Hereditary Vs Midsommar: 5 Similarities That Make Them Ari Aster Films (& 5 Ways They’re Completely Different)

Director Ari Aster shocked and surprised the film industry with his debut movie, Hereditary, in 2018. It’s not a typical horror movie that’s filled with jump scares or a slasher film, but it focuses more on a family drama with a supernatural twist and succeeds with terrifying results.

In his second film, Midsommar (2019), Aster achieved similar success by subverting horror movie tropes and again creating something fresh. There are clear similarities between Hereditary and Midsommar, but there are also surprising differences between the two films.

10 Similar: Carnal Displays of Emotion

True tragedy plagues both Hereditary and Midsommar and in that true tragedy we see true, primal, and raw emotion from many characters (specifically Toni Collette in Hereditary and Florence Pugh in Midsommar). Movies and actors choose to go with more subtle moments of emotion with bursts of emphasized reactions that the audience doesn’t always get to see, but both Hereditary and Midsommar have characters that share their full displays of emotion with the audience and other characters around them.

9 Different: Color Scheme

Hereditary and Midsommar are on completely different ends of the color spectrum. Sometimes it’s hard to remember these two movies are from the same director because of the completely different looks and visuals that the color schemes convey. Hereditary has an extremely dark color scheme while Midsommar chooses a multi-colored floral arrangement as their color scheme for most of the film. Although the color schemes are very different, Aster succeeds in representing true terror in both films.

8 Similar: Family Tragedy

Both Hereditary and Midsommar start with a family tragedy. The Graham family in Hereditary begins their family tragedy with the death of the grandmother matriarch. The family continues to be plagued by tragedy, almost as if they’re targeted, again and again right up until the bitter end of the film.

Midsommar’s Dani suffers through one tragic family event and has to wander through the rest of the film as she tries to cope with the recent tragedy, new trauma, and continue on with her own life.

7 Different: Family vs Relationship Focus

Hereditary focuses purely on the familial relationship between the Graham family. The movie mainly centers on how they react to circumstances that have been ever-present in their lives but become more and more clear and reach an epic climax after the grandmother’s death. Midsommar instead focuses on the central relationship between Dani (Florence Pugh) and boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). The dynamic is certainly different between Hereditary mother (Toni Collette) and son (Alex Wolff) than Dani and Christian, but both relational focuses are realistic and fit their plotlines respectively.

6 Similar: Reminiscent of Magical Realism

Hereditary and Midsommar have visuals that leave the audience wondering what they’ve just witnessed. It’s not technically magical realism, but many of the scenes don’t feel real because they are so jarring and shocking. These scenes feel out of place but in a fantastic and haunting way. The scene in Hereditary when Peter (Wolff) is in his high school classroom and suddenly has no control of his body, slamming his face on a desk, and screaming in horror as his nose bleeds and the entire class watches in fear. It’s terrifying, partly because it is so out of place, jarring, and it takes the audience a minute to process what just happened and wonder if that was real or not.

5 Different: Large Cast vs Small Cast

Midsommar has a large cast between the small group of main characters and countless extras and featured members of the cult. On the other end of the spectrum, Hereditary has a very small cast, mostly focusing on the main family members with little cast outside of these four.

The limited cast in the movie gives it a confined and cramped feeling throughout and has the audience feeling like there is no one outside the family that can help them. Even though there is a large cast and large, open spaces in Midsommar with no cramped feeling, they are in a secluded location and it feels like there is no escape or no chance of outside help for the main group.

4 Similar: Deeper Meaning

Symbolism abounds in both Hereditary and Midsommar. There is a deeper meaning to almost every scene of both films, to the point where there are hidden details and multiple interpretations of what the films are trying to do, say, and accomplish. 

There are so many hidden details it is difficult to keep track of it all and they both warrant multiple viewings to understand the intricacies of the plots and catch all of the hidden meanings.

3 Different: Endings

Without giving away the specifics of either ending, they do have completely different moods and tones to their climactic endings. Hereditary ends on a dark and hopeless note while Midsommar also ends on a tragic note it can be interpreted as oddly hopeful and even uplifting despite all of the carnage and destruction.

The one major similarity to note is that both places do end in a similar location of a wooden fort/barn.

2 Similar: Lore

Both films center around the occult and various lore surrounding cult groups. The main characters in both Hereditary and Midsommar are plagued by the ever-present cults in their respective films. The cult follows the Graham family in Hereditary and plays with their lives until the bitter end. The main cast in Midsommar finds themselves being manipulated by the cult when they first step into Sweden until the very end.

1 Different: Locations

The locations of Hereditary are very homey and part of everyday life for most. The film mostly takes place in a high school or the Graham family home and there is no traveling outside of the small confined town they’re living in. In contrast, Midsommar begins with an impromptu trip to Sweden. Both approaches give different moods to the movies. Hereditary has terrifying things happening in a familiar place while Midsommar visits a beautiful and new place where terrifying things continue to happen around the group.

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