Florence Pugh made an impressive splash in 2019 with several high-profile acting roles. She starred in three feature films that year, including a remarkable turn as Amy March in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and the catapulting performance as Saraya “Paige” Knight in Fighting with My Family. But she dug her genre-transcending teeth into the lead role in Ari Aster’s Midsommar, his much-anticipated follow-up to the 2017 drama/horror film, Hereditary. Through an emotionally wrought performance, Pugh demonstrated the full scope of her range and blossomed into a bona fide superstar.
Midsommar put her on the map and led to bigger and even better things for the young actor. After enjoying a nice run on HBO Max, the tension-filled horror film leaves the popular streaming platform on October 31, 2026. When the clocks strike midnight on Halloween, Pugh’s wildest onscreen performance gets tucked away for another scary season—or finds its way onto another service. Now is the perfect time to watch (or re-watch) Pugh’s best performance to date and get into the spirit of Samhain.
Surprisingly, Pugh has not starred in many horror movies. Her other notable credit remains Olaf de Fleur Johannesson’s criminally overlooked 2018 supernatural horror flick, Malevolent, in which she stars as a scam medium that eventually learns that ghosts are real. She has also jumped around in the thriller sandbox for several iconic roles, such as in her part in Don’t Worry Darling, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, and the Dune films. Despite strong showings elsewhere, nothing is as career-defining as Midsommar and its stunning portrayal of a woman pushed to her limit.
Midsommar Is One Of Florence Pugh’s Most Disturbing Movies
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Pugh plays Dani, a woman reeling from the murder-suicide of her sister and parents. The opening sequence invites the viewer into her world of relationship turmoil with boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and the mental stress of her sister, who’s been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She blames herself for not answering her sister’s pleas for help, and the shocking revelation of her death sets up Dani’s strained emotional state within the very first 10 minutes. The entire film hinges on Dani and her psychological struggles, making the story both heartbreaking and disturbing.
When she accompanies Christian on a trip to Sweden for his graduate thesis, she encounters a cult during their multi-day solstice celebration. The quiet, secluded community preys upon the group, particularly Dani, who eventually becomes the May Queen. Her misery after the death of her whole family can be felt throughout the otherwise serene countryside. The cult exploit her vulnerability.
She’s a stranger in a strange land, and the cult members siphon her pain for power. That’s far more frightening than ghouls, goblins, or witches. The evil is insidious, and it eventually infects Dani in the finale when she chooses Christian to be sewn into a bear carcass and burned alive.
Why Midsommar Remains One Of The Best Horror Movies Of The 2010s
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The film made daylight terrifying again, with its focus on cult behavior, the transference of group-think, and gnawing deception from those who were supposed to protect you. While many critique the film as a carbon-copy of Hereditary, Midsommar takes different tonal and storytelling cues from numerous folk horror essentials, such as The Wicker Man, Alison’s Birthday, and Eyes of Fire. The writer/director also whittles his own unique perspective on the occult.
But the film also serves as a powerful allegory for heartbreak. “I’ve been asked, ‘What is it?’ and I’ve been happy saying it’s a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film,” Aster told SYFY in 2019. Various folk horror tricks help him tell that story. Those include elixirs that strip away one’s inhibitions; the focus on giving back to the next generation (i.e., jumping off a cliff when one enters old age); the incest-born oracle sketching images seen as prophecies; and the symbolic nature of fire.
Aster wraps these ideas and visual pillars to transmit a much more personal transformation out of unimaginable heartbreak, culminating in Christian being consumed by fire. He then suggests several questions to the audience: Do Christian’s sins warrant death by fire? Is Christian a victim, too? And does Dani now have blood on her hands? Considering the final frame of the film (i.e., Dani smiling), the answers seem to be a resounding yes, no, and no. Dani found the community she’d been needing and exorcised her pain like cutting out a tumor. Now, she can live the life she deserves.
By the early to mid-2010s, horror had already seen a reset. Paranormal films, outside The Conjuring universe, shifted toward weightier horror films. Robert Eggers’ 2015 folk horror movie, The Witch, triggered a genre switch and helped form the often maligned “elevated horror” term. Aster’s own Hereditary, as well as Jordan Peele’s Get Out, likewise contributed to the upwards trend.
In the sea of “elevated horror” movies, Midsommar does things most others do not. It takes a common, traditional subgenre and filters it through a more modern lens without sacrificing the creepy core of cults. While it appeals more to the mainstream, Midsommar ends up being far more terrifying than Hereditary and, quite frankly, more iconic.
Midsommar
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