Ari Aster’s sophomore feature, Midsommar, will surely turn a lot of heads with its unsettling, and often shocking depiction of a Swedish cult and the poor outsiders brought into it. But as fans prepare themselves to witness horror’s newest auteur’s film, they might appreciate the knowledge that there’s quite a nude scene towards the climax.
We won’t go into any details about it, given there’d be some major spoilers, but central actor Jack Reynor, who plays the inconsiderate boyfriend of Florence Pugh’s lead character Dani, bears it all for a considerable amount of time. And while the idea of being totally exposed in front of a camera and thousands of audience members on the big screen may scare a lot of people, apparently, it didn’t take a lot of negotiation to persuade Reynor.
In a recent interview with Variety, the 27-year-old actor explained that he felt if Midsommar, which was completely honest in its depiction of this cult’s life, went out of its way to cut around the nudity, it would’ve affected the graphically precise nature of the film.
“I was advocating for as much full frontal as possible. I felt like it was really important. When I read the script, I saw an opportunity to take a character who exhibits a lot of archetypal male characteristics — like male toxicity — who has all of the stuff stripped away from him through the course of the film and then ultimately finds himself in this situation which is kind of the ultimate humiliation…It was always intentional to have the full frontal. That was what Ari wanted to do. But I was really saying, ‘We got to do as much of this as possible.'”
It goes without saying that Midsommar isn’t for the light-of-stomach or the faint-of-heart. Like Hereditary, the grotesqueness of what’s happening on the screen’s equal in both the visuals and the actual story. It’s a truly disturbing experience, certainly among the most complex horror films of the year, but one worth checking out if you think you can stand it.
So, with that warning, be sure to catch Midsommar in theaters if it sounds like your kind of movie. If not, there’s always Spider-Man: Far From Home.