As a genre, horror is supposed to make audiences feel uncomfortable. The skin-tingling feeling of suspense when viewers know a terrifying scare is right around the corner, or the sickening sensation when a disturbing visual is presented on screen, can not only generate some of the most visceral audience reactions but also nail whatever themes a director wishes to convey without reserve. Stanley Kubrick‘s eerie, slow-burning The Shining, William Friedkin‘s overwhelming presentation of evil in The Exorcist, or John Carpenter‘s use of prosthetics in The Thing all stand as shining examples of when horror has unnerved its viewers in the best way possible.
In the modern day, Ari Aster has embodied this idea of using the horror genre as a tool to communicate poignant yet disturbing ideas, with Hereditary being one of the best debut features of any director. However, his later work, Midsommar, was also hailed for its distressing visuals and creepy folk-horror tone. When one of the most famous hosts in all of television revealed what made them so anxious about watching Midsommar, it was for a reason many would not expect. Yet, if you look just a little deeper, it actually reveals one of the more subtle details of Midsommar‘s dark facade.
Conan O’Brien Was “Upset” By the Lack of Food in ‘Midsommar’
Food in film can always be used to great effect. It can be disgusting, as seen in The Substance, and be one of the most intriguing parts of a scene, such as the strudel in Inglourious Basterds. In Midsommar, many viewers remember the scene where Christian (Jack Reynor) unknowingly eats a pie containing Maja’s (Isabelle Grill) pubic hair, as part of a love spell practiced in the village. However, former late-night and Academy Awards host Conan O’Brien had a very different reason for being unsettled by the food in Midsommar.
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During an interview with A24 and Letterbox for “The List,” O’Brien and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You director Mary Bronstein sat down to discuss some of the significant films in their life and their viewing habits, from the first film they watched to whether they would watch any movie in 4DX. One of those questions asked each of them to name the “Most Stressful Movie You’ve Ever Seen.” Bronstein’s answer was rather self-explanatory, claiming it to be Adam Sandler and the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems, whereas O’Brien named Midsommar because of the sparse amounts of food on the tables during meal scenes. O’Brien explained how “Oddly, the thing that probably stressed me the most is whenever they would have those big scenes where they put out food. There’s not enough food. And that upsets me because I come from a large family, and if I had sat there with my brothers and sisters, and they just put out some hazelnuts and some grapes, I’d have started killing people.”
At first, one might chalk this up to O’Brien being the typically relatable personality everyone has known him to be. Even though I am not from a big family, I do come from a family of big eaters. So I, like many, can empathize with the guessing game that occurs every year when the family gets together and must decide how much food is too little or too much, inevitably leading to more than any sane person could eat. However, there is another way to examine O’Brien’s reaction that lends credibility to the overall tone established in Midsommar. The scarcity of food on the table in these scenes emphasizes how something always feels off in Midsommar and contrasts the epic scale of the more disturbing scenes, like when Dani (Florence Pugh) engages in the ritualistic maypole dance around the giant tower of flowers. It also brings attention to the food, which is key for the aforementioned pie-eating scene.
It’s always enjoyable to hear unique reactions to acclaimed films like Midsommar, and O’Brien is certainly nothing if not unique. While it is not out of the realm of possibility for others to have had the same thought, hearing it spoken aloud by someone of O’Brien’s stature in Hollywood brings attention to the lack of food presented in Ari Aster’s modern classic. In the end, it allows us to take another perspective on Aster’s work, and find deeper layers to the mise en scène that may have missed many viewers’ attention on a first viewing.
Midsommar is available to watch on HBO Max in the U.S.
- Release Date
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July 3, 2019
- Runtime
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147 minutes
