“Losing your head” (as in the horrific beheadings in Ari Aster’s troubling masterpiece, Hereditary) is what can happen under the severe distress and hell of unimaginable trauma. You can’t think about it. That’s why you dissociate. But when one trauma after another hits you hard … your old traumas come flooding back, and your helplessness and terror drive you right out of your mind …

Dani suffers unimaginable trauma in Ari Aster’s Midsommar. The sudden murder/suicide of her parents and sister. Terrifying. Unstoppable. Unthinkable. She’s now an orphan. A trauma that brings such terrible grief, Dani can’t allow herself to feel it …Dani’s vulnerable. Starving. Open prey to being seduced into a place where she seems wanted, but not really for herself. AND. Where she lands …