What Are All These Movies With Bears Trying to Tell Us?
In recent films ‘Midsommar,’ ‘The Revenant,’ and ‘Annihilation,’ bears play crucial and terrifying roles. What does it mean?
This piece contains spoilers for Annihilation, Midsommar, and The Revenant.
We humans have a complicated relationship with bears. In popular stories, books, and movies, bears often play the part of large, intimidating, carnivorous creatures to be feared, and yet are also often the fluffy, adorable friends that are given to children in plush form. Much of their representation is aimed at youth: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Paddington, The Berenstain Bears, and more. Historically, bears have also repeatedly shown up in mythology and folklore, often symbolizing rebirth or a connection with the spiritual world.
In three recent films: The Revenant (2015), Annihilation (2018), and Midsommar (2019), bears appears as a major component of the story. The bear takes on a different meaning in each film, but their overall presence may speak to the increasingly relevant cultural conversation about the devastating effects of climate change and the destruction of forests.
