Swedish horror

[slayrrr666]

Another of the sister threads to the Mexican horror thread, this one about horror from Sweden.

So, how many Swedish horrors have you seen?

And I should put this in right now, I realize most of it might be about Let the Right One In, which is the current hot-one from the country, but there's more out there and this should be about recognizing the country as a whole, but in the interest of initiating conversation, I don't mind it if we start off with that one.

[Fenril]

- Vargtimmen (1968; aka Hour of the wolf. Dir. Ingmar Bergman). Sort of a gothic art film, the plot has to do with a painter struggling with his personal demons. Very interesting film, the kind that cinephiles love and cinephages find boring.

- Strandvaskaren (2004; aka Drowning ghost. Dir. Mikael Håfström). Despite the title, this is a slasher movie. Set on a college campus, and with several familiar elements (urban legends, a killer with a personal vendetta, a plucky final girl, etc.). Fairly mediocre, in my opinion.

- Låt den rätte komma in (2008; aka Let the right one in. Dir. Tomas Alfredson). If, as predicted, this will be the most discussed movie in this tread, I'll just say I thought this was a great movie, and that, in comparison to most current horror movies, it goes to show that traditional horror archetypes can still work, if done right.

- Häxan (1922; aka Witchcraft troughout the ages. Dir. Benjamin Christensen. Co-production with Denmark). Part documentary, part allegory of intolerance in human story, with several stunning recreations of witchcraft rituals and witch hunts. Very, good, a must for those who like silent movies.




That's about it, for now.

[slayrrr666]

I've seen Haxan, but I don't remember it at all beyond the scene of the three witches dancing around topless during one of their rituals, and even then that might be from another film altogether. I'm not big at all on silent films, I've grown accustomed to dialog and I need it to stay invested in a film, I just can't stay into a silent film at all and I've tried on several occasions, almost as many times as I've tried in the past to get into Asian horror which is another story altogether.

I'll also throw in a Swedish/Russian co-production, an inspired vampire film in Frostbitten, a precursor to 30 Days of Night done a decade earlier but with a lot more atmosphere in their build-up but skimping considerably in the action department. If you liked that one, you should check Frostbitten out, it's much better than that films official sequel.

[Fenril]

Oct 25, 2010 10:48:47 GMT -5 slayrrr666 said:

I've seen Haxan, but I don't remember it at all beyond the scene of the three witches dancing around topless during one of their rituals, and even then that might be from another film altogether. I'm not big at all on silent films, I've grown accustomed to dialog and I need it to stay invested in a film, I just can't stay into a silent film at all and I've tried on several occasions, almost as many times as I've tried in the past to get into Asian horror which is another story altogether.

I'll also throw in a Swedish/Russian co-production, an inspired vampire film in Frostbitten, a precursor to 30 Days of Night done a decade earlier but with a lot more atmosphere in their build-up but skimping considerably in the action department. If you liked that one, you should check Frostbitten out, it's much better than that films official sequel.

There is such a scene in Häxan (in some versions, that is, it's one of those films that are often heavily censored), so that might have been it.

I can see why some people can't quite get into silent movies, or even black and white films. For my part, I only started "getting" them once I saw a special screening of Nosferatu with a live orchestra and a huge screen (so, more or less like those movies were actually played back in the day); quite the experience.

As for asian movies, once I took a class on the history of asian (mostly Japanese with a footnote on Hong Kong and South Korea) those movies actually started making sense to me. I think their earlier movies (around the 60's) were much better than most of their current products.

I have heard of Frostbitten before, sounds pretty good. I don't care that much for vampire movies unless they are really well made, but might still give it a look.

[slayrrr666]

The thing with silent films was, as I mentioned earlier, it's something I've been accustomed to hearing people speak in films, I need voices and the sound of the environment. That's the issue, not that I need to be in a special situation or event to get them. I need voices and sound in my films.

The Asian thing was actually two separate issues: their pacing, and then for a time it seemed all I watched was either violent Yakuza films or such films, not really straight-up horror films. But actually, it took me five tries to get into them:

1. From Summer 99-Winter 99-When Bride of Chucky officially turned me onto horror films for good, I started hunting down anything and everything that was listed on TV as one, yet all I saw at the time were those Yakuza/gangster films, so I stopped watching them.

2. From Fall 2001-early 2002-I tried getting into them again since there wasn't a whole lot of other horrors on at the time, but as I was in the middle of an extreme love affair with European stuff at the time, having just discovered Argento, Fulci, Lenzi, Deodato and Bava, the fact that I saw four mediocre at best films at the time caused me to jump onto the European ones and ignore the Asian films. This was the pacing issue I brought up earlier being exposed quite noticeably.

3. From Spring 04-Fall 05-The longest time I was into them previously before now, as I managed to get friend recommendations this time rather than blindly going into them like before, and I had managed to stay interested in them for about a year or so, but when they stopped airing on TV, I sorta forgot about them. I stopped watching them merely because they weren't being shown on TV rather than finding issues with the films as a whole.

4. From Winter 06-Spring 07-Again, I caught up with them because they started airing on TV again, but only this time, it was because I saw a series of films I wasn't that interested in. I saw Audition, Lady Vengeance and more like them (including that one where the guy is locked up, then freed and gets revenge on his captors, realizing his new love interest is his long-lost daughter, I just can't place a name now) which just seemed like torture films like the Saw films, which I was adamantly against at the time and again I stopped watching them.

5. From Early 08-present-I got into them merely because I figured it was time that, through thick or thin, I've got to get into them since I enjoy just about everything else (except Silent, which I've detailed earlier) so I was going into them liking them or never bothering with them ever again. That was the final straw, the time that, if they didn't appeal to me then, they probably never would, but as it turns out, the ones I saw were really good and I've been into them officially and probably won't stop again. I've seen too many good ones in this bunch, including many of my favorites as well as catching up with previous favorites during my third venture into the genre, and I don't really see it stopping.

That's my history with Asian horror.

[slayrrr666]

Finally have a new update here, officially can add Let the Right One In, but I have to say I don't really get the hype with it. I found it a massively overrated entry, since not a whole lot at all really happens and it's more of a drama than a horror film, which I'm not personally interested in watching. The extremely long takes of silence or simply focusing on one specific image, the lack of energy in many of the scenes, the maddening way it takes forever to get everyone clued in to what's really happening despite it being plainly obvious from the start due to the type of attack a vampire initiates, it just really drags out and doesn't really have a lot of interesting things going on. The few attacks are awesome, including the cat attack and the resulting aftermath in the hospital, and the film does do a rather good job of employing a rather unused mode of vampire lore here, but it just can't help make up how boring it is.

[slayrrr666]

Have another one to add here after last night's viewing, The Visitors (aka Besökarna)

Renting a house in the Swedish countryside, a family comes to believe the house is possessed by demons and consults a trained demon hunter to help rid them of the dangerous beings inside before it harms their family.

Overall, this one was quite an exciting and enjoyable effort. One of the more enjoyable aspects of this one is the fact that there's quite a large amount of time taken up here with getting this one to the point of featuring the house as actually being haunted by real demons here as the entire middle section here is loaded with all sorts of paranormal hunting sequences that have been featured throughout the genre for ages here with all sorts of hunting techniques and scanning equipment being utilized to fight off the strange energy found throughout the house. Coupled with the tactics of haunting here with the pounding footsteps, slamming doors and ethereal voices throughout the night it really paints quite an effective picture that really sells the haunted nature quite well. As it adds these features with the previous sequences to denote the haunted nature of this effort, the complete picture of what's happening here is even more accomplished here and it really goes to add a more imposing presence to this one with it's chilling backstory involving the demonic rituals conducted in the walled-off room as well as the ghostly actions in the finale with the attacks that come into far more focus and impact with a spectacular burning-down-the-house Gothic finale to cap it all off with. These are enough to overcome it's few flaws here, most notably it's incredibly contrived and familiar story that mashes together two similar efforts without much difficulty in spotting where the influences came from which simply highlights the overall familiar ground it traipses through. It's not in the slightest original and doesn't do much to dissuade that viewpoint by taking on those common scenes without really making any big difference in them. As well, the film does take quite a while to get through here as there's not a whole lot of interesting action taking place early on with them moving into the house being just quite excruciating to follow and makes for a wholly difficult time with this not really getting the action going while it shows them settling into the house. It's a long series of boring scenes featuring them arguing with each other or goofing around before launching into the attacks well over half-way into it and that doesn't make for an intriguing effort at all. Otherwise, this one was quite enjoyable if you overlook those flaws.

The list now reads:

1. Let the Right One In
2. The Visitors
3. Frostbitten