The New Midsommar Poster Gives Away Clever Spoilers

It’s not an advertisement for Coachella or another abysmal attempt at Fyre, but the next sneaky breadcrumb dropped by the genius marketing team behind Midsommar.  Take a look at the new faux poster for Ari Aster and A24 due out in less than 1 month.  If you look closely, spoilers are everywhere regarding what to expect and the horror that awaits.  Let’s unpack the many hidden meanings.

 First, the poster looks like a concert schedule of sorts for the festival of endless night.  Unless all of the bands are the most inventively named groups with zero social media presence ever, they are all fake and really just clues about the drama that will unfold.  The top is straightforward enough with years and Swedish words.  The first is the location of the event Halsingland.  This is a historical province of Sweden that is known for their beautifully decorated farmhouses and yearly celebrations of Midsommar.  The Swedish words next to the location translates to every ninety years which coincides with the years listed.  There is no significance to the initial year 1389 except for it is needed to calculate every ninety years to 2019.  
The next component of the poster are the three dates with phrases listed below which initially sound like bands or group activities.  On June 3rd, Most of these are specific references to characters as in “Siv and Ingemar”, although Siv is not listed as a character name on IMDB curiously, and quotes pulled directly from the trailer as in “acclimate”.  Julia Ragnarsson is not given a character name so likely she is the Siv in question.  Aster is a master at relationship complexity so seeing phrases like “Codependent Relationships” and “Fifth Wheel” conjures all kinds of tension building scenarios.  If that doesn’t pique your interest, “the finishing mallet” should.  That sounds all kinds of wrong.  The most interesting of this grouping is the “Tribe Called Harga”.  This is a reference to an old folk song about the Devil dressed as a fiddler who takes all the children of the community and forces them to dance until their bones fall out and they die.  It’s very grim stuff indeed.

July 4th is pulled from events seen in the trailer as well.  The dancing, shot taking, and hand clapping all take place in the titular trailer.  The only alarming things here are missing Simon and “Skin the Fool” which can’t be good for said fool.  Whether that be a symbolic fool and they skin a bear or pig, or one of our shell-shocked tourists it’s gonna be a bad day.
The final day July 5th reads like the descent into madness that it surely portends.  “Snot and Spittle” may be the best punk band name ever, but it is not something I wanted listed on a flyer of festivities I can expect.  The tick thing is a no go for me too.  Skal means cheers or bowel in Swedish so that could go either way I suppose.

With less than a month to speculate and only three weeks until Midsommer on June 22nd, there isn’t much time to buy your tickets for either the film event of the summer or the actual holiday.

Pagan Events and Strange Holidays

Midsommar is a real holiday and Aster likely pulled from both the current celebration and ancient holy days in creating his Harga group.  Some of the historical events were very secretive and just as disturbing.  Watch the trailer and listen for all the poster quotes.