So how did you feel about the ending of 'Midsommar'? (Spoilers)

[Maolfunction]

Nah, Christian is absolutely set up to look like a massive asshole. It's precisely because that he doesn't do something overtly horrible to Dany, but constantly gaslights her and leads her on when he was clearly done with their relationship before his girlfriend lost her whole family that I think he's a very realistic depiction of shitty men who get away with their abuse all the time.

Instead of just breaking it off, he allows the relationship to fester and build into a truly toxic situation. Dany has absolutely no support for her grief, but thinks she does because she believes she still has a relationship with Christian. He's a coward on top of being a shitheel.

Do I think he deserved to be burned alive? Maybe not literally, but the whole ending sequence of Midsommar is so heavily seeped in metaphor, I definitely think Dany was allowed to righteously set fire to that relationship. I read the whole infamous sex scene as metaphor for when a shitty partner goes to a party on their own, gets intoxicated, and ultimately cheats on their partner. It's still 100% on the shitty partner for having sex with someone else. I don't believe Christian was raped at all during the scene, he was totally into the idea long before he was drugged. The drugs just helped remove his inhibitions because, again, he's also a huge coward.

I think if you read Midsommar super literally, you can find some sympathy for Christian, but considering Ari Aster made the film partly to work through a toxic break up of his own, it makes it really difficult for me to not read the whole thing as a metaphor and ultimately I'm happy that Dany was able to get some sort of retribution for the abuse Christian put her through.

 

[Aurongel]

The truth is Dani just traded her codependency on her emotionally distant boyfriend for a codependency of an emotional cult who is going to choose her mate for her.

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That fits the themes of the film, does it not? People will always choose a toxic community (religion, the cult, etc) to fulfill their needs of emotional support over a bunch of uncaring secular people who can't be bothered to give the minimum amount of fucks for her wellbeing.

Unless that chosen mate thing was present in the text of the film then I think that's speculation on your part. I can't remember that being stated or implied at any point. It looks at one point that Pele was trying to seduce her but he volunteered to go up in flames at the end too.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

I read the ending as a bad-ending horror movie. It's the culmination of Dani moving from one dysfunctional family (one where her sister kills herself and their parents) to another (the cult which kills their elders and sacrifices some of their other members.) I simply can't read it as Dani taking revenge on Christian because such a reading (punishing a sexual assault victim for being assaulted) is abhorrent.

 

[Aurongel]

...It's still 100% on the shitty partner for having sex with someone else. I don't believe Christian was raped at all during the scene, he was totally into the idea long before he was drugged.

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Ehh, flip Christian's gender and then this notion becomes super icky. It almost gets into "but did you see what she was wearing?" territory. Whether he did or didn't want to cheat to the extent that he did is speculation on the part of the viewer. What is however 100% clear is that he was absolutely unable to consent to any part of what happened to him from the dinner table scene onward.

 

[AliceAmber]

wrong thread

 

[Deleted member 54292]

It was pretty fucked. Dude was dosed out of his mind, raped, and then burned alive. Fuck that ending. Being distant and a kinda shitty boyfriend did not mean he deserved that shit. That movie was so cool until it turned into just another crazy cult movie.

 

[Maolfunction]

Oh, speaking of movies that have their characters turn to cult like organizations to deal with grief, if you enjoyed Midsommar at all, I would highly recommend checking out the Korean film Secret Sunshine. It deals with the same sort of grief coping as Midsommar, just without the horror aesthetic. A very good film that I've been recommending to people who liked Midsommar.

 

[BlueTsunami]

I dug it, it's was a liberation in the most disturbing way conveyed. It condenses all the anger and resentment in a fractured relationship in a single sequence.

 

[Mr Spasiba]

Kinda hated it tbh. It's hard to feel anything when your entire cast of victims seem to lack any sort of agency. I get the implication is they're being drugged (with and without their knowledge), but no matter what they're always just kinda hanging out and not really doing anything so when they die it's just kind of a shrug. The messaging felt a little weird at the end too cause I just felt bad for the boyfriend, sure it was a bad relationship but he wasn't really a bad guy, he was just checked out and kind of a douche. I thought the opening sequence with her making all the phone calls was way better. Shot beautifully though.

 

[Kreve]

The hidden imagery in this film was wild and disturbing.

 

[StrangerDanger]

The truth is Dani just traded her codependency on her emotionally distant boyfriend for a codependency of an emotional cult who is going to choose her mate for her.

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This. It's that simple.

....

I think if you read Midsommar super literally, you can find some sympathy for Christian, but considering Ari Aster made the film partly to work through a toxic break up of his own, it makes it really difficult for me to not read the whole thing as a metaphor and ultimately I'm happy that Dany was able to get some sort of retribution for the abuse Christian put her through.

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He made the movie during the breakup. He has said that the movie itself doesn't represent his ex or the relationship. He got lost in Swedish folklore and thus how it all got created. I think they just heavily used breakups and relationships in regards to Aster as a big marketing ploy, a very big one that every piece of media used to talk about this film.

It's a very basic cult film. But shot very very beautifully.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

Nah, Christian is absolutely set up to look like a massive asshole. It's precisely because that he doesn't do something overtly horrible to Dany, but constantly gaslights her and leads her on when he was clearly done with their relationship before his girlfriend lost her whole family that I think he's a very realistic depiction of shitty men who get away with their abuse all the time.

Instead of just breaking it off, he allows the relationship to fester and build into a truly toxic situation. Dany has absolutely no support for her grief, but thinks she does because she believes she still has a relationship with Christian. He's a coward on top of being a shitheel.

Do I think he deserved to be burned alive? Maybe not literally, but the whole ending sequence of Midsommar is so heavily seeped in metaphor, I definitely think Dany was allowed to righteously set fire to that relationship. I read the whole infamous sex scene as metaphor for when a shitty partner goes to a party on their own, gets intoxicated, and ultimately cheats on their partner. It's still 100% on the shitty partner for having sex with someone else. I don't believe Christian was raped at all during the scene, he was totally into the idea long before he was drugged. The drugs just helped remove his inhibitions because, again, he's also a huge coward.

I think if you read Midsommar super literally, you can find some sympathy for Christian, but considering Ari Aster made the film partly to work through a toxic break up of his own, it makes it really difficult for me to not read the whole thing as a metaphor and ultimately I'm happy that Dany was able to get some sort of retribution for the abuse Christian put her through.

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Hard disagree.

Their relationship was distant, not toxic or abusive. And I don't see how you can possibly dismiss the sexual assault. I don't recall a single scene where Christian encouraged Maja's interesting while he was capable of consenting.

 

[djplaeskool]

I think I spent the last half hour of the movie with my hands over my mouth in sheer disbelief.
I had to pause the movie a couple times just to stand up and process the imagery I was being presented with.
The fire was the cauterizing of her emotional wounds. It was one of her only command decisions in the entire movie.

It was challenging, disturbing, and beautiful.
I fucking loved it.

 

[Maolfunction]

Whether he did or didn't want to cheat to the extent that he did is speculation on the part of the viewer.

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That's sort of the thing with films. People can have different interpretations of it and both can be valid. To me, I read all of Christian's prior interactions with the girl as flirting, he was never explicitly and firmly against her approaches. He knew what she wanted and let the situation build to its natural conclusion because he wanted it too.

I thought the film was pretty explicit in setting up Christian as a cheater, but can see how people can completely read him differently.

 

[nitewulf]

Also poor Chidi. Poor, poor Chidi.

 

[Odesu]

I read the ending as a bad-ending horror movie. It's the culmination of Dani moving from one dysfunctional family (one where her sister kills herself and their parents) to another (the cult which kills their elders and sacrifices some of their other members.) I simply can't read it as Dani taking revenge on Christian because such a reading (punishing a sexual assault victim for being assaulted) is abhorrent.

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The boyfriend was raped and set on fire for it. I don't mind horrifying things happening in horror movies, but what I don't like is the tone. This movie presents the rape as a joke and as his death a justified punishment. For that I hate this movie and side eye anyone who praises it.

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That's really not the reading at all for me.

Dani doesn't take revenge on anyone. She doesn't kill Christian because he had Sex with someone else (and how the movie presents anything happening "as a joke" escapes me completely) - she kills him because this is a fucked up Coming Of Age story showing how a fearful character who has been gaslit and unable to stand up for herself all her life learns to do so by the end. Christian is very clearly painted as a dreadful person the whole movie - someone who doesn't really care for Dani at all but is instead together with her because he is too much of a coward to break it off. He doesn't want to spend time with her, he has no regard for what she wants or needs and instead constantly uses the fact that she is emotionally unstable and unable to stand up for what she wants out of a fear of being rejected to come out on top.

That entire scene where Dani confronts him for not telling her about the trip to sweden shows this perfectly. What Christian did here was fucked up: He planned an entire vacation without even telling his long-time girlfriend about it. By the end of that scene, however, it is Dani who is apologizing and trying to smooth things over by taking responsibility on herself, making herself the bad guy and who is telling Christian that he did nothing wrong. Christian does this again and again: He fucks something up but then uses Dani's dependancy to gaslight her into thinking that whatever happened was her fault all along.

Dani deciding to burn Christian at the end isn't a happy end because that is a rational thing to do and movie watchers want people like Christian to literally burn to death. It's a happy end because the main character of the movie finally, maybe for the first time in her life, doesn't apologize for what she wants and starts standing up for herself. FOr the first time in the movie, she is happy. She loves Christian. Christian clearly doesn't love her but uses her love for him to live a comfortable live, unable to break it off because of his cowardice. The entire subplot of him stealing the theme of their academic work from his friend while at the same time acting like he did absolutely nothing wrong and didn't really "intend" to do that is only there to reinforce this.

It's a movie steeped in metaphors. It's not meant to be read literally as "Asshole Boyfriends like Christian should all be burned alive". This isn't about Christian - he is merely the personification of a wide-ranging issue. Since this is a cult horror movie, Dani doesn't just break it off with him at the end. The effect from a storytelling perspective however is the same - Christian exits the story and Dani finishes her journey. Whether Christian is burnt alive or Dani breaks up with him: The message is the same. The difference is simply the genre it is written around.

 

[Carnby]

The boyfriend was raped and set on fire for it. I don't mind horrifying things happening in horror movies, but what I don't like is the tone. This movie presents the rape as a joke and as his death a justified punishment. For that I hate this movie and side eye anyone who praises it.

 

[HiLife]

It was twisted and the rape scene was uncomfortable as hell.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

That's really not the reading at all for me.

Dani doesn't take revenge on anyone. She doesn't kill Christian because he had Sex with someone else - she kills him because this is a fucked up Coming Of Age story showing how a fearful character who has been gaslit and unable to stand up for herself all her life learns to do so by the end. Christian is very clearly painted as a dreadful person the whole movie - someone who doesn't really care for Dani at all but is instead together with her because he is too much of a coward to break it off. He doesn't want to spend time with her, he has no regard for what she wants or needs and instead constantly uses the fact that she is emotionally unstable and unable to stand up for what she wants out of a fear of being rejected to come out on top.

That entire scene where Dani confronts him for not telling her about the trip to sweden shows this perfectly. What Christian did here was fucked up: He planned an entire vacation without even telling his long-time girlfriend about it. By the end of that scene, however, it is Dani who is apologizing and trying to smooth things over by taking responsibility on herself, making herself the bad guy and who is telling Christian that he did nothing wrong. Christian does this again and again: He fucks something up but then uses Dani's dependancy to gaslight her into thinking that whatever happened was her fault all along.

Dani deciding to burn Christian at the end isn't a happy end because that is a rational thing to do and movie watchers want people like Christian to literally burn to death. It's a happy end because the main character of the movie finally, maybe for the first time in her life, doesn't apologize for what she wants and starts standing up for herself. FOr the first time in the movie, she is happy. She loves Christian. Christian clearly doesn't love her but uses her love for him to live a comfortable live, unable to break it off because of his cowardice. The entire subplot of him stealing the theme of their academic work from his friend while at the same time acting like he did absolutely nothing wrong and didn't really "intend" to do that is only there to reinforce this.

It's a movie steeped in metaphors. It's not meant to be read literally as "Asshole Boyfriends like Christian should all be burned alive". This isn't about Christian - he is merely the personification of a wide-ranging issue. Since this is a cult horror movie, Dani doesn't just break it off with him at the end. The effect from a storytelling perspective however is the same - Christian exits the story and Dani finishes her journey. Whether Christian is burnt alive or Dani breaks up with him: The message is the same. The difference is simply the genre it is written around.

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You did see where I said "I simply can't read it" as revenge, right?

 

[Odesu]

You did see where I said "I simply can't read it" as revenge, right?

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I somehow did not, my eyes probably glazed from one line to the other, sorry! Thanks for providing me with a jumping off point for that post, though :D

 

[SugarNoodles]

Christian was an awful person and I was still really uncomfortable with the predatory nature of the fertility orgy and paralysis.

 

[Deleted member 54292]

Shoutouts to that old dude jumping feet first off the cliff like a damn weirdo. You grow up knowing this will have to be done, head first dive off that cliff lmao

 

[Clefargle]

Weak sleepy boring and predictable

 

[More_Badass]

Dani wasn't the antagonist. She's always the victim, and the ending is really depressing and fucked up. The cult's predatory "empathy" is just as manipulative and twisted as Christian's domestic gaslighting

 

[Heshinsi]

The part I don't get is that the cult had selected Christian for the fertility rape ceremony, and they make a show of not wanting Dani to actually see what they were doing with Christian. So if Dani doesn't run to where Christian was, how were they planning to get her to pick him for the final sacrifice?

Edit: ok I remembered that Dani got to "choose" the sacrifice because she became the May Queen or whatever, so maybe they were planning for someone else to win, and that someone would have picked Christian.

 

[Deleted member 25606]

I just enjoyed it for being a really good cult horror film in a horror sub-genre that already doesn't get many films, and the relatively few that do get made are usually pretty shitty. So getting a beautifully shot well acted one from a director who cares about his work is a blessing.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

The part I don't get is that the cult had selected Christian for the fertility rape ceremony, and they make a show of not wanting Dani to actually see what they were doing with Christian. So if Dani doesn't run to where Christian was, how were they planning to get her to pick him for the final sacrifice?

Edit: ok I remembered that Dani got to "choose" the sacrifice because she became the May Queen or whatever, so maybe they were planning for someone else to win, and that someone would have picked Christian.

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I didn't feel that the cult was that strategic. They would have gone with whoever was the May Queen and they would have been fine with whoever the May Queen picked, they already had what they needed (the new genetic material from Christian.)

 

[Deleted member 2840]

I don't believe Christian was raped at all during the scene, he was totally into the idea long before he was drugged.

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You do realize how disgusting you're sounding right now? You can apply that phrase to a bunch of other rape situations.
"Well officer I don't believe I raped her because, before I roofied her, she was flirting with me at the bar"
Get out with that shit

 

[march_in_march]

Really thought I'd enjoy this one since I really liked Hereditary but I ended up feeling more annoyed throughout the movie than anything else. Not sure how different the Director's Cut is (the one I watched) compared to the original but overall I just felt underwhelmed. It even had me thinking the whole ceremony every 90 years or wtv is nonsense because had that group of friends not gone (especially since Dani was literally last second) or no one from the cult was able to convince people to go, what happens then? Self sacrifices? Why not just do that from the start then? I don't know it just felt overly forced.

Also why make the visitors spend a few days thinking it's all legit instead of just killing, raping and brainwashing them right away?No instead let's trick them into eating some pubic pie just to get you ready for some fuckery.

 

[Manbig]

I feel like a lot of you here missed on some of the key thematic aspects in regards to why the cult is tempting for Dani by the end the film.

She never grieves properly after the traumatic event in the beginning of the film, is generally an emotional wreck, and she is getting nothing to help with any of it from her boyfriend, who seems more unequipped to handle it more than anything else.

Those very odd scenes that show that the cult all emote together, for example crying along with Dani, shows that they give her a form of empathy that she probably never experienced from her boyfriend.

This is why she chooses the cult in the end. The slow smile is probably the only instance in the whole movie where she is genuinely happy.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

It was perfect. And the crescendo/dark turn of the music was perfect.

When I initially saw this in theatres, I saw this as a strangely happy ending because Dani finally cut ties with her emotionally distant boyfriend. However, the more I thought about it, I actually felt incredibly guilty for feeling this way, and now I feel that Dani is intended to be the antagonist in this story.

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I feel like this is a testament to the movie's ability to mess with your moral compass. I kind of felt like I drank the kool-aid while watching it. I was totally taken for a ride. The inhumane shit happening set against the strikingly beautiful sunny backdrop helped.

 

[Dr. Monkey]

I like the movie a lot - it's not perfect, and everyone is dumb, but I think it was just heavily playing with theme and metaphor so I don't take a lot of it as literal, per se. I like that the characters were all deeply flawed. Like yes, Swedish friend who lured them there was terrible but he wouldn't think so. Christian was terrible but also a victim. Josh was great until he decided to throw ethics out the window and do whatever-the-fuck he wanted without research participant consent - hated it, made me super mad, but I could buy it because he thought he had a great angle that he felt was being stolen, which drove him to a terrible decision.

I had feelings about the depictions of grad students overall, as a grad student (both great and not great moments for them, re: realism) but overall, I felt the ending worked well thematically.

 

[Maolfunction]

You do realize how disgusting you're sounding right now? You can apply that phrase to a bunch of other rape situations.
"Well officer I don't believe I raped her because, before I roofied her, she was flirting with me at the bar"
Get out with that shit

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You're completely ignoring the rest of my post that explains that I viewed the scene as a metaphorical representation of a situation where a shitty partner goes to a party, putting themself into a situation where they know they're very likely to cheat.

It's a film that explores the consequences of toxic relationships in a challenging way. I don't interpret the sex scene as literal. If I did, yes, what happens to Christian there is abhorrent. But taken as a metaphor where I believe Ari sets Christian up to be a cowardly cheater who refuses to take accountability for anything that he does, I find the scene absolutely condemns Christian's behavior leading up to him being in that room.

 

[deimosmasque]

That fits the themes of the film, does it not? People will always choose a toxic community (religion, the cult, etc) to fulfill their needs of emotional support over a bunch of uncaring secular people who can't be bothered to give the minimum amount of fucks for her wellbeing.

Unless that chosen mate thing was present in the text of the film then I think that's speculation on your part. I can't remember that being stated or implied at any point. It looks at one point that Pele was trying to seduce her but he volunteered to go up in flames at the end too.

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They talk about it earlier when they mention that incest happens. The community is so small mates are picked by the leaders to try to avoid incest.

It's also the scene they mention that they occasionally adopt outsiders.

 

[Dr. Monkey]

I feel like a lot of you here missed on some of the key thematic aspects in regards to why the cult is tempting for Dani by the end the film.

She never grieves properly after the traumatic event in the beginning of the film, is generally an emotional wreck, and she is getting nothing to help with any of it from her boyfriend, who seems more unequipped to handle it more than anything else.

Those very odd scenes that show that the cult all emote together, for example crying along with Dani, shows that they give her a form of empathy that she probably never experienced from her boyfriend.

This is why she chooses the cult in the end. The slow smile is probably the only instance in the whole movie where she is genuinely happy.

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Yes! The emoting and experiencing together - even when it was for something she found horrifying (the impregnation sequence, for instance) offered her a chance to take this insurmountable pain and give it up to a collective, where it is amplified, spread, and felt, really felt (to her; by definition that would be somewhat shallow because it's more like mimicry)... yeah, it was a perfect storm of things that would appeal to her in that moment, along with everything about renewal and growth.

 

[Camwi]

I loved the ending, but no way was that a happy ending in any way. Dani may have overcome all those bad emotions, but she did it by becoming a fucking murderous cult leader.

 

[Mobu]

Burn his ass, queen

 

[NeverWas]

Conceptually, I thought it was pretty brilliant... but I didn't actually enjoy the film that much.

 

[Batatina]

Dani is as drugged when making that final decision as Christian was when he was seduced. In the end they are both victims of the cult, and the movie does not show how Dani's feelings evolve about her decision when the drugs wear off and she's left there.

Sure Christian was awful and she felt that release under the influence and felt happiness and inclusion in the group, but I think interpreting that in separation from the drugs isn't fair to the character.

 

[Conal]

Nah, Christian is absolutely set up to look like a massive asshole. It's precisely because that he doesn't do something overtly horrible to Dany, but constantly gaslights her and leads her on when he was clearly done with their relationship before his girlfriend lost her whole family that I think he's a very realistic depiction of shitty men who get away with their abuse all the time.

Instead of just breaking it off, he allows the relationship to fester and build into a truly toxic situation. Dany has absolutely no support for her grief, but thinks she does because she believes she still has a relationship with Christian. He's a coward on top of being a shitheel.

Do I think he deserved to be burned alive? Maybe not literally, but the whole ending sequence of Midsommar is so heavily seeped in metaphor, I definitely think Dany was allowed to righteously set fire to that relationship. I read the whole infamous sex scene as metaphor for when a shitty partner goes to a party on their own, gets intoxicated, and ultimately cheats on their partner. It's still 100% on the shitty partner for having sex with someone else. I don't believe Christian was raped at all during the scene, he was totally into the idea long before he was drugged. The drugs just helped remove his inhibitions because, again, he's also a huge coward.

I think if you read Midsommar super literally, you can find some sympathy for Christian, but considering Ari Aster made the film partly to work through a toxic break up of his own, it makes it really difficult for me to not read the whole thing as a metaphor and ultimately I'm happy that Dany was able to get some sort of retribution for the abuse Christian put her through.

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Borderline psychotic post. Being sexually attracted to someone is not an indiction you will cheat on your girlfriend to fuck them. He was 100% raped.

 

[Deleted member 2085]

You're completely ignoring the rest of my post that explains that I viewed the scene as a metaphorical representation of a situation where a shitty partner goes to a party, putting themself into a situation where they know they're very likely to cheat.

It's a film that explores the consequences of toxic relationships in a challenging way. I don't interpret the sex scene as literal. If I did, yes, what happens to Christian there is abhorrent. But taken as a metaphor where I believe Ari sets Christian up to be a cowardly cheater who refuses to take accountability for anything that he does, I find the scene absolutely condemns Christian's behavior leading up to him being in that room.

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The thing is him being a shitty person does not make his "punishment" in any way justifiable.

Burn his ass, queen

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yikes

 

[LilScooby77]

Anyone agree that her family was murdered by the cult? One question I don't think Ari has answered yet.

 

[Maolfunction]

The thing is him being a shitty person does not make his "punishment" in any way justifiable.

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Do I think he deserved to be burned alive? Maybe not literally, but the whole ending sequence of Midsommar is so heavily seeped in metaphor, I definitely think Dany was allowed to righteously set fire to that relationship.

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[GorgeousPrettyBeauty]

I think people have it too ingrained in their head that protagonist = good main character and antagonist = bad villain character. They don't have to be people.

The protagonist of the movie is Dani's trauma. It propels the plot forward and every decision she makes for the majority of the movie. The antagonist of the movie is her PTSD. It creeps up whenever Dani is stressed, not supported, or her faculties are lowered. It pushes her back and makes her regress. It makes her want to derail herself from the plot.

Her quest, unconscious or not, is to overcome the trauma that's holding her back. And Christian is a great and convenient metaphor being a big old bag of apathetic white boy holding her back. And that's why he had to roast. What narrative satisfaction is there if she goes through the process of shedding the past only to pick the unknown village guy to die instead and Christian gets to continue to skate by through life.

 

[deimosmasque]

I feel like a lot of you here missed on some of the key thematic aspects in regards to why the cult is tempting for Dani by the end the film.

She never grieves properly after the traumatic event in the beginning of the film, is generally an emotional wreck, and she is getting nothing to help with any of it from her boyfriend, who seems more unequipped to handle it more than anything else.

Those very odd scenes that show that the cult all emote together, for example crying along with Dani, shows that they give her a form of empathy that she probably never experienced from her boyfriend.

This is why she chooses the cult in the end. The slow smile is probably the only instance in the whole movie where she is genuinely happy.

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This as well

 

[Basarili]

I really liked and hated the movie.
Lets be honest no matter what a normal person would walk right after the two oldies jump to death. No matter what religion/cult you're in I would leave the place and say goodbye to my friend who brough us there. They all standed and looked as if nothing happened or like oh wait it's there tradition....

There are soo much details in the movie.
But what I wonder the most what happened to Dani at the end of the credits. She was drugged right? So will she be normal again and can she leave the cult when she wants and can?

I loved the ending to this movie. Very well done. And yeah the people who don't realize he was raped get a hmmmm from me.

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How on earth was he getting raped? I mean he was the one volunteerly going for her (although I'll be honest they cheated as they drugged him) Does that rape part come when they touch him and support him?

 

[bounchfx]

oh weird timing. just watched this last night! uhhhhhhhhh fuckin weird movie

 

[Deleted member 51845]

Unless I was seeing things, I started to see the structure of the movie around a failing relationship as a whole.

The honeymoon phase: Traveling, drugs, friends, festival.
Ignoring signs of abuse: Old villagers jumping off cliff
Denial: Staying with the cult and trying to understand their culture is just different.
The point of no return: The boyfriend "Cheating" (Being raped by cult).
The break up: The burning of the boyfriend.

Because I saw it like that, its more of an over-exaggeration of a relationship so killing the boyfriend makes sense. I think in the context of the movie, he was shitty but definitely didn't deserve to die.

 

[Heshinsi]

I didn't feel that the cult was that strategic. They would have gone with whoever was the May Queen and they would have been fine with whoever the May Queen picked, they already had what they needed (the new genetic material from Christian.)

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I doubt Christian would have been left alive had he not been picked, and I also doubt a cult May Queen would have selected a member of the cult to be sewn into a bear and roasted alive, over Christian the outsider.

I really liked and hated the movie.
Lets be honest no matter what a normal person would walk right after the two oldies jump to death. No matter what religion/cult you're in I would leave the place and say goodbye to my friend who brough us there. They all standed and looked as if nothing happened or like oh wait it's there tradition....

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There are two individuals who said "yeah fuck this we're out" after that moment, and they both ended up getting killed.

 

[petethepanda]

That last shot. That last shot. One the most wildly effective fades I can think of. I was back and forth on the movie but that final moment retroactively sold me on the whole thing and single-handedly raised my rating by a couple points.

I guess I didn't put much thought into the "so now she's in this awful cult?" aspect of it. By those final moments it felt like it was 100% about the more abstract emotional catharsis and not so much the literal details of the plot and where things go from there.