The Illusion of Feminism in Ari Aster's Midsommar

The drama-horror film Midsommar directed by Ari Aster follows a young woman, Dani, who is grieving the death of her entire family. During her time of grief, her boyfriend and his group of anthropologist friends decide to take a trip to Sweden for the Midsommar festival to do research for their theses. Once they get there, the group realizes that this is not an ordinary group of Swedes, but a cult called Hårga. By the end of the festival, everyone in the group of Americans are brutally murdered except Dani who becomes the cult’s May Queen. Although Midsommar has been regarded as a modern day…