Welcome to Clear Horror High, hosted by Chris Vicchio and Nikki Jack. Welcome back to Queer Horror High, where we're queer, we love horror, and we're real fucking high. I'm Chris and I'm a queer Gemini demon. And I'm Nikki, and I'm still here to put the whore in horror. I just did a giant conducting gesture. But I can't. I don't know any conductors. I'm John Philip Sousa. Is that a conductor? OK. Now you know Dan. Well, I don't know. The only conductor I know is Metro Boomin.
No, he's a producer conducting some fast beats for future. I saw ATV movie about John Philip Sousa with my father back in the day and I'm pretty sure he was a conductor or a band leader. What's the one that Bradley Cooper he like practiced 6 years for for only like 6 minutes in a movie? That faggot. That *** Yeah. What was his name? Not Leonard Bernstein. Wasn't that who it was? Yeah. Sure, Leonard. Leonard Nimoy. No, my God, I'm so high.
Leonard Bernstein. Somebody, somebody, somebody. Yeah, I'm sorry. All you people trying to ship Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper when the star was born was out. You people were so off. If you only knew. That's all I'm gonna say. I know now they're trying to do with Gigi Hadid in him. Yeah, good luck. Yeah, girl. OK, Sure, girl. Yeah. Anyways, what's the tea? What's the hot tea, friend? How you doing?
What you smoking now? I am smoking on lemon cherry Gelato, which is an indica dominant hybrid, and it makes you really giggly and I am very giggly, so I am very happy about that and it's super fucking tasty. It's like a really good one, very potent and sticky and delicious. Yeah. What are you smoking on? I am smoking on some blueberry. I think it's just called blueberry as a Firehouse. Little indica that I copped. Anything blueberry is up my alley. I love blueberry.
I thought you're going to say anything. Blueberry is up my ass. Well. You know, no, I'm a top. Sorry. Sorry, not going up there buddies. No. And this week is really very potent. And of course I'm sprinkling some hash on top. And later on mid show, I'm going to introduce some dabs. So I got a little bit of this, a
little bit of that. Yum. Speaking of mid things, the movie we are covering today is Ari Esters Midsummer or Mid Somar if you want to be Swedish about it. Mid Somar and I wish my boyfriend was here because he used to like hang out and live with some Swedish people for a couple of years and he was in college so he knows like an aggressive amount of Swedish and he's always like saying like Swedish things. I tried to remember some before I came over here but I'm like so
high. Blink and blink and blink and. I know and it's like Joven Wheat and like another one. Snoop is Dick and feet, Vita is vagina or pussy and Vassar Vassar. That's another one I think. OK baby, I hope I made you proud. Drag Race Sweden was great and deserved a season 2. Was that the one with the little racist dolls on it? No, that was Holland. I think it was down under. And they had them little black faced dolls where they're like,
yeah, but he's just a doll. Like that's the problem with Europe is like, they're always like, America so racist. America just is so racist, so racist. And then they'll have like, some blackface statues that they have a whole holiday dedicated to where everyone dresses up in blackface. And they're like, what? This is *** claws. And he comes around. Every year and like don't made us yeah. Like what the fuck? You're like, what do you mean?
This is like just a little as a little entity that you guys have created like. Yeah, we learned it from you, Mom and Dad. Yeah. Like from on like Europeans are crazy with the racism. People think because that those countries are very liberal with their laws, yeah, that they're actually super progressive as humans. And not always. It's easy to not be outwardly racist and not have racist laws when your country is like .002% black, you know what I'm saying?
Homogeneous, not fair like. It's so homogeneous and they're very picky about what immigrants they allow it. Yes, They're like, no, you can't. You must. It's like the Family Guy shades of like, remember, are they like OK, not OK on Family Guy, The different like skin color, shades, whatever. That's so fucking yeah, like Sweden and all that.
It is. Yeah, and it's like I, I read an article a couple years ago by like either a Swedish or Norwegian like professor basically saying that or economist saying that American liberals have the wrong idea that Scandinavia is some like socialist haven. It's actually the most capitalistic part of Europe. It just doesn't appear that way because it's so homogeneous and there's no really, there's no threat, yeah, to white people, just to the status quo from any minority group because it's so
white and hetero. Well, I even did the math a little bit when I was thinking about their prisons because everyone always applauds them on how they reform and rehab criminals. But like you think a white man is going to stay in like a little cave or like a fucking? Dick Exactly. For the rest of their life. It's easy to treat the convicts well in your country when they all look just like. You when they look just. So it's like putting yourself in that situation.
You're like and then you go easier on them, of course. I want to do my time in a college dorm. And it's not to shade Scandinavia. They do a lot of things right. But they. Also do a lot of things right. Like in this fucking movie, everything is white there. Is everything is white and it's done during the day, which makes me even scarier. Yeah. The daytime of it all is just what makes it like that much eerier because you're like, I'm like being unsettled during the day is just not a vibe.
It's just less expected, and what's less expected automatically just has another level of curiosity to it. And when you're scared, it's just going to be amplified. But yeah. So when does Midsummer take place? Is it May? Yeah, I think it is because the May Queen. Oh duh. Wow. Oh God, I feel like doofy. It's OK, you try baby. Oh Jesus. Well, this is directed by Ari Esther. I forgot if I said that you do, you know it's going to be fucked up.
Yep, it is, and like, I'm glad that this is our first Ari movie that we're doing. I do love Hereditary the most because like Beau is Afraid was just too long, too much. Yeah, and I mean I. Wouldn't say that was like a straight horror movie. It definitely has elements, but I feel like it marked a slightly new direction for Ari Esther. Yeah. Hereditary in Midsummer, at the at least at this moment, seemed like his two true horror movies.
Yeah, but Midsommar is the like coolest because it also just like if you're a Wicker Man fan, also listen to that episode, our episode of The Wicker Man. But it pulls from that a lot. And I just think any cult movie, like anything that touches on like cult adjacent or just straight up cult vibes is always my gig. Yeah. And then I personally love how Ari Astor, his approach to horror isn't necessarily like the gore, the the jumps, the
screams, but like emotion. It's the psychological aspect that's really focused on in his films. Yeah, like how he's able to display grief and like, just like a true display of just, like, raw emotion, not something that a lot of people are afraid of. A lot of people are afraid to feel. A lot of people are afraid to succumb to their emotions and let them like, really fully process shit. And this movie is all about avoiding processing shit.
Yes. And like being fucking like shamed out of of processing and the the result of like what it is to suppress emotion and like what what you come to so. And because of who is helping in this case, it makes it even more curious because it is kind of like moving from 1 abuser to another one potentially. So yeah, the IMDb description for Midsummer is a couple travels to northern Europe to visit a rural hometowns fabled Swedish Midsummer Festival.
What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a Pagan cult. Yeah, I don't really love that description because I don't really feel like the competition is like an important part of the structure of this movie. I don't really feel like it's a competition, but. No. I think that's slightly misleading. So Danny, played by Florence
Pugh, just love that name. My God, she is so good at Lady Macbeth. Everyone see that movie, please. Yeah, just see it. I don't know where it's playing, what it's on, but if you can find it, watch it anyway. If you're a pirate, you can find it, yes. So she leaves her parents a voicemail after seeing a Facebook status from her sister that says I can't anymore, everything's black, mom and dad are coming to goodbye. I feel like anyone's heart would just fall out their asshole
after seeing that. Fucking Yikes, yeah. But Danny's douchey manchild boyfriend Christian, played by Jack Rayner, is unsupportive and his friends all seem to think that he think that Danny's crazy and they're just stereotypical. You know, in sully seeming douchebags. You know why I didn't like him either? He looks like the evil Chris. Chris Pratt. Yes, he looks like he. Did a little bit. Chris Pratt's like cousin or like half brother.
So yeah, fuck Christian. He's a douche, yeah, but so Danny goes to her parents house and finds her whole family dead from carbon monoxide poisoning and her sister had taped the exhaust pipe directly to her own mouth. Like. And it is brutal and devastating. Danny wails so gutterly. It's just like Toni Collette's fucking cry and hereditary, dude. It is. It is. From the literal gut, just like think about someone in your life who you absolutely cannot see.
For me personally, it's Beyoncé. Like the day? Not, not April. The day we lose Beyoncé y'all check on me for real? OK, Prince was bad. Oh, yeah, will be worse because I was alive for all of Beyoncé, you know what I'm saying? And so, like, that's personal for me. But like, real talk, the way that she cried, I tried to imagine being the partner. Like, fuck this *** Like, fuck him just like any other real supportive partner because we're both in relationships.
Think about trying to support your other through that kind of grief. Like, yeah, I'm holding you and I don't even know if this isn't. I know this isn't enough like. What? No, yeah. He like, has no time for her at all. And like, honestly, Andrew had more sympathy and compassion for me when I walked in on our neighbor's boyfriend suicide like 12 years ago. I remember he told me that, yeah. Like I barely knew that guy and Andrew consoled me more and checked in on me and better than
that. And that was her family. Her, her sister, and both of her bears. Her entire fucking family in one house and not even in like like a car accident like one of the most brutal ways. Especially her sister, like her sister's face was all like green and kind and like. There's woman. Her eyes were different colors at that, like she looked like a Husky. She looked jaundiced. She was like SpongeBob a little bit, yeah. With them eyes it was like, Oh yeah, when SpongeBob had the
suds. Oh God. But yeah, and then the mom and daddy was just in bed and they had the hose like, oh, that was bruised. So yeah, he was not giving hurt and that kind of love. He was actually like, damn bitch, can you hurry up? I got somewhere you. Literally didn't want to be around her. He's like, Oh my God, her family died. Now this is going to be a lot. I'm. Never going to get out of this. No, because they go to a party the next night and he is so
annoyed that she tagged along. Hated it. And at this party, his friend Josh, portrayed by William Jackson Harper, who's actually really good in this. Right. Great. And is the only one of the men that is redeemable in any way. I would say we'll get into all of their douchery, but he is the only one that I would say isn't necessarily a total piece of shit. And I like him in the Good Place. Yeah, he's a good actor and he's like 10 years older than everyone else and has amazing
skin and can play their age. Yeah. So Josh mentions, just mentioned Josh mentions a trip to Sweden for his thesis on like Midsummer festivals in Europe that Christian is going on apparently. Or at least he's thinking about it and Danny had no idea about. This doesn't even bother mentioning it. No, and you, you can see like that look on his face when it's mentioned in front of her. Because he talks about it like he's going to Taco Bell. Not across the damn world, Mega.
You are not just going to the store, you're going to fucking to to Sweden. And my whole family just died and I'm supposed to stay here by myself and chill? And he's such a piece of shit because, you know, he knows that they don't even really get along and that they don't like each other because he invites her thinking that she won't go and he doesn't want her to go. And she's like, cool, I'm
coming. But he thinks that she won't want to go because he knows that she'll know that he doesn't really want her to go. This guy is sick in the head. Just disgusting. But the guy's Swedish friend Pella connects with her because his parents are also dead and he convinces her to join. So they get to Sweden and meet up with Pella's friend Ingemar. Or I think it's his brother. I don't think it's his actual brother though, I think it's
just his like commune brother. Like how black people say it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he has two people that he brought with him, Simon and Connie, who are annoying British people. They all take shrooms and of course marks like aggro Ass handles them the worst. He's like, can everybody, everybody sit down, everybody do this because it makes me feel better on my trip. Everyone close your eyes. No, just why aren't your eyes closed? Why aren't your eyes closed?
I need everyone. I hate a controlling ass person when I'm on like any sort of trip. Yeah, I'm like, we're all tripping. We need to have our own experience. If you're going to be like that, get the fuck out. Like I'm not doing drugs with you anymore. Yeah, get lost in the sauce by yourself, buddy. And it's always someone like that too. It's always someone who talks a big talk and acts all like I'm going to take three caps and then like they take they take
one and are losing their mind. Is Chris the train of the season? Oh, if I was on Drag Race, I probably would be. You definitely would be. Not that I would be the gorgeous one, but I would definitely be the most Butch. But also you are no shade. And. You have the you probably, you probably would have like the best ass because you do have a great ass. And I would not shave my body if I was a drag queen. I would be like Jimbo. Like Jimbo doesn't tuck traditionally.
Jimbo just wears smoothing underwear and pulls his Dick back. Like just pulls it back. It doesn't like tape it or anything I don't think. Doesn't shave. Plastique really tucks either like. No, Plastique always looks really meaty. Yeah, and like, I don't give a shit. Like good for you girl. Yeah, I love the thick O package. Mm Hmm. But I do feel like our Astor got
shrooms, right. So frequently is shrooms or an acid so overdone where it looks like, you know, a cactus will grow a face, a cactus will turn into Nelson Mandela and start singing the Pledge of Allegiance. You know, like that does not happen. No one ever has that happen. What happens is what happens in this movie where the earth looks like it's breathing all the sounds, like you focus on one sound and then you hear 80 sounds at once and it's just like a sensory trip.
Yeah, things don't morph. They melt. They like melt into each other. Like exactly what you said. Like it's breathing. Like you see the trees breathing when they sway and the fucking. One of my favorite things to do on shrooms is just look at a piece of wood. Yeah, like a piece of real wood. Not like a shellac table, like a picnic table and just all the little ridges in the wood. When you look at that shit on shrooms, they are nice and they are swirling. They're moving all over.
We just went to a cabin and our favorite thing is to like go to a cabin with the fireplace and like build a fire and we like literally sat in front of the fire for like 3 or 4 hours or like screw me. And I had my little pen just like going to town and it was like so dope. So yeah, Ari definitely captured it well. Yeah, no, he did. He really did. Unfortunately, though, Danny does have a bad trip after she goes into an outhouse and then winds up passing out in a field
for six hours. But because it's like May in Sweden at this time, wherever they are, they must be pretty north in. Yeah. It's still daytime like it's been. They said that there was only a little bit of night time when she was asleep. So that just adds a level of. Like UN balance, yeah. Unease like everyone's off kilter a little bit. Yeah. You're slightly just thrown off. Your equilibrium is off.
That's what I meant. When I went to or like Portland and it was like dead ass, like almost 10:00 at night and it was, it looked like it was like maybe 738 and I was like, yeah, why is it so bright outside still? Yeah, very rarely do you go to bed for a full 8 hours, like a full sleep cycle and wake up and it looks exactly the same outside as you did when you went. Yeah, that's. Nice, that's uncommon. You know, I'll try that. Like, what is that, 40 Days of
Night or whatever? What was that movie with Joshua? Oh, 30 days of night. Yeah, the vampires in Alaska. I did not really enjoy that movie, but I did like the the idea. I like that movie Insomnia with Robin Williams which is the opposite which is more like this where it's mostly daytime. Dude, I want to rewatch that. That's a good one. Yeah, Robin Williams as like, was he the villain in that? No, that's one hour photo. He's the villain. Yeah, it was like one hour photo. I fucking.
That was my first time seeing Robin Williams. Besides death to Smoochy, but like being a real villain. Yeah. And then that episode of Law and Order where he was raising hell. I never saw that. He was just raising the hell throughout that whole fucking episode. He was playing multiple people, different voices. OK I'll look into it. But the next day they get to the Harga commune and learn about the Midsummer festival that's just starting which happens
every 90 years and lasts 9 days. So they're getting there on like day one. I think the next day is where shit gets real because this is not just stupa where two of the elders who have reached 72 years old, which is the end of their fourth season. They do seasons in groups of 18. So this is the end of their mentor season, the last one like
the winter in their life cycle. So these two climb to the top of a giant Cliff and jump to their deaths in front of everyone as part of a sacrifice of the commune. And it is brutal. It is another smashed face from Ari Astor. Oh God, the woman jumps first and she smashes her face completely and dies right away. The guy unfortunately misses the rock and has to have his head bashed in with a mallet and it's just awful.
But like when they bash his head in with that mallet he looks like misses Doubtfire's face when like Robin Williams. Oh my God, back to Robin Williams. He he drops his face like out the window and it lands on the ground and those two like fat little Asian twins laugh at him and then it gets run over. Yeah. That's what the old man's face looked like because they had to finish him off, but it was the right thing to do. Yeah, they like scooped him out, dude.
The woman literally looked like her face got ice cream scooped out and they just put like spaghetti in it. They. Like starve him up because then they did put him over fire, yeah. That's true. Or like a rhubarb pie. Yeah, you know, something something flakier than spaghetti. Yeah, they just like tied them up on them pallets and then roasted them like marshmallows. Yeah, but Simon and Connie are freaking the fuck out. Like, pissed. Yeah, they're not just freaking
out, they're angry. Like they feel like this is a crime. Like, what the fuck is going on here? Danny is stunned. But like, doesn't seem. I don't know, She seems disturbed, but I think she's more disturbed because she's reliving what happened with her family. Like, it's just like, Oh my God, I just saw my parents dead. Now I'm seeing more death right away. Yeah, but it doesn't necessarily seem like she's judging them as harshly as Simon and Connie are. Yeah.
Josh and Christian barely seem affected actually, and Mark is sleeping because he doesn't care about their rituals. Yeah, he doesn't give a fuck. But Danny doesn't want to leave, but Pella again convinces her to stay. And did you get the vibe that he was like soups into her? I did the first time I saw this, but the more I watch it the more I feel like he is just also kind of brainwashed by this commune, this cult, and just really feels that connection with her because
they both have dead parents. OK. But I do think that he could definitely be a little bit lecherous. Like I don't feel like he ever like fully comes on to her. But I do think that he tries to use his charm because Christian is so not charming right to his advantage in making Danny stay. He drew pictures of her and like
he remembered her birthday. I think that he foresaw, you know, according to the cult, he foresaw that she might be the May Queen. So he gets honored at the end for making the choice because he brought her. They're right. You're right. You're right, you're right. So I feel like he was maybe trying to prophecy. He was prophesizing that he was trying to make it come true like. Got you. OK, OK, OK. I. Willing it to be he's part of the cult, and the cult is lecherous in its own way, which
we'll get into. They know who they want. They don't. Exactly, Christian now tells Josh that he is going to do his thesis on the Haga commute and Josh is pissed and feels betrayed. And I would too. And Christian is so manipulative he even will manipulate his friends. He's like but you're doing yours on Midsummer festivals in England and Germany too Like I'm just doing here. And it's like, dude, you're bogarding his entire idea because he went to them first and asked about their sacred
book. And Josh is even like, *** you been knowing that I wanted to do this. Like I told you from the jump, the whole reason why we're here is because of me. This white dude is lazy as fuck and is literally stealing his black friends work. Yep. Because when Pella's like, yeah, you guys can share your information about what you learn. Christian's like, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, of course we'll share. And Josh is like, of course, you want to share because I have information for months, maybe
years at this point. Yeah, I have way more than you do. God Christian is such a colonist. Like it's such a colonial mindset. Like he's a user. Adam. Yeah, the next day, a ginger girl, Maya, puts a love ruin under Christian's bed, which apparently means she's chosen him as a mate, pending approval from an elder. Now, the fact that this shit needs to be approved tells you that it shouldn't with that phrase. Something's rotten in Denmark. Something's rotten in Sweden in this.
Case. Now Connie can find Simon, and apparently they were going to leave and an elder walks up to her and it's like, no, no, he went to the station like he hitched a ride with someone else and they're going to come back for you. And she's like. Honey does not believe that. He would never leave me. What? Especially after how much he was freaking out. Like he was very protective of her, like he was a little too much in my opinion. Like he was ripping her away before she was ready to move.
Like he was a little aggressive. For good reason. Yeah, I felt like he was maybe overprotective, but I don't think he would have left her. And she goes with that guy like willingly, but I don't know, she seems freaked out, but what else is she going to do? Yeah, that's true.
But we never see her again. So after Connie goes off, they go to dinner, and as they're eating, Christian finds one of Maya's pubes in his meat pie, which coincides with this tapestry that I believe Angamar showed Connie and Simon earlier. Someone showed them. In the beginning. Yeah of like a woman feeding and look honestly when I wrote it in my notes it looked like I wrote a woman cuts off a piece of her coochie and puts it in a soup cuz that's what it looked like.
But I guess it was just the pubes and not the actual pussy lips. There are so much like, weird art that they all were asking about. And then at that one point they were like, what? What's up with the bear? And he's like, what? It's a bear. Yeah. Foreshadowing. Yeah. They're like, what is that? He's like, it's a bear and like
for what they could like why? But this is where like, I wonder if Ari Astor was maybe drawing on both Wicker Man's because there's something like about the fact that a woman is hypnotizing a man with her vagina in that way that makes me think, is he commenting at all that matriarchy can be just as lecherous as patriarchy? Because the way that this woman in the ritual, in the the fable myth or whatever, was getting a man to love her was through essentially witchcraft.
Which would make sense because in hereditary the grandmother was the leader of the cult. Unlike how most like like cults, especially like devil worshipping cults, it's a man in the front leading and like right. Yeah, I think you're right. I hope it's more of a reverence for strong women and strong female characters because women can be evil, too, and it is discrediting women to act like they can only be good. So I do appreciate that.
But I hope it's not a commentary on matriarchy and patriarchy. They're the same, you know? Yeah, but I like that there's some ambiguity because the film doesn't necessarily side with the cult, but I don't really think that the film necessarily sides with. Is again.
Either or. Again, it just it just shows what this group of people does and it shows what she chose to do. I don't know how much RESR is judging any of it. When this movie first came out on Reddit that was like a lot of the commentary on it was exactly what you said. Like it's not necessarily like he is pro either side, it's just an observation of the general like. Of what this woman felt she needed to do after this happened to her. But yeah, so after pube gate. He gets a little meat.
Yeah, Mark is lured away from the dinner by another girl and at night Josh decides to. I honestly think Josh is jealousy against the best of him because he's like, Christian ain't getting this shit before me so he decides to break the rules and go and photograph their sacred texts. Though as I just said that Josh was kind of needling them at every fucking turn to take photographs and documents stuff. So he wasn't ever really being very respectful of their
boundaries. He was always pushing them a little bit. Like so when can I? So what about Do you think I can? And. And yeah, you're right. He never really just observed or wrote it down. He had to document it. And there is a difference in reciting your interpretation and physically showing it. And I think that, you know, a lot of cultures don't like that. And I mean, he did ask here and there, but he didn't ask before he went. It seemed like, what's the
customs on this? He just kind of, what's that phrase like? Oh. Easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission, Yes. I feel like that was his mindset, he would rather ask for forgiveness than for permission. But unfortunately for him, when he is photographing these texts, he gets bludgeoned. They love him, people they. Bludgeon that motherfucker as he's looking at another person wearing Marks face. So Mark is dead, and it's pretty clear that Simon and Connie are
probably dead too. And what's crazy is he wasn't even all the way dead once they hit him in the head like. No, he was twitching like he got dragged away and that's the last we saw of him. So we don't know what happened in between that and when we see him next. But the next day, Danny is given hallucinogenic tea and is pretty much forced to compete in the maypole dancing competition. They don't even ask her. They're like you're dancing hoe. Yeah, come on. And she wins.
Yeah. You could tell like she is super freaked out at first but the further along she goes and is tripping. I was. Like the more the drugs. Yeah, actually, this is my jam. She's. Spinning. It's sunny. It doesn't seem like it's probably too hot, like, you know, yeah, that's where you want to be using on shrooms. Yeah, she's feeling a little friendly, like the girls are all smiling and giggling and she's like, saving her one of those. Yeah, like she's having a vibe.
She felt accepted. Yeah, and she felt connection with them, which is something she has been lacking. Yeah, and that connection, like, literally kept her up and she didn't fall because that's how you lose. You lose by falling because they're spinning in circles. So these bitches start dropping. Yeah. And while this is happening, Christian is told by Sieve, like the matriarch of the commune, that he's been approved to mate with Maya and. We know what that means.
Oh, God, we will get to that in a second. So Danny is Crown the May Queen, and everyone is celebrating her. And you can tell that she's living for it, but she's also kind of overwhelmed by it, like. Yeah, very, very confused. Like, she's very confused. It's like she has never been showered with this much praise and adoration. Yeah. Attention. Yeah. Christian did not give her any of this. Any not even when her family
died. It should be honest based on like how her sister went out and took her parents with her. I don't think their relationship was great either, at least with her sister. So like this amount of love is confounding to her. Like she literally doesn't understand it. But Christian is lured to a temple for a mating ritual with Maya and Danny is like carted off to bless the crops and the cows and shit so they have like, you know. Good food. They're like you're a queen now get to work.
Yeah, I'm like, damn, the May Queen literally has duties immediately. She has to eat that little nasty fish and then get to work. I know. Oh. Yeah, she can't even keep it down. Yeah, but she like spits it out. I'm like he like must eat it whole. Give me that raw fish, I would have eaten that shit. I would have been like the Penguin. Yeah, I love a raw fish, skin on and everything. I don't care. So this ritual.
So the women of the commute encircle Christian and Maya and apparently it's taking too long and he is not coming as fast as they want him to. So this older woman puts her hands on his ass cheeks. Oh my God, and. Just starts pushing his ass forward and thrusting him harder into Maya until he comes. And as that's happening, Danny, of course, has just finished with doing what she's doing.
And she looks in there because one of the girls is like, I don't think you want to look in there right now because she, like, hears the moaning, but you know. Because they're moaning in unison, Yeah, the whole crowd is cheering them on and like they're like, ha ha ha, ha, ha. And they keep it going and it gets louder and louder and it's like, Oh my God, if, if my *** was fucking so bitch. And they were moaning in unison. Oh my.
Everybody dance. Yeah. Whatever happened to my parents times a million like. It almost didn't even sound erotic to me though. Like for me it sounded more haunting. Like I get it like. She knows it is a fucking nightmare. Yeah, she knows what's going to be happening in there though. She's just looking in to confirm her suspicions. Yeah, to confirm her next like victim. Yeah, these are exactly who I'm going to kill. Yeah, exactly the people I'm
looking for. Honestly I think that the moment when Danny went up to Christian after Connie was freaking out and couldn't find Simon and they gave Connie that bullshit story. As soon as Danny told Christian that and he immediately just went back to asking the guy he was talking to about incest in the community. I think all of her hope for him to be a decent human being ever or in any way died. She looked at him differently from that moment. I think this moment here confirmed it.
But I think that that moment she realized he does not have empathy. He is a selfish, narcissistic cunt. Yeah, cuz like if, if that were me, would he care or would he still be doing research on his fucking paper at that point and be kind of glad that I'm gone? Yeah, it's just another thing to add to the mystery of Harga instead of realizing these are actual people who didn't consent to this. Yeah, like the Harga people might be consenting, but the outsiders are not.
Agreeing to come somewhere is not the same consent as I'm agreeing to come there to be sacrificed. No, I'm good. I'll YouTube it. Yeah, so once Christian comes, he totally like snaps out of this days that he's been in because he took the tea too, but I feel like after. He came. He was like hide during it, Yeah. Yeah, after he came, I think he just like, I don't know, all the endorphins, rushed up and just made that tea stop working. He was like, what the fuck? And.
And he like ran out naked. He. Runs out of there naked. And I give Jack Rainer credit because we see that Dick swinging and it is very pink. I'm just going to leave it there. It looks raw. I mean, I know he was just fucking, but like, did they put makeup or is that, you know, what? It is what it is good for you. Because he was running all around there naked as fuck. We saw everything. Yeah. If you're into Jack Rainer, you're going to enjoy it, though. He's terrified.
So maybe you won't, I don't know, whatever you're into. But as he's running around, he sees Joshua's leg like planted in a garden. And then he goes into this barn and sees like Simon, like all hung up on like display with his backflate open and like flowers in his eyes and shit. And then his lungs, are they like butterfly this? Dude, yeah, they did. They spatchcocked him.
Like when you when you break a chicken open and like lay it flat on the grill like that, but you don't totally RIP it in half, you flatten that bitch. You hung him like a chandelier. Yeah. Fucking had his fucking back out and yeah, his lungs, they were still breathing. Yeah, he was still alive, barely. He looked like what Vincent D'onofrio did in the cell for fun. You know, just like hanging up like that for the pressure, whatever it was.
A little bat. But after he sees Simon, some elder blows some powder in his face that knocks him out and paralyzes his ass. So he wakes up to Danny sitting at the head of this table dressed as the make queen. But now she is like Uber make queen like she is covered in so many flowers her silhouette's a fucking volcano. Yeah, she's like literally looks like a volcano.
A flower. Yeah, Like, do you remember in that episode of Doug where they are painting in class and Patty's like, can you guess where my painting is? And Doug's like, it looks like a mountain. And she's like, no, it's my grandma, that silhouette. That reference. Like volcano slash Patty's Mountain grandma, you know? It looks like a cake. She looks like a cake. Yeah, she really does look like a cake. Because I wanted a slice, I was
like, hey, that looks good. Yeah, so he finds out about the sacrifices for the Midsummer. There's 9 sacrifices. 4 of them are the outsiders that are already dead. So his friends and Simon and Connie. Yeah, Josh Bars and. Simon and Connie. And the other four are people from Harga. So the two old people that killed themselves and Ingemar and this other guy ulf. Yeah, who like was like, I'll be down. Am I good for you, you know? Yeah, they needed somebody. We don't need more toe heads in
this world. Yeah, sorry. And I wonder how that happened or they're just like, we just need one more, you guys, just one. I mean, they probably just see honor in it, you know? Yeah, they do. They have to. Brainwashing. It runs real deep. It's just how you get anybody in a cult like the Heaven's Gate people to drink the kool-aid. You just say there's going to be eternal glory with God, Zenu, Horribleblats. I don't know, Mariah Carey, you know, whoever you look up to, but. So real.
They do like a lottery and a little ball comes out and indicates that the 9th sacrifice will either be this random Swedish dude or Christian. Chris. And Danny has to choose, will she be confronting her problems and choose Christian or will she continue to deflect and choose the Swedish guy and just keep this cycle of abuse going and we cut away before we find out her decision but then it cuts to Christian being put inside of that bears carcass.
Every detail in this, this is where it gets gory, but it's honestly tasteful and we'll give RE Astor that is very tasteful. Yeah. Maybe it's just me. It's the kind of gore I can stomach. At least I'm like, well. Like you said, with the substance, it is gore with a purpose. It's like 1. It's literally the vessel. And I don't know if this is a real ritual or a real like mythic ritual that people believe in, in fables and shit
or you know, fairy tales. But the way it was written, it felt like that this could be an ancient Swedish ritual because there was a lot of May Queens on that wall. And if you crown a May queen once every 90 years, this has been going on for a long time. So like, I feel like, you know, why not? Like I feel like people in you know, 2 would have hollowed out a bear, you know, year 2. That's real. That's actually really real. You're right. So I don't know, it felt, it did
not feel exploitative. So as far as I'm concerned, it just felt like a researched piece. Yeah, symbolic. Also, a bear is a really masculine, aggressive animal. Yeah. And I think honestly, for the reasons that we've already talked about, that's why she chose Christian. And he also represents everything that's holding her back, like the lack of support, the judgement, the gas lighting, the constant manipulation, and just him never being there for her. Like, she's like, I can be free
of you. And you know, after they put him in that bare, they prop him right in the center of this gorgeous yellow temple. It's a perfect triangle. They were looking at it ominously earlier in the film, but they told them to never go in there, and now we know why. And they set that motherfucker on fire. They're all burning up. All the other bodies of his friends have clearly been like, disemboweled and stuffed. They all look like scarecrows they like. Stuffed them. Yeah, like or like.
Bells on pumpkin. People like the at the County Fair, like where they just use pumpkin as a head. The run fair, the little puppet people at the shows, Oh my God, they used to scare the shit out of me, Yeah. Fall Harvest Festival dummy people made of hay and pumpkins. But these were not pumpkins. These were his friends and Simon and Cotton, and unfortunately for Oolf, the drugs that they gave Oolf did not work. He felt every bit of it.
And he felt every bit and he started screaming and everyone outside screams with him and like joins in on his agony, soothing him but also in a way drowning him out, which I'll get to what we'll get to later. And just like as this happens, like Danny at first looks kind of disturbed and kind of in shock, but then as everything starts to crumble down, she smiles. And it is a kind of demented looking smile. I remember the first time I ever saw this movie and that's how it ended.
I felt so much closure and like so good. And the look that she had on her face is everything I needed. I felt like I won, don't ask me how. Yeah, like I think there was no villain. He was the villain, but he wasn't so overt. He wasn't a caricature. That man Christian is a very common man in this world. Every day.
We see that man all the time. And if you remember, I mean I'm sure you do, when Midsummer came out, straight men on Twitter and online were like, I don't know if Christian deserved that. And I'm like, your comments are exactly why he did and why in this situation you would too. Yeah, like, thanks for letting us know who you are. But he was just so easy to hate and, like, so easy to be mad at. So it felt good after all the
mistreatment she had endured. Like she won in so many different ways, literally, figuratively. Like we saw it come into fruition. Like we saw it play out for her. And we were cheering with her because it felt because we've all felt like her at some point.
Absolutely, and that's why I feel like I won at the end because it felt like straight up if that was my choice, if I was her and I won the May Queen dancing competition and I have to choose who the last sacrifice was and it was a random person who I've never met before that has never destroyed my heart. And then my personal 911 ex that I dated for three years that made me hate myself. I would absolutely put that bitch in the bear suit and save the stranger, you know?
Yeah, save the stranger. I'm not saying that my ex deserves death, but if put in that same circumstance, that's who I'd be choosing. And I think a lot of people would. And I think that women are told that that's the choice that they should never make. Women are always told you choose your man, your husband, over everything else. Your partner? Yeah. And that's not real. That's not true because they would never choose you. And also greater the sacrifice, greater the reward.
Yeah, bitch, you're a queen now. Like you don't run it for at least 90 years, my mom. Like, go ahead, cash in on that. I don't know what you could do in Sweden with that kind of clout, but I'm sure a lot and you probably live nice. Yeah. Guess what? Now you can find you a new *** out in Sweden. Probably Pele. What's his name? Yeah, Pele, Pele, Yeah. Whatever. Yeah, him. He was already looking kind of right. And he set you up for the dead.
You know, some people just look like they'd be hung, and he just does. I don't know, he just does. I hear you. Like I see it. And Christian was like ugly anyway. He had those really shifty, like beady eyes. They were untrustworthy even when he was high. They got like more beadier and just like less trustworthy with time. It was just like such a bad look for her. I'm like, you're so much hotter,
girl. And just in general, like you can tell that she didn't feel her best around him and she didn't want to look or feel her best around him either. Like why were they always in such dowdy clothes? When she came out in that raggedy ass T-shirt and them like ugly jeans when they were tripping, I was like, God, that's what you wearing wear. Sweatpants. I think she may have been in like. Sweatpants. Like she wore the clothes that you do when you're doing your laundry.
What that said though, I'm not blaming her because for Christian I would not try. And I feel like that's what I'm seeing. Like she is so not invested in looking good for him and I like that for her. But look good for yourself. Yeah, I hate when I see a bitch give up. Yeah. You just gave up, Mama. You need to do more. You deserve to do more and less of him. Yeah, set him on fire. Yeah. Put him in a suit and set him on fire like that's tea.
Oh. God, but yeah, even from the beginning I just hated Christian because as soon as like she calls him to hang out before she finds her family actually dead, he is so annoyed. Like he seems like it's such an inconvenience that like. She so over. Hadn't asked him to meet up in advance. I'm like, she's your girlfriend. She's not saying let's hang out
right this second. She's asking because she got really disturbing news, or at least saw something really disturbing on Facebook. Like I would think going on Facebook. That shows you how not personal their relationship was. You didn't even get a suicide note, you got a suicide status. And then you go because you know, Facebook is petty and it's like moments from a years ago. Oh my God, yeah, you need to. You need to get rid of the time hop. Fuck even know what's on
Facebook anymore. But yeah. Oh. My God that would be fucking awful. But he basically tells his friends that it's a ploy for attention and then like he just never fucking stands up for her when he goes to that party. And like as annoyed that she tags along, he said he wants to go to a party for 45 minutes. You're just saying it's 45 minutes so she won't go because she'll feel like it's a waste of time. And then you planned on staying more than 45 minutes? He's so manipulative.
You shady fuck. So calculated, so manipulative. And always acts like he's trying to do everything in her best interest. The way he talks to her sounds like everything he's doing is a favor to her and like and he's thinking of her first and he's literally never thinking of her. She's like a pest to him. Yeah. And his friends have like, I just, I hate that that's like the reputation, I guess, that he's built around her, about
her. Like, that's how he represents her when she's not around to his friend. So automatically they start to like dread her presence. Mark says that Danny is abusing Christian because of how much she calls and nags him basically. Yeah. She literally just said her sister posted something that sounded suicidal, which it wound up being yeah. So like.
So what the fuck y'all? And then when he, he was like talking about going on vacation even like not, I mean, it was a vacation basically, but like talks about going out of town and like he's just so toned at that all times and so insensitive to like every single aspect of her like entire being. Yeah, he had not committed to that trip yet. And if you were in love with someone and their whole family died in a murder suicide, I think maybe now is not the time to go to Sweden. You.
Know I'd be like I'm kind of good off that right now, but thanks anyways. The fact that he told her that he was basically just going to go and she could come if she wants, that should have been like sign #1 and in a way, I know she knew. Like she knew she knew he was trash. But it's like kind of battered women's injured. Like maybe without the physical battery of it all, but like just she has mentally battered and then her sister's choices just emotionally battered her even
more. Yeah, and like at this point, if she leaves him, she really has like, no one. Yeah. Or so she feels. Because we don't really know outside of Christian. We don't know much about Danny's like, outside life. We know she's on Ativan. That's all we know, really. Yeah, and she was on the phone with like another girl while she was like talking about Christian. So she does have another home girl, but we don't know how
close they are. Yeah. If he's like isolated her from her friends and now he's like you're a pest. Exactly. Yeah, it really is a way to isolate someone. So she is always at home. She has no friends, but she's always available when he needs or wants her. That's what he's trying to do to her. Because my home girls have dated like lame ass dudes like this before and I've been like call me when y'all break up.
Yeah, like when she's upset that he hadn't told her that he was thinking of going to Sweden, he apologizes in such an aggressive way. It's clearly to make her feel guilty about being upset and like he's just berating her into submission because the only way he knows how to communicate with her is to abuse her and to gaslighter to trick her into thinking that she was aggressive and wrong. To know if he plans on leaving the country for a month.
Like what the fuck that's so. There's so many ways like breakdown, like his just awful behavior. It's sociopathic, not just manipulative and narcissistic. Yeah, but I do understand being in a very frightening, fragile, frail mind state. And just like knowing like, it's harder to navigate this alone than like with the, you know? Oh, absolutely. Absolute worst. Worst. Never. And when you become that depressed, like I can say from experience, sometimes you think you don't deserve better.
You're like, my family just all left me, and I guess I didn't deserve them because they'd still be alive. So maybe this is what I deserve, this sad relationship. Maybe Christian really is thinking about me and I just need tough love. And yeah, I need someone to get. Back to yourself. Yeah, because she's just used to being gassed by him that she's doing it to herself now. They've been together almost four years. Definitely like conditioned her to like have poor self esteem
for sure. But I do appreciate how Ari Esther is able to like also kind of make that a theme of like horror in its own. Like the idea of like just being with someone like this is so terrifying. And you can just tell as a woman and just like, as a woman in a group of all men, at least when she's travelling. Yeah, she just gives in to the peer pressure because she doesn't want to make a scene because she knows what these guys think about her already. Because of Christian.
Like when they take the shrooms, Danny doesn't want to take the shrooms. No, she's like, my family just died. I'm like not in the mindset for this, but like also I don't want you guys to think that I'm like a naggy, whiny, lame bitch, but also like I don't want to and I don't have any agency over that because like he's already created this terrible reputation. Yeah, she makes excuses for her own discomfort.
So Christian is appeased, and also so Mark calms down because Mark is like, we all need to do it at the same time. If we do it at different times, it'll be all fucked up. No real talk. And when they got to the commune, he was by far the worst at one point, like the women were doing, like they were doing some sort of ritual where they were walking backwards to pick flowers. And Mark is like, somebody should tell those girls they're walking stupid. And then when he peed on the
fucking tree. Yeah, he just like peed on a sacred tree that like, I don't know, represented, I guess. The ancestors. Or the ancestors. Yeah, and like, this guy had fucking daggers for Mark the whole rest of the time. The guys just did not respect the place at all. Like Christian just could not. He could not tell the truth. Christian was just lying the entire time. Yeah, he was lying to Danny. He is manipulating everyone. He was lying to Josh too.
Like he didn't give a shit about Simon or Connie. He never really asked where Mark was like. Ever. Yeah. And I feel like they could all see that in him. And I think that's why Pella chose him, because he's like, this guy sucks. This guy was like actually a really shitty person and he he's got this bad bitches treating like shit. And Mark just, you know, after pissing on the tree, but literally everything he said I. Scolded the shit at him from pissing off that tree.
That guy came over like screaming. He Oh yeah, yes. Not only screaming, he like burst into tears afterwards like he ruined something really sacred to them. Like you didn't give a fuck. But like, so rude when they showed Mark the sleeping quarters earlier, like when everyone was getting the tour, he was like, how you're gonna fucking jerk off in here? You have no privacy. Yeah, he was just so goddamn crude and awful. He has a face of someone that just like, rude and awful, you know?
He did. Like he had a very punchable face. Like a very punchable face. Yeah, and I'm sure that's why he was cast in this role, because I feel like he plays several roles like that. Will Pulzer. People who look like easier acceptable to hit are great in these roles are they're great. Like kill them off characters you know? Exactly. Because like when he goes off with that girl, you're like, I hope he doesn't come back alive
and he doesn't. I'm trying to think of like, there's a lot of symbolism in this movie, but I'm trying to think of anything that like stuck out to me. I feel like the yellow has to mean something because the entrance to the whole commune is like that yellow sun kind of giant structure. The the holy temple is yellow. There's just yellow accents to a lot of things. In general, I feel like the color scheme for the commune is
white, blue, and yellow. Yeah, they put him in that little outfit when he goes to fuck that girl. Yeah, they put him in that little, that little blouse, that peasant blouse. Yeah, his Free People moment. Mm hmm. His free People moment. But yeah, everything was just like white linen or cotton embroidered with blue, and most of the buildings had yellow accents. So, oh, wait a minute, those are the oh, the Swedish flag is yellow and blue. I think it's the nationalism of it all.
OK. I think I've probably read that somewhere. I do think that he really wanted to amp up the Swedishness of it. Also yellow and blue, the sun and the sky, You know, that being in daytime and it being Midsummer. Yeah. Like, I think that really all just adds to the nationalism of it all. Like, yes, this cult is freeing Danny, but are they actually good for her?
Is this a good place to be? When Danny sees through the peephole of that temple, that Christian is fucking Maya, She runs to the quarters or she runs away, like scream crying, like she's having a full on panic attack. And a lot of the younger women grab her and they bring her into the sleeping quarters and they all like, hover around her and they breathe with her and they cry and they like, feel her emotions. And in a way, it's very beautiful. They're feeling her pain with
her. They're making her not feel alone, but at the same time, they're like drowning her out. They're taking her out of the equation when she was the one that was hurt. Interesting. You know, nationalism is like, we all must be homogeneous. It's taking away her identity as Danny. And it's like, no, we're just all the Harga. And that's like, beautiful in a way. But like, she needs to still process her own emotions. I'm really high so walk with me friend, OK?
Is it maybe it too individualistic of us? Potentially, yeah. To think that way because we're so conditioned in our culture and what's acceptable in our culture to have like to look out for ourselves before the next person. And they are their, their whole thing is about community. And this is all community and we sacrifice each other. But like we, we have come together and agreed that this is for XY and Z purposes. And like this is how our way of life is.
Oh, no, for sure. I think that's what Ari Esther is absolutely doing. Yeah, I think he's raising all of those questions and I don't think he really wants to answer them. Because when you started to say what you said, I was like, oh shit, I'm on to that. But then I started thinking it, thinking from the opposite view. And it's like, we are so American and so used to being like individualism and like your identity. Like who are you? Like we want to know who you
are. But it's like, who are we? We Because I'm not really me without her and him and them and us as all together. You know what I'm saying? And especially in America, we already need more communities because our. Our country would thrive so much more and just as like, great I'm sure as Sweden would if we fucking would understand how they handle community if we
could do that here. No, I do agree with that, but I think the the other side is, and I wasn't even thinking all of what I'm about to say before you just said that. I like that we can keep building off of these ideas. Because now that you said that, though, I feel like when it comes to the nationalism angle, with all the blue and yellow and the Swedish flag and all that, this entire commune of people is white. Yeah, not just white.
That's why it works. But like blonde and ginger, there's not even really any dark haired people. There's no one with dark hair, Yeah. Maybe some lighter brown hair, but it's like blonde adjacent. And Danny is the only one of the foreigners outside of Mark who looks like that at all three of the four people that wind up being the outsider sacrifices of people of color. And OK, like you could say that they each did things separately of what they look like and who they were born as to warrant
that. Like Simon and Connie were freaking out and judging them but like they didn't do anything. Yeah, they didn't actually do Yeah. Josh took pictures when he wasn't supposed to. And Mark Peed. Right, these things are bad but like are they killable offenses? I'm not trying to judge the cult or the the Haga based on that and why they chose to kill. This is a horror movie after all. Like you know, this is just the constructs of this film and like the confines of it.
But it is interesting that the May Queen is the white woman of the bunch with the lightest hair of the group and all the non white people wound up dead. Yeah, you're right. Nationalism has its downsides, too. And it's harder in America because there are so many minorities and so many stories that would definitely be a race. And that's all we have to always tell white people, like, don't
speak for black people. In fact, like if you have the microphone, just pass it, You know what I'm saying? Like But yeah, the crying together shit is really beautiful. Even when everybody was freaking out after the sacrifice, both sacrifices, actually, they did a collective cry. Yeah, when the man didn't die right away, he was screaming in agony. And they did join in with that, too.
Yeah, it is beautiful. Because like as an individual, like that's going to affect me really, really poorly or like it, who knows how. But if I'm with this person on the left of me and this person on the right of me and we've both witnesses incredibly dramatic thing together. And when we all add up the same cry, that means our pace of grieving could probably be very similar. Won't be the same, but it'll be very similar and we will have
collectively done it together. Yeah it's just cuz we don't see how the harga formed so it would be interesting to know. Did everyone choose to be here? Did they come together or were like people literally brainwashed? Brought in, Yeah yeah Damn, I wish Ari asked her. Was like more into his own stuff like like his fans are and like would expand on certain things. He does not offer explanations. That's just not who he is. And quite frankly, if I was a
film maker, I wouldn't either. Yeah, I like an air of mystery. But, yeah, I think there's a lot of moral questions in this film. Another one is just Christian get raped. That was another huge controversy when this film came out. Like, yeah, Christian was brought to that ritual to mate with Maya under the influence of
drugs. He knew that there was properties in that T, but they didn't really tell him what it was and he didn't know that he was going to be going to do that on Under the Influence. Yep. He literally agrees, but he's high, you know, like him snapping out of it. It was like, what have I done? And it was almost like he was drugged on purpose so he, his guard would be let down. He was roofied essentially.
And I think part of the moral Gray area is does what he did to Danny warrant that treatment in this film? And to me, Ari Astor isn't even attempting to make that statement. This movie just unfortunately came out two years after me too. And I think it was like a hot button issue at the time. And it is worthy of discussion, I would say. But like, I don't think that the film is saying that Christian deserved it.
I think that they're just saying that this happened to him because he is this type of person and he wound up in this situation, not this particular situation. He wound up in this overall situation by manipulating, conning and hurting other people. And I don't know if I necessarily think he's saying that this is a cosmic comeuppance, but I do feel like he's saying, regardless of your morality, this is just what happened here. This is their ritual period, and
you can judge it for yourself. I agree. Tying into what we were just talking about with the breathing and the kind of like group grieving and crying and screaming like. Yeah, I agree. Harmful, helpful or both. And I think you could say that about this scene as well. Like, yes, he was not consenting to this exact situation, but he's in a way the villain of the movie. How do we parse that out in our own heads? And I think Arias is like, listen, you got to do that for yourself.
I'm not telling you how to think. That's real, but it also just makes me remember like Christianity is wild as fuck. Exactly, yes. Christians be doing some real wild shit. Jew Jewish people do real wild shit. Buddhists do like religion in itself, and spirituality calls for some very, very taboo customs. Exactly. Even if you're a atheist or agnostic like. You can still be a piece of trash. Yeah, like I'm probably like I'm some weirdo shit myself to somebody who doesn't understand
me and how I get down. But it does give you a reason to question religion further and you all should always be questioning religion and spirituality. Or is more specifically where you get it from. I feel like that's why it's difficult for me to view the cult as purely good, because it's just it is that inner skeptic of just groupthink in general. Yeah, because I've just seen too much shit with groupthink and
how they they move and operate. And that's also kind of like what got me super into sociology when I was in school is because I was like, it's crazy how people react or sometimes don't react just based off how the group is moving. And that can be really fucking scary and really fucking dangerous. And in sociology, they put you, they show you like different examples of what played out.
And it's just like, so real. Yeah, I don't like how they say that people in the society become who they're going to be based on the skills that they're taught by the elders when they're a kid. I'm like, so you just teach a kid something that you feel like teaching them, and that's their profession for the rest of their life here. I don't like that. And I don't know if that does
that benefit the group. Wouldn't the group benefit by people doing what they're best at, by trying many things and deciding for themselves where they feel better suited? That's how you help the group. Yeah, because it's like, what if I'm like really good at like, I don't know, making food and you got me over here knitting these damn blouses all day? Or what if I'm good at leadership and you just want to make me have make meat pies doing more salmon?
I don't want to do this. Like let me be on the damn council. I'm sorry, I would just be putting my pubes in everybody's pie if it was like. Pubes in the pie. I just be like, you can't DNA test me. I'm just putting them everywhere. How are? You going to know it was me? There ain't no FBI crime lab up here. Let me try something else and then we'll see if the food changes exactly change my career and maybe the food will change. Back to pube free.
That's why, like I can see why Danny in this moment in this film felt like she needed to do this with these people because she was so isolated being with Christian and then after losing her family, that this felt like the greatest salve and bomb and like healing ointment like this community, you know, because clearly, like that was foreign to her. And it felt so good after she could like finally get through the threshold of being so uncomfortable with all that
love. But it does feel like you still don't know these people at all. Like pump the brakes. Like when when you're so beaten down and then you're all of a sudden confronted with the thing that you've been deprived of for. So long. That's so real. You jump at it too hard sometimes. I think about people who get like a religious psychosis from just like needing community so bad. We're like Alcoholics who like have pushed their whole family away.
So then when they go to a A and they have a bunch of people who are accepting them and then one of those people is like a Jesus freak. There you go. It's just like, you go for exactly what? The opposite of you, what you just had. That's so real. Because in times of like extreme stress or terror, the grass is always greener on the most other side of the fence. My God, the politics in this movie. These motherfucking bitches all on the Internet lately. Being like her is not political.
Stop making it political. This shit is so political. Just because you didn't see Swedish flags everywhere doesn't mean that there wasn't a lot of nationalism and politics and things related to politics in this movie. Ari Esther said so. So after this is the American flag and baby, I can tell you a lot of people who'll be like, oh, I get it. This shit's Lake Havasu baby Baby Bailey. This shit's Lake Havasu Bailey. Who the fuck am I? My Miley Cyrus?
Yeah, No, seriously. No, you go to, you go to Lake Havasu in like July, dawg. Oh. I did. Oh, no, wait, no, wait. It wasn't July. It was like, no, it was like May. Either way, it was terrible. I didn't mean to go. Or either for Memorial Day or doesn't, chat Sarah. My best friend at the time, we went to the Viva Las Vegas festival and then we met with her family, family who lived unlike some like rural part of western Arizona and they did not live by Lake Havasu.
But it was not like the most busy time. So we went there just to see and it was to rash. Trash. There's a lot of California towns up here like that too. I will just say this, there were a lot of cornrows and there were zero black people. Yep, Yep, Yep. This was 2011, so that makes sense. My God, I'll. Like Havis, I'll. Yeah, Why do white people do that? You know, we've talked to the vacation brains. I don't.
Know I used to hate it. I'm like elementary school or middle school, but then I come and you have my hair braided and they're like, Oh my God, Nikki, your hair, your hair wasn't like that yesterday. I'm like, your face wasn't like this yesterday, Decker. So they used to come back looking like little lobsters with them ugly ass beads on their head and their forehead was all like just pull back so
tight, but just red and tight. And it was like, yeah, I just went to, I just went to Cancun with my family, like. They look like who's the fucking? Who's the boss in SpongeBob? Mr. Krabs. Yeah, they're like him with a straight back wig on. Yeah, no, actually, though you do look like Mr. Krabs with straight backs, like you are a trash with little beads on the end. And then we pissed me off when I was they wouldn't even dipped. Sometimes I would just have foil
on the end. Like, girl, you couldn't even get him dipped. And that's crazy because your hair's gonna fall out so. My best friend did get vacation braids too but I think that it was like her parents made her get them and she was like 12 but it was still. But this other girl in school one time she was blonde and she Oh my God. She later went on to get cancer
and lost all her hair. Oh my God, this wasn't the cancer I. Feel like God literally I never made these connections until right now but this girl did have really bad vacation braids and she was toe headed as fuck. Like her hair was so fine. It goes when you run your fingers on it you know? It's like the undercover out of a fucking Husky. Oh my God.
That's her real hair and then like 2 years later she did get cancer and all her hair fell out and she had to wear like a curchief to school and it was sad but you shouldn't have gotten those vacations. Them vacation braids didn't that help because they pulled your scalp back twice girl and. She didn't die of the cancer, so don't fucking come. From yeah, she's still here with us and probably regretting them braids she. Probably is.
Because if you go down TikTok right now you put in white girls braids, you can see all them girls with them braids and their hair is fucked when they when they take them out because your hair wasn't meant for a baby. It's a protective style for a reason, not for you. No, especially like those super light hair toe headed blonde girls. Their hair looks like a fucking like. It looks like plastic Barbie hair once it's done, once you
take it out. You guys need to stick to the rumors in the lakes that you used to get them little Viking braids and little Dutch braids a little too the cool little Rapunzel braid. Get the Midsummer braids. The fishtail joint is fire. I love a white girl with a fishtail, but as soon as you come with the micro links and the fucking, the singles you trying to do fucking straight backs like you come in with the fucking, the single ease twist
girl, your shit's falling out. Why does like one out of every 4 white female tattoo artists have like a box braid updo? And think that they fly with it. Oh my God, we have Midsommar is a good one. It's been like one of my favorite movies since it came out. Like I would definitely say it's in my, I must say my 20, my top 20. OK, it's definitely one of the best horror films of the last 10 years for. Sure. Oh, absolutely, Absolutely. There's a lot to talk about and there's a lot to see.
I remember when I first saw it, I had to watch a couple times because there's so much symbolism and like like in the actual symbols on the wall and the wallpaper and the drawings that are all over the movie. Their sleeping quarters is just decorated in tiles that all clearly tell a story. It is so beautiful in there. I was like, it literally looks like the the like rustic Swedish Sistine Chapel.
Like it's so gorgeously decorated in there and there's not a lot of buildings and structures, but all of them look so the. Architecture. Meticulously made and made with intention. You know that there is a reason why there was a yellow triangle. I mean, again, we've Sweden. But also I think that yellow is like a sign of positivity and hope. It is, and it's welcoming. Yeah, it's it's a warm color.
Like all the flowers and stuff everywhere, like it just creates a very welcoming and like you were talking about earlier, like it's easy to get hypnotized when the vibes are good, everyone's nice, it's good scenery. Like it's comfortable here. Yeah, they are always giving people flowers, and everyone's got flower crowns. Lots of Coachella bitches up in here. But like, they do say that being out in nature and being surrounded by nature raises
endorphins. And I think that like this cult, the Harga know that like, we're buttering these people up with some nature, some flowers, some hallucinogenic shit, like some shit that they've never seen before. Yeah, which maybe all didn't go so well, but like overall, I feel like while the I don't think that they were trying to hide anything from them or like, you know, soften the blow necessarily, I think that they definitely were trying to at least plant seeds of this is pleasant.
Regardless of your instinctual feelings on what we're doing here, this place is good. Yeah, like the The Wicker Man of it all. Yeah. We've had our traditions, you got yours, but we will trap you here. Yeah, that's what the the same ambiguity applies there. And that's why, like, you could really see the parallels because in The Wicker Man, we fucking hate Sergeant Howie. Yeah, he's. Such a fucking douche. He's such a Christian. He's we founding. His Christian ship everywhere
time. We flamed his ass the whole time. And like, I was living for the fact that people of Summer Isle like just shaded him, served it to him, didn't back down and like stood 10 toes on all their beliefs and killed his annoying Christian ass. And he was a cop, so fuck him. But they lured someone to their death, you know? And not that I care about how we in particular, but like, how many people have they killed? And they also kind of squash any autonomy and kind of control the
trajectory of your life as well. Yeah. Like, there is no being yourself. And like, while I see the importance of the group, you should be able to have alone time once in a while, right? Yeah, like what about my dreams, my hopes, my hobbies? Like have your own thoughts a little. With something you don't like. Your own sounds like. It almost feels like the Harga people are like the thought police because just when people don't like their ideas, that's
enough to kill them pretty much. But they were going to kill them anyway, regardless of how they acted, because they were brought there to be sacrifices. Yeah, that too, actually, that's
true. I did think that it was funny that that when people are not fucking with Christian and when you were saying how like the people and worker man were fucking with Sergeant Howie, like right back with him when Christian was sitting at the table and like he was like, look around, he goes, what's going on? And the guy just clapped in his face. Oh yeah. If you climb in my face while I'm fucking trimming *** I'll stop to shut up. I did love that. And then he just looked away.
Oh yeah, like he was just putting him in his place. He's like, shut up, I don't want to hear you. I also wonder what like Danny said or did to Maya after, like, you put your pubes in my man's mouth and then I killed that bitch. You're next hoe. I'm the main clean off with their head. I don't know if that's really the vibe that she was heading into, but I hope. Yeah, she was like everyone, we can agree on this one. Yeah, scheming ass Ginger.
Yeah, they wanted her to get pregnant by this negative. They were going to kill. Like what's up with the sacrifice, baby? Yeah. Maybe is it because they like need outside sperm because of the incest of it all? They were talking about that member because they had that one. The last baby they had was like inbred as fuck. No, yeah, that is true. Like, like that guy does tell Christian that like they do occasionally bring outsiders in. So like, the bloodline isn't that pure.
Like the overall group is the same bunch of lines, but it's not like they're fucking their sisters and brothers. Yeah. Maybe they're like third cousins but not sister and brother. This isn't enough. It's still a little too close, and quite frankly, I almost get the idea that they're lying. They they just say that so Christian doesn't think it's gross, because we do see that. What do they call him? The disabled boy Reuben, who is a product of incest. That's what I'm saying.
There is an inbred woman that they were trying to like cover up a little bit. It did seem like they were trying to hide him, but at the same time they said he's an Oracle and all of their oracles are products of incest. So like is an Oracle like a curse but also a blessing. To them, yeah, because it's like you're the most pure, but also like. Yeah, look what happened to keep
that purity. And it's like, obviously like if they're trying to imply that he's maybe autistic or something, they can maybe view him out like a higher thinking level. But I don't really feel like that they were being that specific. I think it was just like, he's different. Look at him. Yeah, he used M Bright as fuck. And because of that very obvious difference, like they're not using high high science, I don't know, they're not using that
high falutin science shit. They're just like different. But in a way though, they see that type of different as good, different as holy. Yeah. But being Asian or Black or Hispanic, No. No, no, no, no, no. Get out of here with that. Yeah, you're, you're all gonna die today. Yeah, what you won't be doing is that over here? Yeah. That's so real. I'm glad that we got to cover Mid Somar and talk about I'm a queen for May. Yeah. Do you have any other like things you wanna?
I do like when Mark is getting yelled at about pissing on the tree that the guy tells him to put his disgusting Dick away. Oh. Yeah, that guy was so mad. He was so mad. No, no, he he like, ran over screaming. Like when I play The Sims, if you do something they don't like or they're like really tired. Oh, yeah, they just like, burst into tears. Yeah, that's like what he did. He was so upset. He's like, those are the ancestors.
You can't do that. Yeah, tying in with the nationalism, I'm wondering what Ari Astor is portraying specifically with that man, because none of the other people have that reaction. Oh yeah, maybe it was like directly like his family. Maybe. That's my daddy's training. That's just one of the, like, fanatic fanatics. Yeah, you're right.
You clock that because there's a lot of people in like every religion or every like, belief group that has the one that just went a little too hard at the ceremony. It's just like a little too invested, a little too ready to sacrifice. Like, that's definitely him. Well, because it almost makes me think like there's an element of performance to it. It's like I'm the most upset that the ancestral tree got pissed on.
Yeah, that's why people are getting the Holy Spirit in church and doing 3 months on the damn flow. Maybe that was that guy's way of getting some individual attention. I think I'm so high and I'm thinking so far out-of-the-box, but like, you know, everything is so communal here and you're not really afforded your own reactions to things in this community. So maybe it was like I'm having my own moment now. The one diva of the of the cult. Like I missed my moment you
guys. We whaled together last week. Like I want to have this one drive one time. Yeah. Love that for him. But yeah, I think the good for her genre is obviously so popular lately and this is like a really solid and prominent entry like along with the Witch and. Gone Girl. The Suspiria remake, like, yeah, where it's just like a woman who is being kind of wronged or tortured, the whole movie gets to turn around and be like, you know what? Fuck you. Yeah, I. Fucking win, actually.
And she, she got in the best way because she didn't really have to get her hands. She didn't have to do it at all. They did it for her. Yeah, she sat there and had a good robe, a good volcanic floral and her run with her floral runway and sat up there and just waited for it to be done. I was like, cool, this is where I live now. Because it's like, does she even have to go back home at this point?
Like. No, that's why I like I like, I don't really want to see a sequel, but it would be interesting just to see what REST was thinking up. Like again, how's Danny going to deal with Maya? Is she going to stay here and be the May Queen like? That's funny because I actually wanted if we could have a sequel or a spin off, I would want a prequel and I would want to know more about the Harga community. That would definitely be more interesting, like. Maybe talking about like.
BC Times. Where they even came from in the beginning? Because what if it isn't that that old? Yeah, what if it's all made-up, like most religious texts are? Yeah. You know, Pele goes off to the real world, so does Ingemar They they could have done some fancy Photoshop to made dandy think that there was 800 mate Queens or however many were on the wall. I don't think the film is necessarily saying that, but like. Anything's possible. Anything is possible.
I don't think that they're the most honest group. They have their traditions, and they will do anything to make what they need to happen happen, to fulfill their rituals and to have their harvest and their, you know, traditions honored. Yeah. One last thing that I wanted to say just about like the grieving and just like the way that they
process their emotions. When Danny wants to leave after the two elders commit suicide and Pele convinces her to stay, he says he lost his parents in a fire and became an orphan. But he's like, I never got the chance to feel the loss of my family because the this family at the commune made me feel so held. And he questions if Danny has ever felt so held by Christian before, which I think is probably the first seed put in her head to veer her toward
sacrificing him. But like, to me, he's admitting that he's never grieved. And I'm like, is that possible or is that positive that you never felt the loss of your parents death? Because this. Group of people gave you so much love. I feel like that sounds beautiful on the surface, but there is something about that that sounds like RES. Or put that line in there for a reason. Dangerous. I don't know. I'm kind of in the middle now, Chris.
Clearly, Pellet needed this commune when he found them. They didn't kill him. He survived and became one of them. Yeah. So they must have had some connection with him. And that's the beautiful part. The part that makes me question it is that everything here seems to be spun in a positive. Everything. The death, suicide. I'm not saying that all things need to be negative, but they don't really allow for negative emotions. That's why it feels toxically positive.
You're human and you need to feel all of your emotions. And that is a big problems, specifically in the white community. In cults. But like, you have to face bad things in life, they're going to. Happen like you can't just have a positive outlook on like literally everything because it's not healthy at all because those negative emotions exist. You're you're not real if those don't exist. Right. They literally drown out sorrow. So to me, Ella has never actually processed his emotions
regarding his parents. Which leads you to believe, like, say, if I was correct and he did have like a romantic connection to Danny, like, yeah, she would be going to like, almost another Christian. Yeah. Because he's just as emotionally unavailable. Because he doesn't feel all of his emotions, just the good ones. And as soon as your emotions stop being positive, you're gone. And also, Christian probably didn't start out that way.
When you meet someone, they're usually on their best behavior when you first start dating. And like, as you get comfortable with someone, over time, you let your guard down. And like, if you're abusive, your abusive tendencies come out little by little, usually to coax the person, especially if you're trying to like. Keep them in. Have a long term relationship with them, and I'm not saying that it's always conscious, but Pella could have been doing the
same thing. Yeah. It's like, I don't think we necessarily need to see anyone in this film, including Danny, as all the way good or all the way bad. Absolutely like this movie. It doesn't have a side, it just as it has an observation. Yes. And I think because when people see a lot of things that they want to see happen happen, then they think, Oh well, this film maker agrees with me. Every point he makes has to be pointing in the same direction.
No, not necessarily. No, because you could make an argument for everyone to have to have lived or not been the sacrifice or like why they were had redeemable qualities, but also why they had qualities that made them eligible. You know, because even Danny wasn't like perfect main queen. You couldn't even swallow the damn fish. Girl. But to be honest, like, she was the only person who just let things happen to her. And in a way that's not always good in life to just let shit
happen to you. Yeah. But with just letting everything happen to her came that lack of judgement. And everyone else was judging except maybe Josh. Yeah, but he didn't listen. Danny didn't defy anything. She didn't necessarily, like, listen to everything that they said. But I felt like she was kind of the stand in for just acceptance and in a way maybe blind acceptance. Yeah. Again, when you're so damaged, the thing so opposite of what you were just in seems amazing.
Oh my God, it's just so many things going on in this movie. Yeah, man, some more. Guys go watch it. What are you smoking? For watch it, this one is hard because you know what I'm going to say an edible, OK, because I feel like a good body high would be good to keep you planted in the seat. But like maybe not a super indica edible. I don't know, like I feel like there's a lot of drug usage in this film, hallucinations and
shit. I feel like you kind of maybe want to be on that level to, to kind of vibe with the characters and like kind of the state of mind that they're in. Absolutely. There's a lot of impairment. Danny's also on sleeping pills quite a bit in this film. At the same time, there is so much in this movie that I don't want you to be so sooted off of like a super heavy indica that
you can't pay attention. With that said, you should watch this movie more than once because I did not get a lot of what I got on the fourth time watching it as I did on the 1st at all. Yeah, I had to watch it again, again and again, y'all, But yeah, I definitely would do an edible or I would dab. Like I would definitely dab and watch this movie because you just need to be absolutely toasted and then be like what the fuck am I watching?
And, like, for a real moment, for a second, I really appreciate how this movie demystifies suicide. Yeah. Yeah. And I know that I may have sounded like I don't like Harga calling them a cult and whatever I but I do think it's complicated. But I think a lot of people will come in judging the cult more harshly just because of that. Because in any judeo-christian religion, suicide is considered a sin or at the very least a moral.
And I like that this film, especially in the time that it did it in 2019, like when and we're more aware of mental health, it still showed suicide in this way. Because I believe in choice. Me too. And I know that a lot of people have a hard time with that. Yeah. That, you know, anyone taking their life, whether they're terminally ill or just, like,
super depressed. Yeah. But like, considering the times we're careening into now, some people need to get suicide demystified for them because we have this idea that it's this evil thing and everyone who does it is weak. And like what we're going through now as a nation and a world, I think we're going to see a lot more of it. And that's sad. That's a sad, harsh truth, but I do think that's going to happen. People have a capacity for what they have a capacity for it.
And it's not for you to decide like what what person can and what they can endure. Like that's just. Don't judge people for suicide is what I'm saying. It's all circumstantial as fuck and also none of our fucking business. Like, we just love and care for the person. And you can be sad that that person is gone, but I think that there has to be an understanding of like, OK, that's a deeply personal choice. And I think that, like, you know, that's like the last one
you want to exhaust. But again, like you said, in the times that we're in, some people feel like they can't make it through this type of shit, you know? Yeah, and unfortunately, like other people, will shame them if they catch on to the fact that they might be leaning in that direction. And that shame doesn't help. Just don't judge people for that shit. And I praise Ari Astor for having the nerve to depict that in this film in maybe not a positive light, but a neutral
light. A neutral light and again, it's not about necessarily positivity like at all. I think he points out, like you said, toxic positivity, leaning too much into just being like focusing on the good. But also like in moments like this, the neutralization of understanding a lot of these really heavy themes is important. We have a new way to discuss this instead of just kind of going to the same old conversation or like. Exactly.
Thumping in like the same point of like who know think about the people you love and like guilt tripping people. Like I already hate being here, now you want me to consider other people's feelings? What about mine right now? Like these are the only feelings I need to be considering. If Danny killed herself, would you have felt bad for Christian? No, I wouldn't like if that happened in the movie.
I wouldn't at all. And I think it's it's interesting to point out that we are never shown Danny judging her sister. Yeah. For the suicide, not that she shouldn't judge her in a way for killing her parents as well, but when you're obviously going through all of that, you're not thinking about that. But, like, Danny did not judge her sister's suicide. And I think Ari Oscar easily could have been, like, what would have made her do that? Why? Yeah. Why?
Yeah, there definitely could have been like an insertion of dialogue of just exactly what you're talking about. And he kept it pretty neutral as far as like handling that. Danny is a template for the world does not have a vendetta necessarily against you. It just is. Bad shit happens, good shit happens. It just is just. Is it just things happen like if they're good or bad? It really just depends on your POV. Yeah, what a deep ass movie.
This movie is so deep it could teach you about life, Bitch. Gender dynamics, power dynamics, Matriarchy. Matriarchy and patriarchy, yeah. Come on Cher, tell us more. Gaslighting the matriarchy, dammit. What am I doing on this chicken shit podcast hole? Yeah, dude, it's, it's so many themes and so layered and everyone obviously will go for the obvious one of just like cult and religion and shit, but it's way deeper than that. And the nationalism of it all. Yeah, you have too much damn
American pride. We do. There's too much pride in all white countries to be, to be frank, and in others. But it's very dangerous in the white countries because they unfortunately exert the most power. Yeah. What are you proud of? That sunburn. What are you proud of? What are you celebrating? Tell us. They're celebrating the capacity to drink milk. Why are the black people lactose? But Asian people are really lactose too. That's not even like anecdotal.
That's just there's. That's scientific data. Yeah, it's like all. I'm white, I'm pretty lactose intolerant. Interesting. Yeah, I mean, I really love it. So yeah, sorry, Andrew, when I have a pint of ice cream, I'd be farting. They're. Like I have a lot. Of there's a reason, they call it a Dutch oven. Netherlands, Sweden, same difference. I'm dead dude. No, I actually don't have a
problem with dairy. OK, before I embarrass myself any further, Happy May. Yeah, shout out to the May Queen. If someone has been pissing you off lately, stick that bitch in a bear suit and set him on fire. Yeah. And if you do? But if you do, you didn't hear it from me. We didn't tell you to do that. Stay scared and stay high. And sacrifice your ex. Yeah. Bye bye.