TRANSCRIPT HERE
Finishing up our Ari Aster-palooza! Let’s unpack Ari’s next traumatic experience of a film, 2019’s Midsommar. It’s a break-up movie, but not like most break up movies. We continue our discussion of grief and trauma in Ari’s cinematic world, and Midsommar’s themes of society’s view of life, death and family. It’s not all fun and games though, as we highlight the negative messages about disability and mental illness. Also, spoiler alert, Christian is a toxic, narcissistic prick. We talk about that too.
CONTENT WARNING: Murder, suicide, family death, ableism, decapitation, PTSD, panic attack, anxiety, disability used as horror, eugentics, rape, discussion of visual gore, mutilation, coercive control/emotional abuse/gaslighting, drug use, violence, dead animals, cults, pagan rituals, a bit of swearing. On top of that Steph talks about Dr Death at the beginning (discussion of botched surgeries). It’s a lot.
NOTE: This podcast is not designed to be therapeutic, prescriptive or constitute a formal diagnosis for any listener, nor the characters discussed. The host is not representative of all psychologists and opinions stated are her own personal opinion, based on her own learnings and training (and minimal lived experience). Host and co-hosts do not have the final say and can only comment based on their own perspectives, so please let us know if you dispute any of these opinions – we are keen for feedback!
Host: Stephanie Fornasier
Cohost: Michael Watson
Editor: Nicholas Fornasier
Music and artwork: Michael Watson
References!
The mash up of both endings side by side (if you want): Hereditary and Midsommar Ending (side-by-side) - YouTube
HORROR AND DIAGNOSIS: ON ARI ASTER
Exploring Depictions of Disability in 2018 Horror Movies
Hideous Progeny: Disability, Eugenics, and Classic Horror Cinema on JSTOR
The Atlantic: What Kind of Movie Ari Aster Wanted Midsommar to Be
The Guardian: Midsommar director Ari Aster: 'I often cling to dead things'
Vox: Ari Aster on his new film Midsommar: “I keep telling people I want it to be confusing”
Forbes: A Film Under the Influence: Gender, Homage And 'Midsommar'
Independent: Disabled children are not scary so please stop using able-bodied actors to portray them in horror films
Plymouth State University blog: Disability, Ari Aster, and the horror genre
Vulture: Midsommar interview with Ari Aster
The Guardian: Midsommar's ableism resurrects the dark history of eugenics-inspired horror
Episode 13: The Father, or let’s all experience dementia together
Episode 12b: The Simpsons Tackle Depression & Anxiety! Part 2: Was the Simpsons good for mental illness stigma? (with Nathan Phillips)
Episode 12a: The Simpsons Tackle Depression & Anxiety! Part 1: How The Simpsons evolved and shaped us (or didn’t) (with Nathan Phillips)
Episode 11b: The Royal Tenenbaums, or when shitty dads mess up their clever kids - Part 2: Wes-isms under a mental health lens (with Nic Fornasier)
Episode 11a: The Royal Tenenbaums, or when shitty dads mess up their clever kids - Part 1: The Family of Geniuses (with Nic Fornasier)
Episode 10: The Virgin Suicides, teen angst and mental illness through the male gaze (with Maz Fornasier)
Episode 9: Me Before You, voluntary assisted dying, and the devaluing of disability
Episode 8: The Queen’s Gambit, aka chess & drugs & Anya Taylor Joy (with Maz Fornasier)
Episode 7: Tully -aka Juno grows up and goes through post partum depression
Episode 6: Love Actually - about mental health and disability, actually.
Episode 5: Donnie Darko - schizophrenia or time travel?
Episode 4: Ratched VS One Flew Over the Cuckoo‘s Nest and the history of mental health instutions
Episode 3: Rain Man - Hollywood’s first autism movie
Episode 2: The Sopranos - lets have a very long chat about Tony Soprano and Dr Melfi
Episode 1: Joker - DC has things to say about mental illness
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