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Forget ‘Obsession,’ This Intense 7-Year-Old HBO Max Film Changed Horror
Collider argues that Ari Aster’s 2019 film Midsommar remains a defining horror portrayal of toxic relationships, particularly when compared with the newer film Obsession. It says both films address men’s control over women, but presents Midsommar as the more accomplished and influential work because it combines psychological horror with a critique of gaslighting, manipulation and emotional neglect.
In Midsommar, Florence Pugh plays Dani Ardor, whose family dies in a murder-suicide while she is trapped in an unsupportive relationship with Christian, played by Jack Reynor. Christian reluctantly brings Dani on a trip to Sweden with his friends, where his lack of respect for her and others becomes increasingly apparent; the article notes that the film was Aster’s follow-up to Hereditary and is now available on HBO Max.
In short
- Midsommar is praised as a landmark horror film about toxic relationships.
- Dani faces grief alongside Christian’s manipulation and indifference.
- The 2019 Ari Aster film is available on HBO Max.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Midsommar can reasonably be seen as a more powerful examination of coercive and emotionally neglectful relationships because it makes Dani’s grief, isolation and Christian’s indifference central to the horror. Its defenders would argue that Ari Aster uses the genre’s heightened imagery to convey the destabilising effects of gaslighting and unequal emotional labour, while Florence Pugh’s performance gives the film lasting cultural and psychological force.
The case against
Calling Midsommar definitively more accomplished or influential than Obsession is necessarily subjective, and risks treating one style of horror as inherently superior to another. A thoughtful opposing view would hold that newer films can explore male control over women through different tones, structures or levels of realism, and that a film’s value should not be measured chiefly by its cultural reputation or the scale of its symbolism.
Explained simply
Midsommar is a 2019 horror film directed by Ari Aster, who made Hereditary. Florence Pugh plays Dani, a young woman grieving a family tragedy, and Jack Reynor plays Christian, her boyfriend.
The story follows Dani and Christian as they travel with his friends to a remote Swedish community for a midsummer festival. Their relationship is already strained, and the trip brings its problems into sharper focus as the group encounters the community’s unfamiliar customs.
The film combines disturbing events with a portrayal of grief and an unhealthy relationship. Its attention to emotional neglect and manipulation has made it a reference point in discussions of how horror films depict control between partners.
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