-hmm. And uh, yeah, I like that there's there's a lot of little things that are questionable at first. Absolutely, they but they just seem like strange cultural stuff that you can easily ignore. You know, when they're getting kind of looking around, it's like, yeah, the forbidden temple-like building, it's like that should be kind of a red flag, but you're like, no, it's cultural, there's a bear in a cage. Why are we gonna mention that? It's just a bear. Okay, and then we never see it again until the end of the movie. It's like, oh yeah, the bear. Um, they focus so hard on this tapestry of a girl using her pubic hair to psychically attract a husband. You know, that kind of stuff, just kind of normal things.

Uh those tapestries as a whole were so well created, like, well done, and so many Easter eggs and foreshadowings were part of that. There's one particular piece on one of the tapestries that basically looks like it looks like Pele is like a Pied Piper bringing his friends in for the slaughter.

Yeah.

It's amazing. If you slow down and actually look at some of the things, it it tells you a lot about what's coming.

Yeah. Uh a lot of it's in that the building that they're sleeping in, and all the paintings and and tapestries in there, which is, yeah, it was gorgeous building. I was like, oh, this is really well done. It's nice. Um, and we just get a little more like X, you know, uh explanation of different things. We're talking about like this is the place that the kids and even young adults, all the way up till 36 sleep in here. And then I almost always want to say cheaty, and it's like, nope, he's Josh here. Uh, but um Josh has that question, like, why told like 36 seems like such a random age to like stay in the kids' building, you know? And so we have that like, well, these villagers here, like they live their life in seasons.

Mm-hmm.

And winter ends at 72, and we get Danny's like, well, what happens at 72? And Pelle just makes that like kind of throat-cutting, you know, gesture, the ha, like, oh, and we kill him, and then you know, they laugh about it and move on. And it's like, if only she knew he wasn't joking. Uh I know it seemed that way, but he wasn't kidding.

But they don't look at it that way. They don't look at it like it's killing, they look at it like it's a self-sacrifice for whatever good and belief that they have.

Yeah.

Um the whole season thing is interesting. Later on, we learn, too, that uh because there are discussions about mating and incest and making sure that bloodlines are not mixing in that with with children, because sometimes when it does happen, the children are born with deformities.

And that's another Harriastro loves his like disfigurement stuff, and some of there's some stuff like that. But yeah, because we get Christian asking one of the guys there in the village about this, and we get those answers that he is like, because again, foreshadowing says, well, we'll we'll bring people from outside in that we can approve as mates, and then he becomes that later. Um but yeah, it's like, well, all of all mating pairs have to be approved by the elders, and it's very important kind of thing. But then even when asked about the incest and stuff, it's like, well, no, we may take good care to not do that. But then later, when Josh is talking to one of the elders and we meet Reuben, the Oracle, and it's like, well, unless they specifically need to incestually breed, then they do it on purpose because there is also a cult pagan ritual reason for them to do it.

Yep. It's not outside the realm of what I've seen in some other movies as far as mating rituals. Um but they do talk about um like couples like having relationships and those have to be approved. Like different pieces of how things work in this world. But the seasonal age brackets, that was that was really interesting.

Yeah. To me. Just by like 18-year increments.

Yeah.

Yeah. We get awkward little birthday song. Can't get the candle. He had the candle there like halfway, and then he blew it out by trying to do it again. I just let it he's trying.

He is trying, and there were moments where he was affectionate to her, the way that he would touch her, reminding you that they are in a relationship as strained and difficult as it may look, he does care about her. And I honestly watch watching this movie, he cared about her more than I thought because of the way that he was just touching her and interacting with her. However, Pelle is very uh effective as someone who is purposely driving a wedge, not only I don't think not only between them, but in the group themselves, like yeah with the thesis discussion and who's gonna cover or who's gonna get to write about this experience between Josh and Christian. Like there's there's some real like disagreement in the group.

Yeah. Um I I did not go into go into this thinking I was going to be writing the word Ate Stupa so many times in my notes, but I did.

Uh absolutely. Absolutely.

That is, of course, this this ritual of um uh sacrificial self-senicide. Uh yes. Um, which looking into it a little bit, because I did, because there's that moment where like Christian is Googling it and then he doesn't have any internet service, so he can't figure out what it is. Uh so I just googled it myself. I was like, what would have come up? And then of course then it leads to like looking as like a lot of Norse mythology and stuff where you know Ariaster looked into a lot of that stuff. Now, when I looked into it, just even on the base level, a lot of it is mythological. I feel like it seems that like there's no actual concrete evidence that there were peoples that did this specifically the way that it was done. That was more of a story told by the Christians to be like, you can't those are they're bad people, they're barbaric. This is the kind of stuff they do. Where when you really look at it, it's like they just made that up. But yeah, because in a lot of those like Norse uh like kind of ancient places, elders are highly r uh esteemed and yeah, you know, wouldn't be treated that way. But you know, you gotta use what does exist in mythology, and they're like, well, what if this specific little sect, this cult, this place did do it that way? So, you know, we we have that. Um which you can tell Josh knows what that means just when Pele says the word Ate Stupa. He's like, really? Because then when Christian's trying to figure out what it is, and he's like, it's hard to explain. And then he's looking at Josh, and Josh has got this kind of grin on his face, and he's like, You know what it is, and he's like, Yeah. Um, which yeah, he's done a lot of research. This is his thesis, and his work like is these like ancient pagan and and Norse and and um what's the other word? Kind of I'm looking, but you know, that that area, you know, where some of these old traditions, that's what he's looking into. So he's familiar with that term. I don't he's probably assuming it's symbolic and it's not going to literally be elders flinging themselves off of a cliff. He was not ready for that. Uh but so you can see he's kind of excited because he's like, well, I know what that means, but how are they gonna do it? He's you he he's almost excited. He's like, I'm excited to see how this what symbolic things they do tomorrow.

He should have given some synopsis of it to Christian because the last thing that Danny needed to be witnessing, symbolic or not, was anything to do with Atastupa.

Yeah. Uh and then yeah, they have the meal before, which always leave it to Mark to make some kind of insensitive or stupid statement at any given time. It's like, you know, it's like, do they know they're walking stupid? Like, you don't have to say every single douchey thing that passes through your mind, but he does.

No, he has no filter. There's nothing there to stop the ridiculousness from coming out of his mouth at any given time.

God, they're taking so long with the food that they're almost trying to make it gross. Like, what you know, he's it's just like you don't have to say everything. Just shut up sometimes, maybe.

He's so disrespectful for the experience that they're on. He's not appreciative whatsoever. I I'm like, Pelle, why did you pick him? Is it because he's such an asshole? Yes. Agreed. But he picked him not just because he's a fool, he's an asshole. And I'm like, okay, I get it, I understand. You probably thought this guy's too stupid to live. We need to get rid of him. I'm gonna take him here. He's you know, he's the fool.

Yeah. Yeah, and when we get the meal before, again, at the stupe, but how many times am I gonna write this word? I was like, man, I didn't expect to write it this many times in my notes. Uh the the final meal of the elders, and even when they come in and Josh is like, oh, that's them. Like again, he knows some of what's going on. Uh I love that the the tables were all placed and set in like a runic shape. I was like, oh, that's so cool.

That, yeah, that was on purpose. Everything in this movie was done the way it was on purpose.

But like you say, like this is to honor them. It's all for them. Everyone waits, they stand until they show up, and then they sit, then the others can sit. They start eating, then the other people can start eating. They're finished eating, the other people are finished eating. Like it's all in time, it's very honorable to them. Which is is cool. And then I guess that was the dinner before that was the night before. Again, because of the way that night and day kind of all blend together, it's hard to follow the timeline sometime, but it seems like it's the next day, the next mornings when they actually go out. Because Mark isn't there, and he even mentions, you know, out of all the things you let me sleep through, and it's like, eh, thank God you weren't there, because you would have said some really heinous, off-colored, disrespectful shit.

Absolutely, they would have.

Um so I'm glad you weren't. But yeah, that main A Teshtupa scene, a huge pivotal point. Even the first time I saw this in theaters, I could recognize how pivotal that the scene is. It's an hour into the movie. But it's the first like it's not the first sense of horror, because I talked about, you know, obviously the sister and parents' death, but it's the first really big sense of the folk horror and what we're getting into here.

Yeah.

Because it it is revealed in that moment that the ancient rituals are in fact being followed precisely. And so then they're like, So for somebody like Josh, you know, you're like, well, now depending on which rituals that this village partakes in, anything can actually happen now. And our little band of stupid Americans and the British couple, you know, are fully in it. It's real, and that's where that kind of that coin flips there. And you're like, oh, we're we're in this now.

And the way that that was shot, the cliff I call it the cliff diving, um, the Addis Tupa. It was so impactful just visually and sound-wise. I mean, it really was impactful. Honestly, I don't know how Danny didn't lose it completely because Connie was losing it and Simon was freaking out.

The way that I I read into that was the the way that you see Danny is she keeps it mostly internal at first, unlike Simon, they said who absolutely flips out immediately, is it's shock. It's so shocking that it just shuts her down and she cannot react for a while. And that's I mean, she just lost both of her parents prematurely. And so viewing this ritual of older adults dying before their time, I mean, in this community, it's it's their time. They're 72.

Yep.

But it's like before because they're not frail, they're not sick, but it's purposely making sure that they go out before they get to that point, so that they don't become a burden, so that they don't dr bring the community down in any way that they've lived their life, they've done their cycle. Before they become a burden, it's time to move out of the way and let the next generation come up.

Yep. And we see the next generation by seeing this baby that is unnamed but cries all the time. Like crying all the time. At night, living in with all these other people in that big building. This year in particular was special for them because they could, by doing this, be part of the 90-year celebration or the 90-year ritual that they were doing. Because they were part of the sacrifice of the people that were sacrificed. Um but they don't act freaked out about having made this decision. It really appears to be like this is just a part of life in this place.

They get to honor their community by doing that.

Yeah. And so that's how they look at it. That's how everyone other than the outsiders look at it. And Ilva goes first, followed by Dan, who is the other who is the man that uh doesn't quite finish the job when he lands, and so not only are they witnessing him leaping to his death, they are watching for people with a mallet put him out of his misery, destroying his face, basically.

That's a lot.

They're carried. Like, they don't just walk to this high place, they're carried on these I don't know what they call them, but they're basically carried. It's something MJF would come in on for a pay-per-view and has come in before on a pay-per-view.

Yeah, just these little thrones. They're it's uh they're in a place of of being honored in this moment.

Yeah.

And it's it's a lot for everybody, but they're kind of then when they go back to to the main village and they're all trying to compose themselves and and process what's just happened. Josh, again, as somebody who focuses in studies and all of this stuff, like he seems to get back into the knack pretty easily. He's like, Well, I didn't really think they were gonna do it, but you see him. And then even after he talks with Christian, Christian tries with Danny a little bit, like, well, it's a different culture, so maybe we just try to be open, open-minded, and you know, where there's just like uh, you know, we think it's barbaric. I did like Christian says where he's like, I mean, we take our elders and stick them into nursing homes and stuff, and it's like, they probably look at that as barbaric. So it's like, I mean, yeah. Has a point sometimes, you know.

One of the women, I think her name was Steve, explains that this is the end of the Horga life cycle and it's a joyous thing.

Yeah.

And that the new baby is a girl and will take Ilva's name.

Mm-hmm.

And it just the cycle continues.

Yeah.

And Danny is, yeah, trying to process.

Then Christian goes to Josh and tells him, you know, oh, I'm gonna do my thesis on here too, and Josh is not having it. And so again, this is kind of what I kept talking about with Christian's major flaw. I understand Josh's frustration. He's like, no, this is this is my real passion and my life's work, or at least my school life's work. All of my like, you know, professional and you know, this is this is what I'm doing. And then you just kind of came in here and leeched onto it. And that was really pointing out that's Christian's personality. That's his flaw. Uh, even his rocky relationship with Danny is fueled by Mark and his friends telling him how he should feel about things.

Mm-hmm.

Well, she's just gonna keep going, she's so clingy. She's a everything that he feels about Danny is because that's how his friends told him to feel. Everything that he thinks he should be doing is because that's what his friends are doing, what other people are doing. He doesn't think or take action for himself. He's a follower and he's a clinger. He's clingy.

Mm-hmm.

In his own way, you know, he has no real personal ambition for himself. He's just a shadow, just latching on and following behind those around him.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Like I said earlier, I think he would have benefited from being on his own for a while without a girlfriend, without his friends, experiencing new things and meeting new people so that he was not just surrounded by these few guys who have a shitty attitude. It would have really helped him. And then Danny, with all of her issues that she's going through, I just I feel for her. I feel for her.

Yeah.

I feel like he did the best he could.

Yeah.

Given his flaws, he did the best that he could.

He just unfortunately was not they just were not a good fit. At the end of the day, they really weren't. And and so it's it's hard to like again when you say like, is there like a villain or is it like, you know, a it's tragic ending in a way, but you're like to look at the story for Danny, you're like, it's bittersweet. In a way, it's like it's good and bad. Like she goes through some horrific things and some terrible things happen, but it's also she finds this sense of belonging and family and self-importance and reliance that she's never had before. And so like it's almost a good thing, but then it's like is it empowering? Yes. Is it also manipulative? Yes. Pelle knows her personality and knows that he can kind of pull those strings on her to lead things to where they need to go. And so that's yeah, it's it's kind of both. She's manipulated, but it's hard to also feel bad about that because it is ends up putting her in a place that is empowering for her.

Yeah, she's definitely accepted. She's not feeling as alone. She has people around her that have pulled her in and invited, not just said, Oh, you're here, you want to do this, but been like, why don't you come and do this? Why don't you come and just embracing her and pulling her in and encouraging her and supporting her? She didn't have I don't think she had that with her family. It seems like she was so much worrying about her sister and worrying about the situations and never really having a life outside of the anxiety. And so in the end, she was gonna have a life outside the anxiety. Like she was not gonna have to worry about things because it's very simple there. They follow traditions, they follow rituals. Life is very simple in this place.

Yeah. And it's yeah, so we see why Pele's so deeply loyal to this place. Again, we get his backstory of him as a kid and being taken in, and then using that to kind of manipulate weasling in on Danny. I mean, we see like he kisses her after she wins May Queen, so it's like we can assume even after this movie ends, that like they might end up together, and Pele kind of puts himself in that position, and he knows firsthand Christian's not good for her. And he's not wrong, the things that he says, you know, do you feel held by him? Do you hit but then to use his past to then kind of manipulate things to tell her, well, you deserve better, when clearly you know what he means by better is you deserve me. It's a little scummy.

Especially because he he knows her, but he also knows Christian and he knows how to counteract every single thing that Christian does. Even when Christian is being supportive, it's not enough. Because she's seeing more and more over time, she sees what Pelle is like and how he's there. He gave her the picture for her birthday. He wants to comfort her while she's processing through everything from the Adestepa and he asks her all the important questions.

Yeah.

And she's not really used to people asking her questions, like wondering about what's what about me? Like, what about what I need? No one is like that really. Like it's she feels like she's intruding on on her own boyfriend's life, I think, sometimes.

And then when she has the dream that like next night is very disturbing, you know, where she has this dream that everybody gets up and leaves her behind. And then when she tries to like yell for them in this black smoke, that's kind of the you know, what happened with her parents and all this, but it comes from she just feels alone. This this fear that everyone's gonna leave me. You see this disconnect growing with Christian, that she's a burden, that like they they will happily just leave her behind. And so that keeps weighing on her too.

And that that was her biggest fear is that they were gonna do that. And I don't think at that point he would have left her behind. I don't think he would have left her behind. I don't. I I can tell you that with Connie and Simon, Simon absolutely would not have left her behind. Never. Not in any way. We did not get to see into their relationship that much, but what we saw, yeah, especially in the reaction of the Atastepa, he would not have left her.

Yeah. And so that's just what but that's one of those things that drives that wedge even worse because now we have Danny going, Well, I thought that Simon would never do that to Connie, but he did. So if he's capable of it, then Christian obviously is.

Mm-hmm.

And so it just continues building that that fear. Uh I could talk about some of the sound, because I mean it happened with the uh Ata Stupa and like the the you know with the hammer and stuff like that. But even the way that songs and chants from the people cut into immediate silence and they do like the silent jazz hands. Uh but you know, but there's like because you hear them all ah and chanting, and then they like crack this like wooden structure, and as soon as they hit it, it just goes dead silent. And it's so unsettling, but there's a lot of things like that where it's a lot of sounds, or even you know, when when Dan, the old man jumps wrong and lands feet first and breaks both his legs and he's still alive, and they're all wailing and screaming, and oh no, that's so terrible. And you hear all this wailing and moaning and groaning, and as soon as that hammer hits his head, silence.

They're imitating whatever sound is happening, I feel like. Like later on when she's grieving after seeing Christian with Maya, the women just surround her and they're grieving with her. She's never had that.

Yeah.

Like she, this is new to her.

It's this community that are so ingrained with each other. We feel the things you feel. We go through these things with you. You are part of us, we are part of you. You belong. We are family more than family. It's it's one of those things, yeah.

Yeah. And so these are all little things that throughout the movie you just see them building on with the sound, with the reactions. Um, with whatever happens. Even the sex scene later with Christian and Maya, there there's reaction.

Yes. I said it's the most musical sex I've ever seen or heard.

Oh God. Well, there's another term for it, but I'll uh when we get there, I'll I'll talk about it. There's something that I took from this.

Back with Josh, you know, he's told he's allowed to write his thesis on this, but he can't use the exact location or names. It's for privacy and protection. Although at this point, like Pelle's just giving him what he wants and expects. Because it's like, they're were they ever gonna actually allow and believe? No. No.

No. They were never gonna leave. They were never gonna leave. This was what was given.

That's why they were brought here.

This was, yeah.

Uh, you know, Pelle even said, well, you have to collaborate with Christian.

Just like Sergeant Howie.

Yeah. But he's like, you have to collaborate with Christian to do it. And it's like, well, why would he tell him that? And though, again, you're like kind of putting that wedge between them. But also, I could also think he's like, he probably just wants to get ahead of it early and like, I'm just gonna make you stop arguing about it and tell them that like if you're gonna do it, you have to work with him, so I don't have to hear you two bicker about it anymore. Uh but they do continue because they get, you know, tense with each other about stuff. Um yeah, Mark pissing on the ancestral tree of the dead. It's a perfect metaphor for the fact that, yeah, he's incapable of caring about anyone or anything other than himself. He's fully just disrespectful and selfish in every way. Because even if you don't know the when somebody stops you, but then it's his reaction. He's like, Well, it's a dead tree, so like why does it matter?

Like He had seen them doing things. I mean, it was so apparent. Everything they do is ritualistic and the bodies, things had burned, there were ashes, the ashes were put on the ceremonial, like there was just a purpose to everything, and he just disrespected and disregarded everything. And Will Poulter crushed it in this part being the asshole. Like he absolutely, absolutely just crushed it.

Yes. Uh yeah, we talked a little bit, yeah. Connie, she's told that Simon left without her, but then someone's gonna come back for her, and it's like obvious that it's bullshit. She's like, he would have said something. Why would I could have sat with him? And like you see here, this like elder, this guy that's telling her, kind of on the fly, trying to make up excuses, is like he's like, I could have sat in his lap. We follow traffic laws here. Like, I don't know, he's just trying to like just buy the story. Um like everybody, the whole village keeps up that facade because then Danny's talking to the ladies when she's going in and making the like meat pies later, and you know, the idea of Simon and Connie comes up, and they're like, Oh yeah, he left a little early, and then somebody's gonna come back for her. Did you not get to say goodbye? Like, everybody keeps up the appearances. They have their story, they stick to it.

It's all part of the ritual. It's all part of what's ingrained to ward off evil from their land, basically, from their community. And so they're just all following the script. They had time to prepare. It's been ingrained in all of them.

Yeah. And they probably assume that like people are gonna try to leave early that can't make it through that first part, and then it's like, well, you're not actually allowed to leave, not alive, not on your terms.

So No.

Uh so they just kind of have a way of taking care of Simon and Connie off-screen. Uh, although I think you can kind of faintly hear Connie screaming in the background, uh, while Mark Mark is like checking out, like while they're setting up the like temple for the final burn, and like the girl that he's been crushing on is like walking in and out and he's focused on her. You can hear this like scream in the background. And I think it's Connie.

Absolutely. Yeah. They had to take her out. They we're not gonna let her leave. No one goes back to the real world after this unless they trust you. I think the kids, meaning the younger generation, who were went off into the real world to bring people in, they knew what exactly what they were doing.

Like they understood. That's what we see, because like Ingmar or whatever, like comes in, like he's one of the sacrifices. And if I remember, it's like because he brought people back. So like you went out into the outside world, you got to experience it for several years, go to college, meet people, you brought them back, and then you are now part of the sacrifice, though. Like you experience the outside world, you're different from this Pele being the only exception, it seems, because the person he brought ended up becoming the May Queen, and they hold that at a higher standard. And so it's like, I wonder if that was like a long game he was playing the whole time, and he kind of tried to spare himself. Like he had his own selfish ambitions going on.

Yeah, I think he did. I think he knew. And then I think things were cleverly manipulated right up to who got to be the May Day Queen and who got sacrificed in the bear.

Yeah, I I noticed, you know, we get again it was second watch, so I knew it was coming, but still, when they're at the like dinner where um Christian has his uh snack uh that's got a little extra something in it. Uh but then also, and I don't remember because I feel like it was pointed out when I saw it the first time in theaters, and I might have just missed it on the same.

I didn't remember it.

That like blood punch? Yeah, that his drink is a little it's markedly darker than all the others, and it's like, does nobody notice that? Because it does stand out. And there's a reason for that. It's also kind of that area then.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Um so it's like, oh god, knowing it's coming, seeing it. And I was like, you can tell that it's darker than everybody else's. What are we doing here? Um why is nobody noticing it? But yeah, that that dinner in itself, there's just a lot of tension. Uh that's when Danny, as I mentioned before, calls out Christian for being the kind of person that might leave without her. And you have Josh and Christian still at odds with the thesis thing. Mark's getting death stares from the guy who caught him peeing on the tree, and everything just feels there's a heaviness in the air around them now.

Yeah. You know that it's gonna get real. What we've seen so far is terrifying, but there's more coming. You can just tell that more is coming, and you just have to watch it unfold. And then Mark goes off with Inga to wherever.

He's been crushing on her that whole time, so she's the perfect one to come and get him and lead him to his doom, whatever happened to him specifically. Um and yeah, it just kind of goes pretty quick after that, because yeah, Josh, and again, I think it's that like we have to split with Christian, so now he's like, Well, I have to be the first one to get answers. So he starts, you know, getting selfish with things. So I mean, he was told absolutely not to taking pictures of the Oracle's book. So I don't know, he goes in there to do it. So I don't know, getting hit in the head with a big hammer while being distracted by somebody with pants off and wearing your dead best friend's face as a mask. That seems like the correct punishment. I don't know.

Yeah, um yeah.

And then we get the May Queen dance, uh, which again they have the dance all the the the tea, the hallucinogenic tea that they take. I was like, man, so it's funny that you mentioned him earlier because now I haven't noticed it. Sergeant Howey would be so mad at this village. Drugs and dancing? Look at all these little kids running around. Why is no one telling them about Jesus? Uh exactly.

I mean, it Sergeant Howe would have had a bit about this. Can you imagine? Although they might have answered his questions knowing he wasn't gonna leave, they might have just answered all of his questions. I'm just I'm not sure.

Um also speaking of like the hallucinations and from from the the drugs, a lot of Danny's hallucination uh hallucinations are the grass growing into her and plant like it's like she's being rooted into this place. She's part of its nature. They are one, she belongs here. That's all that's being ingrained in her this whole time.

Absolutely. And she, as you said, becomes the May Queen.

It's it's a drug-induced last one dancing competition. That's really what it is.

It is, and she and she wins. It is this crazy. I mean, it is a crazy dance-off, really. They're going backwards and forwards and around and reverse and all of these things and the overhead shot. Like it's all really yeah, it's very well choreographed. The way they shot it was cool too, with um things going in a circle behind where it yeah.

Yeah.

You have to watch that video because it's really cool. I watched it today.

May Queen Danny. White girl wasted dancing her way to legend.

And they were all so happy, like the community is just thrilled that it's her. And that is when Pele kisses her. And it's not just like a kiss from a friend. Yeah. It's a kiss. Like it means something.

Yeah. And it's again after she wins, even there's like a little effective, like uh uh effect of the flowers on her crown and on her throne that she sits on at dinner, all like breathing. And it's like, again, it's just like it's that nice touch. Like, yeah, she's tripping still, but also like she's one with the nature of this place again. Like it's all working in tandem with her. She, you know, she's breathing, it's breathing. Meanwhile, yeah, we have Christian who you know, we did have him talking to that guy, and he was told, yeah, outsiders are brought in and then approved as mates for people of the village. And uh we've been learning through some interesting uh rituals that Maya is interested in him and he's been approved.

I don't think he knows quite what to do with it at first. I think he's kind of like okay, she is beautiful, and oh I I think he Because she's young she seems too young. I was like She is because what that word, they said this word earlier when they were describing it's called Bix Mindig, and it's basically when they get a pants license or it's the age of consent. Well, the age of consent in Sweden is 15. And so she was young.

Yeah. I was just like, ee, yeah. Yeah, he said he didn't want to take the the tea because he didn't want to have a bad trip, and then he takes it anyway, and I was like, Well about that. Um, Danny wins the May Queen thing, it's like he doesn't look like he's doing so good right now.

He's No, he's not feeling good at all.

A lot of his own anxieties and stuff that are just compounding with what he's, you know, tripping on and Which then so when you see the scene where they take him to Maya, where he's like, Well, you said I was chosen to be a mate. I didn't realize you meant literally mating right now. Go! It's like, damn. Uh, but he goes along with it. Again, not you know, I'll I'd give him not, you know, but some great so it's like to be fair, he's very heavily drugged and easy to just kind of convince him and like push him in a direction, and he's very easily manipulated right now.

Uh there is a term for it. It's usually people look at women being raped by men.

But that's absolutely what it was.

Realistically, that is what happened to him here.

Yeah.

And because Danny sees this, again, it was manipulated. This was all set for her to do to make the decision that she made. He never got the chance to say anything to her about this because he was after this weird high sex experience that he had with Maya. Um he runs out. He's completely freaked out and he's drugged again, and this time he can't. Talk or move or anything. He just sits there with this expression on his face. And Jack Rayner, what he conveys in Christian's moments like this, was I mean, we talk on the Handmaid's Tale about June face because Elizabeth has this way of just looking at the camera and you know exactly what's going on. This was, I mean, the terror of it and the resolution or him understanding that it's over. And he never ever got to explain anything to her. He didn't get to tell her. They haven't eaten. No, that's why they're freaking out. I forgot. Um, he never got to talk to her and say, I was drugged. Or I'm sorry, or anything. He got to say nothing. Nothing. He got no resolution. And I'm not saying what he did was right, but I'm also saying what they did to him was not right. And that's I took different things away from this time watching the movie. That I didn't take the first time I watched it. This time I felt a little bad for him because even though he wasn't perfect, he was flawed. Everybody was flawed. And I felt like he got a shitty deal in this situation.

Absolutely. But again, it's like, yeah, this like manipulation and and putting pieces where they need to go. Cause yeah, and you know, she, you know, her celebratory carriage ride ends, and she's got a bad feeling about all the musical moaning going on, so she has to investigate. And yeah, obviously she's like very upset by what she finds. But again, it's just that bringing her in, you know, she's immediately comforted and held, and as Pelle had told her, you know, there's family to hold you. Do you feel held? And here she is, these women echoing and sharing her pain and her sorrow. They're doing it with her. They hold her through it. It's solidifying her place in this family. To where yeah, she's left with a choice, and it's like the family of people here, or this guy who just wronged you.

Yeah. And they don't show you her choice. What you see is him being put in the bear costume.

When the village is asked, the man or the bear, they say yes, both, together, on fire.

Absolutely. Yep. Steve explains the ritual by explaining that it's four outsiders, which we learn were Connie, Simon, Mark, and Josh. And then four from the village, which Ulf and Ingwen are the two that volunteer. Ingwar.

They they brought people in or whatever, so like that's their volunteering.

And then Dan and Ilva are also counted in that. And then the final piece of the puzzle is one person from outside, one person from the village that's drawn bingo style or whatever. I just picture a Saul Goodman saying it out from Better Call Saul. Um and the May Queen is given the opportunity or the terrible task of picking which one will die.

Yeah. And yeah, since the last time she saw him, he was fucking the young red-haired girl. And you know, oh well, they've been drifting apart for a little while anyway, so Yeah. Uh but yeah, she was too scared to be without him, but she's not alone now. She has a family. She belongs. Yeah. She feels held.

Well, on s on um Christian's little runabout, he starts to see the more sinister side of everything because he runs into the chicken coop as one of his places he's running around to, and he sees Simon's body hanging, and he basically has had the blood eagle performed on him, which is something I saw on Vikings. I knew right away what it was when he was hanging there. It's like, oh Jesus, I saw this. It's not pretty. I'm glad we were spared the act of them doing it because it's it's not pretty. It's just terrifying.

Yeah. Mark is the the stuffed up fool. It's very fitting.

Uh yeah. Yeah, he is. They're all stuffed like scarecrows. The others, all of them really are like their bottom half is mostly gone, and it's just like their skin is stuffed with straw. Like they're scarecrows.

Um Yeah, where we ended with you know, sacrifices are made. May the grounds be blessed for harvest and seasons to come.

I mean, you knew that Christian was not good for Danny, but I don't know, this time watching it made me feel worse for him than I did the first time around, and I did not like Pele because I just watched the manipulation arc through the entire thing, where the first time through it looked like he was being this kind person. That's not what it looked like this time. It definitely looked really uh sus and sinister.

So I I I think we've mostly covered everything. Like I think we're about done. So my question for you Oh Jesus is because I know how much you've said you really didn't like this movie so much, and yet through the last hour and forty minutes of us talking about it, I haven't really heard any negativity about the movie from you whatsoever. So what is it?

I did tell you that I was trying to find the positive in this movie. Like I was looking for things to like, and that was like the note I put at the very top of my document was try to find the things that you like. Um, I'm not gonna say that I like this movie or that I'm gonna watch it again because I probably won't. But I hate it less. There were things that I liked. I related to Danny more than I've probably said on this podcast because I actually relate to some of the things that she some of the I relate to her anxiety, I relate to some of the way she thinks, I relate to some of her thoughts and the way that she looked at things. I totally relate to so much of it. Um and I like Florence Pugh. I know you guys listen to Buffalo Buffalo, then you think that I don't like her, but I do like her. I think she's fantastic, and I think she crushed it in this role, in this way of showing us a character who's been through so much trauma and finds community at a cost. I don't hate this movie. It's just not my favorite. I've got I I mean the degrees of I it's much I look at it more much more favorably than I did before.

Yeah.

But that happens, Pake, because when we talk about a movie and break it down, yeah. Oh, I guess it's me Yeah, it's me processing through.

I could get that just from this whole conversation, because it was a very, you know, good, long, in-depth conversation where you really dug into a lot of themes and understood a lot of things. So I was like, She doesn't hate this movie, like, there's a lot of great stuff to talk about. And so that's why I was wondering, because it's like, I don't think I heard any negativity, which I know you were purposely trying to avoid, but then I'm like, so what is it about this movie that made you feel like you hated it or didn't like it at first?

I was angry, I think, okay, one. And I've never really thought about why I hated it so bad. But one, I am such a huge fan of the Wicker Man, and I felt like the Wickerman did it better. And I was, I guess, bugged that the movie wasn't what I was expecting it was going to be. I don't know what I was expecting when I went in to see it, but it wasn't what I was expecting. And so I was mad about it, and so that made me hate it. I'm like, no, no, I hate this movie, I never want to watch it again. Um, I felt like it was ripping off the Wickerman and I didn't want it to get praised for it because I felt I just loved the Wickerman so much that I didn't feel like this movie was necessary at the time. And I I think part of how that helped ch what helped change it is my better understanding of Christian and Pele than what I had before.

Yeah.

Because at the end of the movie before, I'm like, good riddance, you got what you deserved. And now I don't feel that way at all. I feel like he he didn't deserve. While he was an incredibly flawed character who was not good for her, he was also manipulated mentally, emotionally, and with drugs. They were like cattle going into a chute, and they were brought there, and Pele brought them there. He knew exactly what was gonna happen to them. Yeah, and that's like sociopathic and not okay. And so I think looking at it differently versus what I looked at it the first time I saw it, that's why I don't hate it.

Yeah.

But it's not one that I'm gonna put on again. It's not like the Wicker Man. Like I watch the Wicker Man a bunch of times. But no, I don't hate Ariaster. I just don't love I don't love it. And maybe we need to do Hereditary, because maybe if we do hereditary, I might not hate it.

Yeah.

Cause that one I do not like it.

So maybe we'll set it the next season. We'll have Hereditary at some point. We'll get to it. But uh Yeah, because I think both so both of us can safely say we liked it a lot better than we initially did on the second watch, which this podcast is good about doing that for us, I think, in a lot of ways.

Peg it wasn't gonna take much because I I hated it. Like absolutely would never have watched it again if we weren't doing it.

Yeah.

And if I hadn't, then I wouldn't have understood some things that I saw this time. Um and I think that helped me process through some of those feelings. But I am not ready to watch Hereditary. Not this season. Maybe we'll get a guest on for that one.

Yeah.

Um because that one, and maybe I will before we cover it, maybe I'll figure out why I hated it so much the first time before. Maybe I'll like think about it and say, why did you hate it so much? I don't know what it was. I just did I hated it. And then I went to Midsummer, watch Midsummer, thinking, Oh, I know it's Ariaster, but it's got that, you know, I I really love the Wicker Man, and this might be really good. And I just I hated it because it wasn't to me, it wasn't good. I couldn't appreciate it for what it was at the time. My my headspace, I guess. Now I look at it differently, and I yeah, like I said, I really related to Danny a lot um through this. I didn't go through the trauma that she did, but I know what it's like to be someone who ends up apologizing for something that isn't your fault. That's a big thing, and then worrying about being alone.

Yeah.

So I related to her. I looked at things differently because I guess why did I hate this so much or find something that I liked about it. And so that my mindset was different. And that helped a lot. Because I know you didn't like this movie either.

Yeah, it's it's a bigger turnaround, I think, for me is like I was also one of those people who's like, I saw it in theaters and I just did not like it. And it's the same thing, people who did who were like, why not? And it's like, I couldn't give like a very good concrete other than just like No. I don't know if it's a mental thing where I was like, I was expecting it to be something different, and it's not what I expected, and that shouldn't be a good enough reason, but it was, it was just like nothing really nothing really held to me. I was just like, it's it's not what I th was wanting it to be at the time. But then so it did I did benefit from having already seen it, remembering pretty much everything, most you know, all the main plot points. So knowing what I'm getting into, and then re-watching it through a different lens, really looking into the themes and the character arcs, and looking at, you know, the foreshadowing and things building up to the things that I knew were coming that helped them make more sense. Like I said, I I think it's even a bigger swing around than you. I don't know, maybe just a different you were at a lower level than I was, maybe a little bit to go up. But to where I go from like saying I did not like this movie to going, I very much enjoyed this second watch.

Yeah, I didn't hate it, and I understand it a lot more. I'm not gonna say I love it, because I don't. But I definitely understand it a lot more, and I I'm glad we covered it because I think it it was good for me to go through and realize that like the ritual, sometimes when I watch something the first time, it's I'm not either not in the right mindset or I need to deal with being disappointed something isn't what I thought it was gonna be. Yeah.

And and like you said, uh this isn't I don't I don't see myself ever just like wanting to just re-watch this movie at any time. But I don't do that anyway, most of the time with anything. I'm just I don't do that in general.

Yeah.

Uh but I have there is a turnaround now that like when this movie comes up in conversations with people, my reaction now will be, oh yeah, that's a great movie. I feel like there is a little bit of a change there to be there.

Yeah, I don't know that I'm gonna say it's great, but it's definitely better than I thought it was. Yeah. There's more there. It's not as it's not a complete shutdown. I'm not gonna like completely shut it down and say, no, I hated it, because I don't. I don't hate the movie. I th I've got some appreciation for it based on the conversation that we had and just thinking about things. I think it's a decent movie. I just it's not my favorite. I also think it helped me watching The Wicker Man last week.

Yeah, that was it really did having like I said that at the beginning of the episode or earlier on, is having that fresh in my mind, there's a lot of like comparisons and parallels that like I think that benefited from having that there. Where I was like, oh yeah, of course, like it's this.

Yeah. There were there were things that were similar and things that were different, and I I have to remind myself sometimes that even if you love the original of something, it's okay to appreciate a remake or an update or a movie that's similar, that you don't have to hate it. Yeah.

Like sometimes things are bad, but yeah, but then also, yeah, there's the saying, comparison is the thief of joy, right? Where if that's all you're focused on, is like, well, I thought it was gonna be like this and it wasn't, so now I don't like it. It was like, well, you've denied yourself enjoying something because it wasn't what you thought it was supposed to be compared to a different thing that you like.

Mm-hmm. I guess I should go into it like I did when I went to see Dawn of the Dead 2004. Because the original was such a big deal to me as my favorite zombie movie ever. And so when I went to see Dawn of the Dead 2004, I have friends who are big George A. Romero fans who were so frustrated by the remake. They did not like it at all, and I loved it, I thought it was fantastic. I'm like, I can see appreciating both of these for the things that they were because they were similar but different. Yeah. And I have to remember that. But just because I like the original doesn't mean that something that is kind of similar can't be fun too and can't be enjoyed.

Yeah.

So I am not going to go and watch the 171-minute version that is the director's cut. Um, I am not gonna do that. There's extended scenes and just more of everything. So, no, I'm not gonna do that. But Pike, we have done it. We have ripped the band-aid off of something that has been plaguing us for such a long time. And now I just feel this huge, like, release of okay.

All the anxiety, all the worry about, oh, we're gonna have to cover that at some point. And I have to, it's all just up in flames and up in smoke now.

It's up in flames, it's gone. See the smoke?

We did it. We stuffed it full of hay and put it in a bear suit, bear skin, and set it all up. We we did it.

Yep, it's gone. It's on fire. Burn, baby, burn. Oh my goodness.

And then we have the feedback phone, so hopefully, some interesting thoughts from listeners coming in on this for that, too.

So I'll go get it. Alright.

Alright, and we do have some feedback this week, and by some, I mean a lot, especially by Run for your live standards. We have um, we should have done this movie so much sooner. Now uh I guess perfect timing. Uh had a lot of people excited about thoughts and had their own thoughts, and we just gonna dive right into it.

I know. I've heard from a few people who didn't leave feedback that they're really looking forward to what I have to say about this movie because they know how much I don't like it. So the first person to send in feedback, Catherine, says, Thank you for the Wickerman warm-up, and she put that in quotations, so it's pretty awesome. Before this long one, for some reason, I watched the three-hour long director's cut. It starts so depressing and never really lets up. I do love the complicated ending, especially the bear. Everything is so beautiful in midsummer, even the dead tree.

Yeah. Hope you uh we didn't watch after you've listened to this, we didn't watch the three-hour extended one, but uh good good for you. Um Des writes in just to say, oh, now it's on. Open the floodgates. Um I wonder what he means by that. I guess assuming that it's we were gonna just like absolutely rip this apart, or at least you would, uh, throughout this, because I know Des knows how you initially felt about this movie and maybe still have some thoughts. Uh but no, I think we did pretty good. Nice.

I think we did. I don't think I completely trashed it. I think I pointed out things that I saw this time through.

And I I honestly, I mean, we you just listened to this episode, so you know I actually came away with it with a much more uh you know positive uh you know uh respect for it than I did the first time I watched it. Not that I knew what I was getting into. I I did appreciate it, enjoy it a lot more.

That's the thing, right? You know what you're getting into, so you can look at it differently. Levi says, I'm pumped for Daphne to hate this, and it's an All caps.

Which Levi, uh, if you're listening to this on the day that it's released, happy birthday. One day late. Uh as we're recording this, it's your birthday, and then as you hear this, it was yesterday, if you're listening the day we release it. But also, that's fine, and happy birthday to you anyway.

Yes.

Uh Tony writes in and says, I watch this movie all the time. In fact, I just watched it like two weeks ago. I think visually it is stunning. It is bright and colorful in contradiction to the horrors that are going on. There is purpose in every action and every line. You can pick up on subtle details every time you watch. The manipulation of Danny by the villagers is fascinating to me, especially if you pay attention to how her friends are treated in comparison. They love bomb Danny and tolerate the rest of the group. They start isolating her from them too, making sure she is comforted by either Pele or the women when something upsets her. I know you will cover all of this, but one little thing that I found out that I don't think is commonly known is the headdress that Pelle is wearing at the end of the movie is a plant called vetch. It is used to fix soil, stop erosion, foraging for animals, and for even for medicinal purposes. It also is a vining plant that wraps around other plants and covers, wraps around, and chokes out others, all while looking pretty and pleasant. These kind of details are why I love this movie. Wow. That is really good. We did talk about a lot of that stuff, but yeah, that last little piece of uh trivia there we did not, and I did not know about. But yeah, it definitely adds to we did talk about the character of Pele a little bit and how we and it is a really good kind of metaphor for how he is, where he it all seems beautiful and friendly, but he really is kind of parasitic, and you see him really kind of choking out things and being predatory in a way. So yeah, it is really the way that that was done.

Yeah. Alma says, Y'all are not gonna believe this, but I still haven't watched this flick, mostly because my son saw it in the theater and said it was good but disturbing, and that I might not like it.

Interesting. Well, I wonder if you've checked it out now to listen to this. You'll have to let us know. If then when you did watch it, what your thoughts were.

Absolutely.

Jason says, I've never seen anything quite like this movie. It was disturbing AF, artful, thought-provoking, and fascinating on a bunch of different levels. I loved the slow pace and the bright look of it, contrasting with the metaphorical darkness, and I thought it was so smartly written, with a deep understanding of cultural and relationship dynamics. I could go on. One of my all-time favorite movies of any kind.

Veronica says, I only watched it once, but it haunted me ever since. Agreed. Veronica. I feel like it left scenes ingrained in my brain. The PTSD aside, it felt like an amazing piece of art. The music and beautiful scenery against the violent and unpredictable storyline was insane.

And we have one from Andy, which, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, might be the first time we've heard from you. Um at least first in a while, if not. But yeah, um, always love to hear from people we haven't heard from or haven't in a while. So Andy says, such a bizarre and strange movie. What other horror films take place in the bright light of summer? Cults, drugs, PhDs, asshole boyfriends, ancient religions. Jesus Christ, what a movie Midsummer is. Alright. So yeah, what we're getting is just like, because I know we went into it not as heavy of fans, Daphne much more than me, even. Um, and then yet like there's so many people with the feedback that are just adoring the movie and love it. And that's just that's the great about like, you know, the subjectiveness, the subjectivity of art. Um in a lot of those ways is that like something that doesn't really resonate with one person might resonate very deeply with somebody else, and I just think that's really cool. But uh, we've still got more comments to go that still run that gamut.

So uh Connor is next.

Says, um, I haven't seen this since around the time it came out. I wasn't really a fan of it. Don't get me wrong, I think it's shot beautifully and the atmosphere brings you into the movie. Just couldn't keep my attention the first time I watched, and also thought Florence Pugh acted her ass off in this. I told myself this would be one I'd probably not revisit after that first watch, but I guess you're right. Never say never.

Yeah, that's what I posted with the graphic. Um because I have said I never want to cover it. But here we are. Lara says this movie was a great throwback to 70s folk horror films like The Blood on Satan's Claw. I have not seen that, and now I feel the need to go watch it. Or The Wicker Man that you guys just covered last week. I wouldn't say it was as traumatic and terrifying as Astra's Hereditary, but I do love how he created an environment of horror and unnaturalness in scenes dressed in light flowers and cottage core quaintness. I think that's a great way to put it.

Yeah. And hereditary. Daphne already said it. We're gonna cover it next season, but we're gonna make it happen. I still haven't seen it, so I do not like it. Interesting.

It's it's worse for me than Midsummer. Like I hated that movie. There's only one of Ari Astor's movies that I actually really liked.

Bo is Afraid, of course, is your favorite movie of all time.

No, no. I think it was Eddington is the name of it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I liked that one.

Alright, we do have one more. Uh it's a it's a the last one, but a big one. Uh, a lot of thoughts, which is great, from our friend Rinaldi. We haven't heard in a little bit. So he says, Midsummer's a psychological thriller with a disturbing and artistic look at a Nordic cult. It was well written, smartly directed with its filming choices and the dynamics of the group and how it affects Florence Pugh's character Danny over the course of the film. The kills were disturbing even if they weren't gory, because all the victims were barely alive and then were killed slowly while unable to move. That's when you know artistically this movie is brilliant. It makes you feel what Danny is feeling psychologically and what the characters who are killed are feeling as they are attacked one by one. Personally, I only watched this movie once, and I've never watched it again because it put me inside Danny's head too successfully, and um, trauma times infinity for Danny in this movie. I can't handle trauma times infinity on that level. And finally, Danny's friend who was talking to Danny on the phone gave the worst advice in the world to Danny. She should have broken up with her dirtbag boyfriend and his friends and then moved in with the friend that she was talking to on the phone. But if that happened, the movie Midsummer wouldn't exist, so there's that. Thanks for covering this film, Daphne and Pake. You guys are awesome. Thanks. So are you.

Thank you, Ronaldi. Yeah, I'm wondering what people are gonna think about our take on this movie, because I was actually a lot kinder to the boyfriend because I know they painted him to be an asshole, but I still feel like he is nothing compared to Pele. Like Pele was the devil. Well, if you'd like to send feedback, which we absolutely love, you can join the podcastica discord. We are on there, we have a channel, you can leave feedback there, or you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Run for Your Lives Podcast, or you can email us at RunFo Your Lives Podcast at gmail.com. If you're enjoying the show, tell your friends. We are available on all the podcast players, including Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and more. Go to Runfor Your Lives Podcast.com for all the links you'll ever need. And give us a review on Apple Podcasts as that's the best way to share the love and get us out there even more. We really appreciate it.

Absolutely we do. Of course, speaking of sharing the love, you know. Gotta give those shoutouts to things going on in the Podcastica universe around us and beyond. A lot of great stuff for you to check out. Uh, of course, Dragoncast, because House of the Dragon is back and running, and this season has been phenomenal so far. Holy cow, I've been loving it so much. So definitely tune into Dragoncast to hear Veronica, Wendy, and Archmaester Rennie covering those episodes as they come out. Just doing a phenomenal job over there for a phenomenal show. So check that out. Also, Still Slang is still slang, as uh Penny, Kara, and Anwin are uh talking some more Buffy this week. Uh season five, episode three, to be exact. So for the Buffy fans out there, definitely be tuning in to what they're doing and covering their favorite episodes and arcs and stuff over there, Buffy and Angel. Sometimes they branch out and just do other vampire stuff. But yeah, um, check that out, of course. And speaking of vampire stuff, uh outside of Podcastica, our good friends over at the Pirate Core Entertainment Podcast Network, there's the Vamp cast going on over there with Vampire Lestat uh coverage going on. So episode six this week, Lara, Becky, Billy, and Mark got quite the team covering that one this week. So check that out over there if you want to do that. Um yeah, and a lot of great other shows over on the Pirate Core Entertainment Network that you can check out. Again, I just recently binged both seasons of the pit and loved it. Now I'm just with everybody else in the world that was watching it, waiting for season three. But of course, Emmy nominations just came out last week, and to no surprise to anyone, it got all the love again this year. So much love for the pit. So I'm sure that uh Becky and Mandy over there are very happy with that.

Absolutely. I'm sure they're celebrating. I mean, they have had all those cast interviews, they're so into it, it's such a great podcast. They need to get more love.

Yeah. And then also gotta give a shout-out to our friends over at TV Podcast Industries. Also, do like to cover a lot of comic bookie shows and nerdy stuff like that. And so, of course, Spider-Man Brand New Day is coming out uh in a couple of weeks, so I'm sure after it comes out that they'll have some coverage and stuff of that over there. So stay tuned on that, and I'll let you know for sure when that drops. But yeah, you can still check out some other stuff. Uh, you know, the boys wrapped up their final season earlier this year, so they've got kind of a season wrap-up to talk all about that. Kind of all of their, you know, thoughts on the ending of the boys and stuff like that, so you can check that out. Plus some summer 2026 shows that they recommend. A little special there for them to talk about and do that, so you can check that out as well. A lot of great shows coming up. This has been kind of my like finally catching up on old shows that I've been not watching for too long. So I binged through the pit, finished that, needed to find something else, and then I was like, oh yeah, there's five seasons of Only Murders in the building that exists. So uh that's what I'm doing now with my free time, it's binging through that. I said and I watched the entire first season in one sitting, so obviously it's I find it to be that good. Uh I could not stop.

There's a lot of great TV. I really love that all of my friends kept telling me to watch Widow's Bay because I ended up loving it so much. And now I can't wait for season two because it to me it was perfection. It also got some love in the Emmy nominations, so hopefully it does well.

So definitely, yeah, that's another great one to check out. So good TV. But anyway, uh, outside of that, if you want more of me and Daphne, our other podcast, the Buffalo Buffalo Podcast with our friends Jeff and Jerry, we've been doing that every week, still releasing new episodes there. We've been hanging out, having fun, being goofy, playing games, just hanging out. It's been a great time, and we'd love for you to come over and uh join us with your ears.

Yes. And it's super exciting. In October, we're all four gonna be together and we're gonna do another episode in person, and it's just gonna be awesome.

Yes.

Can't wait.

But yeah, so uh thanks for sticking around with us after the little break last week, and then now we're here, we're back here with this one. Um, and we'll be back next week. We keep on rolling. Uh Daphne, what are we doing next week?

Well, when a best-selling novelist travels to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents' ashes, he becomes obsessed with chilling legends of a witch said to haunt the hotel's sealed honeymoon suite. We are discussing Damien McCarthy's 2026 film, Hokum.

Holcum, yes. There's a lot of great newer horror movies that came out this year and are coming out that are kind of on the radar. I just you know, we've talked about the wheel. Um, I yesterday added a whole bunch of new stuff that's just come out to that. Uh it's a lot of interesting stuff that we want to get to soon. So I may be pushing for a lot more newer releases too. So this is kind of one of those. Uh and I think we had a fun time with it. So definitely check that one out and let us know what you think.

Yeah. And with that, we've reached the end of another fun episode of Run for Your Lives. Yes, we covered Midsummer. Yes, we're checking it off the list. Thanks everyone for listening. I'm Daphne.

And I'm Peg.

And if you have to run, you better run for your lives.

Bye-bye.