|
The events of this film take place in post-war Europe along the to-be-determined Russia/Finland border - it opens with a sack floating down the river and is opened to discover the border agreement documents, is then followed by a '3 days earlier' scenario. This stark, intense, bleak, and utterly creepy film follows the path of two teams of surveyors who are determining the new border. The film focuses on the Finnish team are two brothers, one worn veteran who is plagued by his violent past as a soldier, the other a pacifist bookworm type pro-mapmaker. They gently caress up a farmer and daughter along the way and have a fresh haunting that continues throughout the film. Both teams trudge north and happen upon a village 'that god forgot' - noone dies there and no children are born. This village is dead center of a giant swamp that has yet to be charted. Bizarre creepy poo poo goes down in said village and the films namesake, an ancient sauna supposedly built by monks. I highly recommend this to those who value cinematography, intelligent psychological horror at a slow endearing pace. Even the characters seem chiseled out a solid block of creepy. I do not recommend this to those who like fast/gorey/screaming/chainsaw/bucketsofblood type. Best horror since Jacob's Ladder. 5/5 e: trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAsySs3uQ4E
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2009 21:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 19:02 |
|
|
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si8IqpZc8Fo
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2009 14:00
|
|
|
This movie is pretty good to look at, with occasionally interesting ideas and good actors, but whether it's actually enjoyable for the audience to watch is the least of the director's worries. It pretty much embodies "artsy" and independent foreign "festival" movies - there is some originality to be found, but most of the time the filmmakers just don't know what they're trying to say or why, and the main reason for it being different is because it's just not very good. I wish this Annila guy would stop raping Finnish history and lore with meandering, boring bullshit that doesn't come from anywhere and goes nowhere. This movie is pretentious crap. 1.5/5 pigdog fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Dec 17, 2009 |
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2009 21:07
|
|
|
I have to agree that the cinematography and atmosphere were absolutely beautiful to look at, and would like to add that the scenes and clothing were spot on. The actors weren't half bad either, although as a native speaker of Finnish, I did occasionally find the dialogue a bit cheesy; almost everybody speaks very formally - which makes sense given the circumstances! - but is distracting for a native speaker who's never heard a conversation conducted in spotless textbook language. The story had a lot of potential, and a more critical look at the writing would have done the film a world of good. I don't think I'm the only one who was confused towards the end about what was happening and why. It didn't help matters that the Finnish version I watched didn't have the benefit of Russian subtitles, and there was a lot of conversation in Russian going on. Maybe if I'd understood those everything would've been revealed, but I doubt it. A special mention goes to the man playing Erik Spåre - one look at his face and you had no trouble believing he really did kill all those people and kept count too. 3/5
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2009 11:35
|
|
|
This was one of the best 'horror' movies I've seen recently, if only for the outstanding way it builds up the tension. Amazing visuals, and solid acting, and the jump scare at the end where the thing suddenly looks at the boy scared the poo poo out of me. I'll remember it for a long time. 5/5
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2010 04:56
|
|
