Date of Award
Spring 4-15-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
May 2026
Department
English
College Granting Degree
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department Granting Degree
English
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Carla Thomas
Abstract
This thesis explores how Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019) create ongoing discomfort among viewers through their shared focus on death and the tensions between fate and freewill.
Using Freud’s concept of the uncanny as a lens, this thesis argues that these films are disturbing because they introduce familiar horrors in a newly unsetting way, forcing audience members to confront deep rooted fears of grief, loss, and the lack of control.
By repeatedly forcing his audience and characters to confront death and the illusion of agency, Aster successfully creates the prolonged anxiety and dread felt by many viewers of his films. Through a close reading of the texts in question, understood broadly to include film, this thesis examines how the themes of death and choice shape the emotional experience of each film.
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Courtney Michelle, "DEATH AND THE UNCANNY: FREUD, GRIEF, AND THE HORROR OF INEVITABILITY IN ARI ASTER’S HEREDITARY AND MIDSOMMAR" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 344.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general/344