As visually stunning as Midsommar is, the film is saturated with horrible deaths that pack a punch in both shock factor and sheer gore. In fact, part of what makes Ari Aster's film so appealing for horror fans is the jaw-dropping nature of the characters' deaths.
The gory special effects are altogether nauseating, and in conjunction with the element of surprise, the film produces some killer death scenes. Of course, all of the brutal deaths in Midsommar are shocking, but some really drop a bombshell on the audience.
The film opens with the death of every member of the Ardor family except for Dani. On a mission to kill herself, Dani's sister Terri fills their home with carbon monoxide, resulting in the death of both Terri and their parents.
Given that Midsommar begins with the harrowing reveal of these three deaths, the audience barely has enough time to be shocked. However, the creepy audio and vivid shots of the corpses are certainly enough to make viewers' eyes widen, and the mortifying opening certainly lets them know what they are in for with Florence Pugh's best horror movie.
Connie's corpse is seen at the end of the film, but it is the director's cut that reveals what really happens to her. When she is supposedly being driven away to the airport, she is actually ritualistically drowned by cultists.
In the theatrical cut of Midsommar, Connie's death is a bit more ambiguous. While the fact that the cult kills her instead of driving her away is not altogether shocking for audience members who should already distrust the commune, it is jolting to see her hay-stuffed corpse in a wheelbarrow at the end of the film.
As punishment for taking a photo of sacred texts that elders had forbidden him from, an elder wearing Mark's face bludgeons Josh in the back of the head with a mallet.
Any viewer who's familiar with horror movie tropes might suspect that bad things would happen to Josh when he sneaks out to do the one thing that an elder of the cult specifically told him not to do. Still, an elder appearing to bludgeon him while wearing Mark's face makes for one of the scariest scenes in Midsommar. Seeing just Josh's foot sticking up from a patch of dirt toward the end of the film is no consolation.
Mark finds the need to relieve himself by urinating on a sacred tree, causing a cultist to lead him away. It is not until later in the film that his death by skinning is revealed when an elder turns up wearing his face.
Despite viewers knowing at this point that being taken away from the group by a cult member cannot be a good thing, Mark's death is not actually shown. This adds to the shock factor when the elder who kills Josh is wearing his face. This is also the first time that the film shows that a member of the friend group has died, and to use a cult member wearing his skin to do it is very disquieting.
Having reached the ripe old age of 72, Ylga engages in a ritual to kill herself by jumping off of a cliff. She dies on impact, her bloodied corpse bouncing off of the rock.
This is the first ritualistic death that the group of kids witnesses at the commune, and it is just as shocking for the audience as it is for them. Not only is the ritual itself a ghastly dose of culture shock, but the brilliant display of gore that accompanies it as Ylga's corpse hits the ground is sickening and one of the reasons that the movie is so visually stunning you could watch it on mute.
Dan is one of the two elders who kills themselves as a part of a ritual in one of the scariest Midsommar scenes viewers can't stop thinking about after watching the film. Rather than dying on impact like Ylga, though, Dan is left wailing in agony when he hits the ground before cultists bludgeon him to death.
Audiences are barely recovered from the shock of Ylga's ritualistic suicide when Dan jumps off of the cliff, too. This death is made significantly more gruesome when Dan does not die right away, leaving him in pure misery until the commune bash his head in with a mallet. This makes it seem like the disturbing scene will never end and introduces audiences to the true unforeseen brutality of the cult.
Christian stumbles upon Simon's corpse strung up in a barn. His lungs have been ripped out of his back, creating a haunting blood eagle display.
Simon having his lungs ripped out by cultists is quite the horrific way for him to meet his end. Even though his actual death happens offscreen, the stomach-churning blood eagle exhibition that his body becomes is definitely enough for viewers to both gasp and gag at the initial disturbance of the imagery.
After Dani catches Christian participating in a sex ritual with a young cultist, his fate is left in her hands as the May Queen. She chooses him as the last human sacrifice, and so he is stuffed into a dead bear and left to burn in a teepee.
Given that Dani assumes all of May Queen immediately after she catches Christian having sex with another woman, the fact that she puts him to death is not a huge surprise. However, the utter brutality of Christian being forced to wear a bear's corpse and then burning alive is quite the jarring conclusion to a heinously wondrous film.
