A24 has garnered a reputation for distributing acclaimed thrillers like Hereditary, The Witch and the highly anticipated The Green Knight. One of the studio's most successful films is Ari Aster's Midsommar -- the story of an emotionally traumatized young woman named Dani who is indoctrinated into a Swedish cult during its Midsommar festival. That film seems to have a connection to the upcoming A24 film called Lamb which recently dropped its first trailer. Lamb follows a childless sheep-farming couple, María (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snaer Gudnason), after the birth of an unusual lamb on their farm.
In the trailer, Maria is seen making a flower crown and placing it on the head of the lamb. This imagery instantly reminds audiences of the iconic imagery from Midsommar, and since there is little context to draw on, it doesn't seem unreasonable to directly connect these two A24 films as we wait to learn more about Lamb.
The flower crowns in Midsommar became such iconic imagery that they permeated popular culture from the Oscars to Halloween parties. In Midsommar, the crowns were worn by members of the Swedish cult, and the most elaborate and coveted flower crown was bestowed upon Dani as she was elected May Queen. This was the final act in bringing Dani into the cult society and establishing her as one of their own. Crowning her is symbolic of their adoption of her and a major turning point in her arc.
Perhaps the crown Maria makes for her lamb functions similarly in the story. The trailer seems to imply that Maria has taken in this mysterious lamb as a surrogate child, treating it like a real baby and part of her family. She is taking this lamb out of its natural world and indoctrinating it into the life of a human. She's doing this through acts of kindness and devotion, even though her behavior is corrupted and twisted. Maria grants this lamb a flower crown, just like the cult gives to Dani as a symbol of her appointment.
Also worth noting is that most of the Lamb trailer contains scenes in cool tones and dark lighting. However, the sequence with the flower crown is in broad daylight with warmer colors. Midsommar is well known for its use of vivid colors and broad daylight to depict its unspeakable horrors. This fact leads to that feeling of connection between the two films in the most unsettling and haunting way.
With only one vague trailer for Lamb released thus far, there's no way to know yet if this is a definitive nod to Midsommar, but at the very least, it would seem to be drawing on the imagery of the flower crown to help communicate to audiences the unsettling, unnatural relationship between Maria and her lamb.
Lamb is slated to debut in select U.S. theaters on Oct. 8. Valdimar Jóhannsson co-wrote the movie with Sjón, the Icelandic novelist, poet and playwright who also co-penned Robert Eggers' (The Witch, The Lighthouse) upcoming Viking thriller The Northman.