You enter the theater along with your popcorn and soda, geared up to sit down for two hours of escapism. The lighting dims, the preview finishes, and the film starts. Within minutes, you’re immersed in a story filled with suspense, horror, and stressful imagery. Your heart races, your palms sweat, you cannot see away. That is precisely the thrill you crave from movies like Midsommar. The slow build of dread punctuated through surprising moments of violence keeps you on the brink of your seat. Movies like Midsommar supply the thrills and chills you simply can’t get enough of.
The Appeal of Movies Like Midsommar
Horror movies like Midsommar that feature unsettling topics and graphic imagery are appealing for numerous motives.
- Morbid Curiosity
There’s something strangely eye-catching about the macabre. We can not look away from a gory twist of fate scene or demanding news tale. The same morbid curiosity attracts us to frightening movies. We want to see things that make us uncomfortable, that we recognize will haunt us.
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- Catharsis
Watching terrifying films offers us an experience of catharsis. We are able to revel in frightening emotions at a secure distance, and then emerge unscathed. This cathartic impact is heightened in films like Midsommar that keep us in a state of dread and soreness for an extended period before presenting any remedy. The longer we take a seat with the pain, the more the eventual catharsis.
- Escapism
While the subject matters and images in a movie like Midsommar are unsettling, they also provide escapism. We are able to immerse ourselves in a world very exclusive from our normal reality. The strange rituals and pagan practices in the film transport us to a place a ways removed from the mundane.
Why We Can’t Get Enough of Cults in Movies Like Midsommar
There is something about cults that fascinates us. Maybe it is seeking to recognize how humans may be so without problems manipulated and controlled. Or maybe we find weird rituals and sinister leaders morbidly interesting from a safe distance. Whatever the reason, cults have been popular fodder for scary movies for years.
In 2019, the folk horror film Midsommar terrified audiences with its unsettling portrayal of a pagan cult in rural Sweden. As stressful as the movie is, we cannot look far away from the odd ceremonies and sacrifices. Part of the appeal is wondering how far the cult will go and see the protagonists get drawn deeper into the madness.
- Familiar Yet Unfamiliar
Cult movies also tap into our fear of the unfamiliar. A cult’s beliefs and practices are just familiar enough to seem plausible but strange enough to be deeply unsettling. In Midsommar, the cult includes violent acts beneath the guise of old Swedish traditions and folklore. This juxtaposition of the acquainted and surprising creates a feeling of wrongness that places us on the side.
- Loss of Control
Watching characters lose control of their situation and even their own minds is another reason we find cult thrillers so compelling. As intelligent and rational as we like to believe we are, cult movies remind us how vulnerable we can be to manipulation and mind control under the right circumstances. They make us wonder if we could also be slowly drawn into a cult without realizing what’s happening until it’s too late.
In the end, cult movies frighten us because they expose the darkness that exists inside all of us and in society as a whole. But they also remind us of our humanity – and make us grateful we have our freedom and individuality intact when the credits roll.
5 Movies Like Midsommar for the Thrills and Chills
It Comes at Night
Psychological horror movies like Midsommar specializes in a family in a post-apocalyptic world who takes in a desperate couple in search of shelter. Tensions upward shove as resources turn out to be scarce and faith breaks down. Like Midsommar, it has a slow-burning dread and themes of human nature at its worst.
The Night House
A widow begins experiencing abnormal phenomena in her lake residence and starts to uncover her late husband’s annoying secrets. This spooky, unsettling movie in a comparable folks’ horror style will leave you with chills like Midsommar.
The Ritual
Four friends reunite for a hiking journey in the forests of northern Sweden. After taking a shortcut through the woods, mysterious and sinister events spread. This British horror movie has a comparable creepy vibe and unnatural happenings in a Scandinavian wooded area setting.
The Witch
In 1630s New England, a family suspects that Satan is answerable for the disappearance of their newborn child. The movie has a similar unsettling tone and subject matters of isolation, paranoia and evil lurking in an isolated, near-knit network. Like Midsommar, you are left uncertain of what is actual or imagined.
Apostle
In early 1900s Britain, a man travels to a distant island looking for his sister who has been abducted by a sinister cult. This folk horror thriller evokes a similar experience of dread and the unknown. With strange rituals, gore and a confined setting, Apostle will satisfy the same craving for creepy thrills as Midsommar. Follow solarmovie for more!