Midsommar: Every Death, Ranked From Least To Most Shocking

The gory, gruesome, and utterly unforgettable Midsommar deaths are a key reason the 2019 horror movie from Ari Aster and A24 continues creating conversations. Midsommar is saturated with horrible deaths that pack a punch in both shock factor and sheer gore. No character death in Midsommar is a throwaway moment, with the Hårga cult killing off the cast one by one in accordance with their chilling traditions.

Florence Pugh stars in the terrifying A24 horror movie as Dani, the central protagonist and only main character who manages to survive until the Midsommar ending. However, Dani’s sanity is more-or-less shattered at the point the credits roll, and it’s all thanks to witnessing the many deaths in Midsommar, all of which defy both belief and horror movie convention. However, some Midsommar deaths are more disturbing than others, and it’s easy to see why the most shocking linger in the minds of many viewers years after watching.

Midsommar Deaths In Chronological Order:

8 The Ardor Family

Midsommar’s First Deaths Were More Tragic Than Shocking

Midsommar opens with the death of every member of the Ardor family except for Dani. Dani’s sister Terri (Klaudia Csányi) loses her ongoing battle with her mental health and decides to take her own life, filling the Ardor home with carbon monoxide. This doesn’t only result in the death of Terri, but her and Dani’s parents too. It’s a truly shocking moment to open Midsommar on, and a tragic one, though it pales in comparison to what’s to come.

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 deaths of the Ardor family certainly set the tone for the rest of the movie. There is also an interesting juxtaposition here, as the scenes depicting the death of Dani’s family are much darker and more dimly lit than most of the rest of the film.

The opening sequence was praised by many as a gut-wrenching and horrific start to the story. The tone of the movie is established very quickly with the intense conversations and growing anxiety that Dani feels. While the audience can sense something terrible is coming, the reveal that not only has Dani’s sister taken her own life but also killed her parents is a brutally emotional reveal. The grounded nature of the deaths compared to what follows adds to the impact.

7 Connie

Drowning Wasn’t A Shocking Death Compared To Others In Midsommar

Connie’s (Ellora Torchia) corpse is seen at the end of the film, but it is the director’s cut that reveals how Connie dies in Midsommar. When she is supposedly being driven away to the airport, she is actually ritualistically drowned by Hårga 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. In the context of the other Midsommar deaths, however, Connie’s fate feels relatively tame.

As a testament to its lesser impact in relation to the other characters, when Connie’s body is revealed at the end of the movie, it is almost a surprise because the audience forgot about her. She did not play much of the role in the movie before this part and her ending doesn’t add a lot more to the character. However, it is a tragic death as she was one of the rational people who wanted to get out of there immediately, yet didn’t understand just how much danger she was in.

6 Josh

Josh’s Death In Midsommar Came Quickly

Josh (William Jackson Harper) had a relatively quick Midsommar death, and it’s one that comes as a shock for two reasons — how swiftly it happens, and what the Hårga who kills him is wearing. As punishment for taking a photo of sacred texts that he was forbidden from viewing, a Hårga elder wearing Mark’s face bludgeons Josh in the back of the head with a mallet.

Midsommar viewers familiar with horror movie tropes might suspect that Josh was in for an unfortunate end 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.

There are a lot of inventive and grisly murders in Midsommar, but this is not one of them. While there is a brutality to the bluntness of the violent act, it also feels surprising that there wasn’t more to Josh’s end than just a quick hit in the head. Indeed, it is a death that is immediately overshadowed by the reveal of the mask of Mark’s face.

5 Mark

Midsommar Didn’t Show Mark Being Flayed Alive

Thankfully, Will Poulter’s character’s death in Midsommar isn’t shown on-screen, though the implications and aftermath later on in the movie — such as when Josh dies — show Mark had one of the most painful demises. 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 Midsommar that his death by having his skin removed 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 Midsommar shows that a member of the core character’s group has died, and to use a Hårga cult member wearing his skin to do it is very disquieting.

What makes this death more memorable even though it happens off-screen is that there is a slight comedic edge to it. Midsommar has a lot of dark humor, but Mark is particularly funny in how annoying and detestable he is. When he urinates on the sacred tree, it is clear bad things are coming his way and his nervousness because of this makes his impending doom strangely funny.

4 Ylva

The First Ritualistic Death In Midsommar Is Gruesome…

Despite Ylva (Katarina Weidhagen) not being one of the core group of friends in Midsommar, she still manages to have one of the most shocking deaths out of any that occur due to the Hårga’s murderous summer festival. Having reached the ripe old age of 72, Ylva 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 core group of Midsommar characters 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 Ylva’s corpse hits the ground is sickening.

While it is not the first death of the movie, it is the one that communicates to the audience and the main characters that there is something dark and deadly going on with this cult. It hints they might be in more danger than they thought.

3 Dan

… But Not As Gruesome As The Second

Dan (Björn Andrésen) is, alongside Ylva, one of the two elders who kills themselves as a part of a ritual in one of the scariest Midsommar scenes. Rather than dying on impact like Ylva, however, Dan is left wailing in agony when he hits the ground before cultists bludgeon him to death.

Audiences have barely recovered from the shock of Ylva’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 bashes 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.

Though Dan was a willing participant in the ritual, that does not protect him from the agony of the reality of what he chose to do. There is also a disturbing moment with the rest of the cult members mirroring his cries of pain as if to show that they are sharing this suffering with him. This is mirrored later in the movie with Dani’s own cries of anguish.

2 Simon

One Of The Most Brutal Midsommar Deaths Is Taken From The Pages Of History

Like Mark, the actual moment that Simon (Archie Madekwe) is killed, thankfully, isn’t one of the on-screen deaths in Midsommar. However, also like Mark, seeing the aftermath is enough to make it instantly one of the most shocking in the whole movie. His death is revealed when Christian (Jack Reynor) 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 off-screen, the stomach-churning blood eagle exhibition that his body becomes is definitely enough for viewers to both gasp and gag at the disturbing imagery. The blood eagle was traditionally a Viking method of execution and is notorious for being one of the most painful known ways to die in history.

While Simon is not a memorable character before he makes his exit, the death skill has a big impact. It is one of the most memorable images of the movie, with a mix of terror and beauty that is hard for the audience to shake. It adds to the surreal nature of the movie’s climax.

1 Christian

Dani Ensures The Final Midsommar Death Is Also The Most Shocking

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 — especially since the strangeness she’d already witnessed had likely desensitized her to the idea of human sacrifice.

Still, the fact that Christian is only sacrificed because Dani — the movie’s hero — commands it makes it the most shocking Midsommar death. Every other character’s death felt inevitable. Dani had a chance to save Christian, but chose not to due to his infidelity (which, it could also be argued, was coerced). What’s more, 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.

The image of Christian’s frozen and terrified face inside a bear skin as the flames surround him has become iconic, adding to the memorable nature of the death. It has also inspired one of the most debated aspects of the movie, with fans arguing whether Dani was right or wrong for making such a seemingly ruthless decision.

How The Deaths In Midsommar Compare To Ari Aster’s Other Films

Ari Aster has announced himself as one of the most exciting new filmmakers in recent years while being a particularly exciting voice in horror. As such, his movies have been unsettling and featured some memorable death scenes that rival some of the gruesome kills in Midsommar. Aster’s latest movie, Beau is Afraid, is his most violent in a way, but it comes off as less shocking before it is presented in a surreal comedic way that is easier to detach from compared to the deaths in Midsommar.

One prime example of this is that there is a death in Beau is Afraid that is similar to Dan’s death, jumping from a cliff. While the results are similarly gory, it doesn’t have the same impact as seeing Dan’s fall and painful aftermath because so little of the movie is grounded. By contrast, Aster’s Hereditary is a supernatural movie, yet it deals with its characters in an intimate way so their deaths are visceral even if they are over-the-top. Seeing Steve suddenly burst into flames or Annie gradually saw her head off are otherworldly deaths, but harrowing nonetheless.

However, there is one death in Aster’s career thus far, that of Charlie in Hereditary. The deaths of children in movies are always impactful, but Aster masterfully constructs Charlie’s memorable exit from the movie with the foreboding sense of doom and the intense anxiety of her brother, Peter, trying to save her life after she has an allergic reaction. However, for Charlie to suddenly get decapitated by a telephone pole while desperately sticking her head out of the car window is such a sudden and shocking moment that it has become an iconic horror movie death.