GoddamUnvoicedAbbot's Reviews

The Death King (1990)

9/10

Buttgereit's version of a H.C. Andersen fairytale

21 December 2010

Jörg Buttgereit's films are not for everyone, but I have to say he has become my favorite horror director in the period 1985-1995. Buttgeriet has made his own art-house-horror genre and the more I watch, the more I like his style.

In Der Todesking Jörg Buttgereit was obviously inspired by Ole Luk-Oie (transl: "Ole Shut-Eye") - H.C. Anderssen's famous fairytale about the Sandman. As a kid the Sunday story always got me, the one where Ole Luk-Oie tells he has brother - also named Ole Luk-Oie - who only comes to you once and another name for him is...Death Jørg Buttgereit's fairytale is similar in structure: For every day in the week we are presented with a short story. But this is no fairytale for kids about sweet dreams. It's a diary of suicide and death. In the end you learn the truth about people going crazy and killing others and who the Death King really is...

As usual the film is accompanied by Buttgereit's trademark soundtracks: The lonely piano, the dissonant (bit amateurish) fiddle tunes etc. If Buttgereit is your cup of tea you can't go wrong...

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Yngsjömordet (1966)

9/10

True story with disturbing ending.

15 September 2010

Yngsjömordet is an adaption of a true murder story that happened 1889 in Yngsjö, a small village in Skåne (the southernmost county in Sweden) It is one of the most talked about murder cases in Swedish history mainly due to the sexual relationship between the murderer and his mother. Norman Bates was apparently not the first psychopath with a complicated relationship to his mother. Several authors have written books inspired by the events and the story has been adapted to film twice. The reason why writers and filmmakers come back to this story might be the fact that nobody really knows what actually happened that night. There were no witnesses except the mother and the son... A short English summary of the real events can be found on Wikipedia etc. You might not want to read it until you have watched the film as it might spoil the plot. But be sure to go there afterwards and look at the real faces of the murderer and the victim. The similarities with the two women actors were a bit chocking to me. Very good casted! Arne Mattson again shows that he has talent. While there might be one or two sudden cuts that could be done better the camera work is creative. The film is almost Bergmanesque at times. I especially liked the opening. Not a single word is uttered for several minutes. The camera tells everything and when the first word is uttered it continues a story already told in pictures. After the opening the film moves on to the court room. For a few minutes I feared the film was going to be a court room drama. But it is just a short sequence. Instead of seeing the courtroom and hearing the witnesses we see what the witnesses saw the night of the murder. And afterwards we see what really happened. The execution at the end was very well made and actually disturbing.

I think the actors performed well, especially Gunnel Lindblom who performs the mother. Gösta Ekman who plays the son should also be mentioned. He later became a famous actor here in Sweden, mainly in comedies (The Apple War, The Man Who Quit Smoking etc), but here he shows he can play a psychopath too.

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Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973)

7/10

Tarantino's favorite revenge flick.

12 August 2010

Frigga was raped in a park by a filthy old man when she was a little girl and after that she became mute. 15 years later she is accepting a ride into town with a very evil man who puts her on drugs and keeps her as a prostitute in his brothel. All cruel things they do to her is remembered and she starts on planning a revenge...

First of all, don't let the title fool you. This is not a thriller. It is exploitation/rape/revenge. Made in 1973, the film is famous for being the first film entirely banned in Sweden. (However other sources say that Victor Sjöström (The Phantom Carriage etc.) managed that already in 1912) The film had to be cut down 25 minutes before it could be re-released in 1974. Only a couple of years ago the uncut version was released and now we can see the entire film as it was intended by Bo Vibenius.

It may also be of interest to some that this film is Tarantino's favorite and that it inspired the characters in the Kill Bill films. Tarantino calls it "the roughest revenge movie ever made!"· The film has lots of nudity, including several sex and rape scenes. You may like the fact that it is Playboy pin-up Christina Lindberg who plays the lead. Her appearance is quite special and this film exemplifies perfectly that sometimes silence speaks more than words: Christina Lindberg doesn't utter one single word in the entire film.

The film has some really disturbing scenes. There is an eye being punctured in the film and it has been confirmed later that this is a freaking real eye from a dead girl that recently took suicide at that time! The film is surprisingly well-made. The soundtrack with its use of effects creates a nice tone to the film and it is balanced very well with silence. The film has nice colors too and an excellent flow in the first half. Maybe I felt there was too many slow motion scenes in the second half and some of the editing could have been done better, but I end up positive.

8/10

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And Soon the Darkness (1970)

9/10

Creepy daylight horror

17 April 2010

Warning: Spoilers

Two young British girls are hiking in the countryside in France with their bicycles, but their idea of how to spend a holiday is quite different. After a quarrel in a grove close to the road, they split up. The brunette continues to nearest village by her own. After calming down she decides to wait for her friend at a café. But the blond never shows. After returning to the grove the blond girl is gone and nobody has seen her pass by the villages before and after the grove...

This film had very tense atmosphere. When a slow-paced film is done well, it is often more suspenseful than any high-paced action film. I found myself sitting on the edge most of the film. The last five minutes before the blond girl disappears is some of the creepiest daylight horror I've seen. You could criticize the ending, there was some inconsistencies, but the atmosphere was simply so great that I can tolerate it.

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Månguden (1988 TV Movie)

7/10

Cult classic finally released after 22 years.

1 April 2010

At a camp site outside Stockholm somebody is brutally murdering tourists at full moon when they sleep in their tents. The murders are executed in a ritualistic manner. The killer is wearing an African Moon God mask and he is chopping the victims with a large machete. He films the brutal acts and - whether on purpose or not - lets the police find the films.

Månguden has had a cult status for a long time, much due to it being almost impossible to get and also due to the rumors that it is damn scary. It is quite unbelievable that it took 22 years before they released it.

Quite unexpectedly, this film has more elements from Giallo than from a Slasher. It has striking similarities with films like Profondo Rosso. Yet there are elements that are not typical Giallo. Månguden is actually a found footage film, which should make it the second after Cannibal Holocaust I believe. But the similarities with CH stops there. The film is inspired a bit by a real event in Appojaure (Northern Sweden, above the polar circle) in 1984 when a Dutch couple hiking in the area was brutally murdered in their tent.

As for scariness I do admit the film was scary (however, I think the real events are much scarier) It should be said that Månguden isn't scary in the common sense. There are virtually no jump scares, etc. One thing I found scary was the similarities in shape and silhouettes with one of the characters and the Moon God. Nothing is said about it, it is something you just perceive. Some films don't scare you so much when you see them as afterward, when your brain has started to process it. The murders are solved in Månguden, but still there are some open ends that when processed later might leave some people sleepless. The lighting in the murder footage has the same greenish texture as the bedroom scenes in Paranormal Activity. I wonder if there is something with that kind of lighting?

Not everything is positive though. The dialog and the film editing could have been better. It is sometimes hard to follow the plot and there are many sudden cuts. I'm sure many people will dislike the film because of this, especially if they are obsessed with plot logics. But maybe this is the way to create a scary film? Giving you pieces and let you glue them together yourself, rather than spoon-feeding you a complete, well-polished 'film opus'? The incompleteness might actually be a reason it stays in peoples minds.

Finally some in the cast also performed in 'Sommarens tolv månader' the same year, which I also recommend. As you all know it is my favorite film And if you want to try something else by Jonas Cornell, I recommend his adaption of Stig Trenters 'Träff i Helfigur' (1987). There is a pale scary 'moonface' chasing people in the woods in that film. I wonder if it is a coincidence that it came out the year before Månguden....

Trying to give Månguden a fair rating I end up on 8.5/10 for now. Let's see how it ages....

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Battle Royale (2000)

4/10

Disappointing.

21 January 2010

So I checked out Battle Royale. After reading the reviews here I had to give it a go. The plot idea sounded good. Unfortunately it is the only good thing with this movie. And it is presented in the beginning.

1) It is not a horror movie - I never got scared a bit - it's an action movie. And I don't know if it deserves to be called "movie" either. It is more like a bad TV-series. It resembles McGyver, only that McGyver is far better...

2) It is very predictable. After 15 min you can guess the rest.In fact, after the Battle Royale concept has been presented, the whole film is just a long series of killings and screen updates like "6 AM 2 dead - 34 to go" 3) The acting is not convincing. OK, the actors are young, but it is no excuse.

4) The film is full of clichés and stereotypes. The use of famous classical pieces to compensate, makes it even worse.

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Som man ropar (1988)

8/10

Suspenseful WW2 thriller

26 November 2008

Warning: Spoilers

The year is 1943. A journalist goes on vacation to the rugged wilderness near the Norwegian border. He has borrowed a friends cottage. One day while he runs in the forest, he stumbles upon a deserted house. Near the house he finds a dead man. 5 minutes later the man is gone and a girl is there instead. She says he must have been dreaming. Shortly afterwards everything is blacked-out. He awakes at his cottage and wonder if he dreamed. He asks local people about the house, but it does not exist on any map, and nobody has heard about it. But he knows it is not a dream, because he had picked a slip of paper from the dead man. When he returns to Stockholm, World War II is in full charge. Berlin has been bombed. Arriving home he gets a gun pointed to his head, somebody demands the paper slip. Suddenly he finds himself in the middle of World War II....

I remember this film very well after 20 years. Based on Stieg Trenter's novel by the same name, it had good atmosphere and lot's of suspenseful moments.

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The Vanishing (1988)

9/10

Great movie with memorable ending

9 June 2008

Are you scared by mighty soundtracks, the 666 beast, haunting ghosts, videotapes that will kill you after 14 days and screaming girls? Then this movie is not for you.

Spoorloos has no eerie soundtracks, blood, scream or gore. It is not a horror movie in the traditional sense. Having a first look, this is an ordinary thriller with a memorable ending. But there is more to this film. In some ways, Spoorloos resembles a modern version of any story by Edgar Allan Poe. The creepy thing about Spoorloos is not violence, screaming and blood, but the sensation that it might be based on reality rather than fiction. This film shows that sudden disappearance and "not knowing" is far more scary than all devils and ghosts in Hollywood.

I get the feeling that this film is of the rare kind that grows with the years 9/10

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Sommarens tolv månader (1988 TV Movie)

10/10

One of the best Swedish movies ever

14 July 2005

Warning: Spoilers

I had the great opportunity to see "The Twelve Months of The Summer" (Swedish Title: Sommarens tolv månader) again. It is not like any other Swedish movie. It is in a category of itself. Even if it is not exactly a science fiction movie, the science fiction fan will find this movie a great contribution. And if one labels it science fiction, it is probably the only Swedish science fiction movie worth the name.

If there is any similarity to anything it may be Philip K. Dick. I don't think that Hobert is directly inspired by him though. The difference is that Dicks worlds are made up explicitly, while Hoberts world is real. Everything could have happened or even is happening....

A number of ordinary people meets to work in a secret project for one year. They don't know where they are or what they actually work with, but the snowy winter they left behind has transformed into hot summer. They get 10 years salary for one year in the camp. All of them have different reasons for taking the job. At the welcome meeting, the foreman explains the conditions: "No questions. Just work. No one is allowed to leave the camp or he looses the job on the spot". The workers start to build odd funny buildings in a holiday setting with blue sky and bright sunshine. But something is terribly wrong in the camp. Something is going on. The camp gradually transforms from a Disneyland of the 80's into a world of paranoia and hallucinations.

A movie that you still remember very well 17 years later can't be bad. Many scenes are unforgettable. One scene sent shivers up my spine 17 years ago. I waited to see if I got them again. I was totally taken by surprise in the preceding scene. It was even worse!

Hobert uses minimal effects and background music. The filming technique is excellent. Hobert doesn't force messages and ideas on us. Rather he invites to contemplation on a theme that can never be outdated. It is about the human being and the reality that it never will understand completely. Because of this, the movie couldn't really have been made in another way.

I remember reading a review of Philip K Dicks book VALIS, where the reviewer was angry because Dick couldn't stick to first or third person writing, but mixed them. The Twelve Months of the Summer may get similar criticism. But OMG what a boring world it would be if such persons ruled art and literature!

Also, if you watch a movie only to escape reality, you may get annoyed. You can't escape reality in The Twelve Months of The Summer. Instead it may follow you the rest of your life. When you finish watching Matrix you are back in the reality. It was only a movie. When you finished The Twelve Months of the Summer you may have the same feeling, but it gets back to you. Later. In your dreams. Even 17 years later. In discussions about this movie all my friends that saw this movie 17 years ago have had the same experience. We have different ideas about what it is about. But that is only an indication of how good this movie is.

The thoughts about reality that this movie produces is extremely powerful. If that is the goal of the director, he succeeded and there is no other conclusion to make than: 10 points out of 10 for this excellent movie

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Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

3/10

Over-rated, it bored me.

27 April 2005

This movie is the most over-rated I have seen in a long time. This movie reminds me about the bad movies from the 80's. It is mildly funny, seemingly based mostly on material from other movies. It tries to combine comedy, action, tragedy and most other genres. I'm not against such combinations in general, but there must be at least something good that comes out of it. In this case the result is below average in all fields. It is not a good Kung-Fu movie, it is not a good comedy, it is not a good action, it is not a good Chinese movie. It is also very predictable on the basic level. If you didn't laugh once in the first 10 minutes of the movie, you will probably not laugh during the rest of the movie.

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Minority Report (2002)

3/10

Philip K. Dick credits

20 June 2004

The really sad thing about this movie is the low credits that Philip K. Dick gets. Without Dicks imagination this movie would never had come into existence. In the DVD extra features, we learn that Philip K Dick was a sick man, mentally and physically. That is almost all we hear about him. It is obvious that most actors haven't read a single page of Philip K Dick.

The second sad thing is that many people believe Spielberg and those guys invented the visions, imaginations, the precogs, the bizarre ideas (like the one with changing eyes). All those ideas were however borrowed from Philip K. Dick. For all of us that have read Philip K. Dick this movie is simply a popularized version of one of his minor works.

That said, the design of the cars and the future city is 5 stars. They have come close to the visions you get when you read Philip K. Dick

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