Midsommar: Who Wears Mark’s Skin Suit In The Movie

Who wears Mark’s skin suit, as seen by Josh prior to his imminent death in Midsommar? Ari Aster’s 2019 folk horror movie, Midsommar, is set against the backdrop of an isolated Swedish commune – a pagan cult named Hårga – whose lives hinge upon centuries-old rituals that warrant sacrifices, mostly acquired through violence and murder. While Midsommar is undoubtedly a profound portrait of grief, coupled with trauma and heartbreak, it also chronicles the ways of the Hårga, whose practices are questionable, to say the least.

Everyone in the group (barring Pelle) who arrive at Hälsingland, are deemed outsiders by the Hårga, each a potential sacrifice for the ritual that they believe will purge the commune of evil. While members of the commune are also expected to be an integral part of the sacrificial ritual, Pelle has gifted the commune with a new May Queen (Dani) and “new blood” (Maja’s impregnation by Christian), hence he is exempted from the ordeal. The murders of Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter) are somewhat interconnected, as it is when Josh sneaks into the temple at nightfall to snap photographs of the commune’s sacred runic text, which is forbidden, he glimpses a naked man wearing Mark’s skin suit. After which, he is dealt with a head trauma; his body is dragged away by a member of the cult.

Being an anthropology student, Josh’s obsession with northern European Pagan traditions ultimately causes his demise. His final act is seen as a form of transgression by the cult, bordering on cultural disrespect. Earlier in Midsommar, it is Mark’s ignorance of the commune’s culture that leads him to urinate on the sacred tree – the base of the Rotvälta – which, according to Midsommar’s script, is the site for spreading the ashes of the elders. This angers Ulf, a member of the commune, who interprets it as an affront to the Hårga’s ways, going as far as to say: “You’re pissing on my people!” Both Midsommar’s script and a Reddit AMA by Aster exemplify that it is Ulf who wears Mark’s skin suit, a symbol of revenge for desecrating the sacred tree, and by extension, disrespecting the cult as a whole.

On closer inspection of the skin suit scene, one would notice a slight discoloration between Ulf’s feet and the rest of his body, implying that he is literally wearing Mark’s skin, which is similar to the concept of Nábrók. Nábrók, which loosely translates to “corpse britches”, is a ritual in Icelandic folklore, that involves wearing pants weaved from the skin of a dead man, purportedly for attracting wealth. While Ulf’s motivation for flaying Mark’s skin is revenge, and ultimately, ritual sacrifice, it is interesting to note that the Fehu ᚠ rune can be seen on a mural with Mark standing next to it, which also corresponds to wealth and new beginnings.

Additionally, Mark’s fate is foreshadowed much earlier in Midsommar, when a group of younger cultists form a circle and play “skin the fool” — a direct symbolism also established toward the end, when Mark’s skin suit inside the burning temple is seen wearing a jester’s hat. Will Poulter, who plays Mark, offered his interpretation of the imagery in an interview with SYFY Wire: “You play the fool if you don’t take other communities who really in the first instance only show you kindness. And if you don’t return that kindness and you are not open, then you pay for that. At least, that’s the way I saw it.”

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Debopriyaa Dutta
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Apart from being a features writer and critic at ScreenRant, Debopriyaa is a news writer at /Film. She is also a contributor to High on Films & Fansided, and an editor at Digital Mafia Talkies. Her poetry has been published in a wide array of journals, such as Gideon Poetry, White Noise Magazine, and Literaria. Find her on Twitter @angelusatani.

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