Horror fans can put this new collectible on the shelf next to your Babadook pop-up book.
A24 drummed up another marketing strategy we can get behind in announcing a limited-edition toy based on that random bear in a cage from Midsommar, the new film from Hereditary director Ari Aster. Well, it’s not random by the time audiences realize what’s going on at the end of the movie.
In the film, Little Women and Black Widow movie star Florence Pugh plays Dani, a young woman who, after experiencing a tragedy, goes with her boyfriend (Jack Reynor) and his friends (Will Poulter, William Jackson Harper, and Vilhelm Blomgren) to a commune’s summer solstice celebration in Sweden. There, aside from all the psychedelic and psychological horrors involved, there’s a bear… in a cage.
Arriving at the online A24 shop and retailing for $32, Bear in a Cage features that grizzly as a figurine donning a floral garland and mini bell inside a hand-stained pinewood cage.
It also comes with a catchy jingle, featured in a promo: “In the cage is a bear/ What’s he doin’ in there?/ Locked inside, no room to play/ On this lovely summer day.” Note, it’s “not compatible with other games, including Skin the Fool.” (For those not in the know, that’s another movie reference.)
A number of these trinkets made an appearance at New York City’s Battery Park as a promotional stunt for the film.
For Aster’s first film, Hereditary, A24 opened up an Etsy shop filled with figures in the likeness of those chilling dolls crafted by Charlie (Milly Shapiro).
Can’t wait to see what the indie house pulls out of its box of horrors next.
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