Did Pelle Kill Dani’s Family? Midsommar Theory That Flips The Movie Explained

Midsommar is packed with details that left a couple of unsolved mysteries and also made way for theories, among them one that claims Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) killed Dani’s (Florence Pugh) family as part of an elaborate and cruel plan. After the success of his feature directorial debut, Hereditary, in 2018, Ari Aster returned one year later with Midsommar, a folk horror movie that proved that horror doesn’t happen exclusively in the shadows of the night, taking the characters and the audience to Sweden to celebrate a midsummer festival like no other.
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Midsommar follows Dani, who after a family tragedy and with her relationship falling apart, joins her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor), and his friends Mark (Will Poulter), Josh (William Jackson Harper), and Pelle on a trip to Sweden to celebrate a midsummer festival at Pelle’s ancestral commune, the Hårga. However, once there, they realize they are now in the middle of the deadly celebrations of a sinister cult, and not all of them will make it back home. Although the first minutes of Midsommar show the tragic event that leaves Dani shattered and vulnerable, and while the circumstances around it are quite clear, a theory claims Pelle was involved, and he’s responsible for the death of Dani’s family.
Related: Midsommar: What The Real Life Swedish Festival Is Actually Like
Midsommar Theory Suggests Pelle Killed Dani’s Family
While Dani deals with a possible breakup with Christian, she learns that her sister committed a murder-suicide by filling their parents’ house with carbon monoxide, killing herself and their parents. This further strains Dani and Christian’s relationship, and though the latter had planned to break up with her before his trip to Sweden, which he hadn’t discussed with Dani before, he ends up inviting her to join them. Throughout Midsommar, it’s clear that Pelle is attracted to Dani, and he’s the only one who remembers Dani’s birthday while in Sweden, with Christian forgetting about it, and even kisses Dani when she becomes the new May Queen. Pelle, then, might have had something to do with the deaths of Dani’s parents and sister as part of his plan to make her part of the Hårga cult/community.
In order for Dani to blend in with the Hårga and be open to becoming the May Queen and more, she had to be vulnerable, and though her toxic relationship with Christian already had her in a vulnerable state, Pelle needed her to have no ties left in her hometown so she would stay with the cult. Exactly how Pelle was involved in the murder of Dani’s family is unknown, though it could have been through Dani’s sister who had a history of mental illness, but various viewers have theorized that he planned their deaths in order for Dani to have no reason to go back home after their summer in Sweden, thus staying with the Hårga and accepting them as her new family.
Why Pelle May Have Killed Dani’s Family
After seeing everything the Hårga are capable of doing, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched that Pelle could have killed Dani’s family just so he could have her join the cult. The Hårga have some extreme and deadly traditions (and that’s just during the midsummer celebrations, who knows what else they do at other times of the year), such as two elderly members of the cult committing ritual suicide by throwing themselves off a precipice in front of everyone, incest being allowed when trying to create a new “seer”, and outsiders being killed for different ritualistic purposes. The Hårga, then, are desensitized to death, so killing Dani’s parents could have been seen by Pelle as part of a ritual or just a cycle that had to happen in order for Dani to become part of the cult.
Pelle’s attraction to Dani and witnessing how Christian doesn’t care about her could have also played into the decision to kill her family so she could be one of the Hårga, though some viewers argue that Pelle was simply giving her special treatment so she could be easier to manipulate during her grieving process, hence why he remembered her birthday, gave her a drawing he made of her, kissed her, and why he told her he lost his parents too, so she would feel comfortable with him. Pelle’s manipulation led to Dani becoming the May Queen, which in turn led to Pelle being spared from being sacrificed, which could have also been a strong reason for him to do all this.
Midsommar Director Ari Aster Denies The Theory
As interesting and terrifying as this theory is, and as much as it fits what Midsommar established about Pelle and the Hårga, Ari Aster has already denied the theory. In an interview with HuffPost, Aster said that the theory is incorrect, and when asked about the flower crown seen next to Dani’s parents’ bed, Aster simply said there are “many prophetic pictures strewn throughout the film”, but didn’t elaborate any further. Pelle might have not been involved in the deaths of Dani’s parents after all, but there are certainly enough clues and details that support the theory.