Nordic Horror

NORDIC HORROR [1950-1990]

Instead of calling this category "Scandinavian countries," which to some would simply include Sweden, Denmark and Norway, I'm using the more generic term "Nordic" here, which will also include Finland, Iceland, Åland Islands, Faroe Islands, Svalbard and Jan Mayen and, because it's sometimes though not always included, Greenland (which is sometimes grouped with North America). That's my best option considering most other countries under the Nordic umbrella had next to no film industry, at least not until here recently, and don't really merit their own page. 

To my knowledge, no pre-1990 horror films were produced in four out of the nine countries in this grouping. Greenland's first horror film didn't come until 2011 with Malik Kleist's Qaqqat alanngui, while the first (and thus far only) feature-length horror film from the Faroe Islands appears to be the "dark psychological drama" Ludo (2014) directed by Katrin Ottarsdóttir. Åland Islands, which has a population of just 28,000, Svalbard, with just 2,500 residents, and Jan Mayen, with no permanent residents as its a volcanic island, all show no horror films on a search. Hell, the former shows no films period while the latter two are made up almost exclusively of documentaries made there by outside crews within the last 10 years. That leaves us with just the original Scandinavian trio plus Finland and Iceland, each of which will get their own write-up on their own page. None of these countries were uber prolific in the genre during the 40 year block of time we cover here though most are worth discussing for several benchmark films.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

Click on one of the flags below to learn more...

If I dig up other information about any of the countries without a page, I'll make sure to post it.

Films by country: Sweden

SWEDISH HORROR [1950-1990]

When one thinks of Swedish cinema, Ingmar Bergman is a name that probably immediately comes to mind. As far as horror is concerned, the wonderful Let the Right One In (2008) is probably going to be the first title to roll off most tongues... perhaps the only title to roll off most tongues. That's because most of Sweden's genre films were produced after 2000. An IMDb search for Swedish horror produced from 1890 to 1990 brings up only 28 titles over a hundred year span, which is the most of all the Nordic countries but still just a minor contribution in the grand scheme of things. Comparatively, a horror title search from 1991 to 2020 turns up over 500 films! I guess we have digital video to thank for all of that. Sweden's standout contributions made before 1990 almost exclusively came from the silent era, including Prästänkan / "The Parson's Widow" (1920), an early work from Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer, who'd later make the French / German Vampyr (1933), and Victor Sjöström's haunting Körkarlen / "The Phantom Carriage" (1928) ▼. Technically one could also throw Häxan (1922) into the mix due to it being a Swedish co-production made with Swedish backing, though it was directed by the Danish Benjamin Christensen, had a Danish cast and crew and was filmed entirely in Denmark.

Almost single-handedly carrying the genre torch for the country for several decades was director Arne Mattsson, who started out his career with comedies and ended up having an international success with One Summer of Happiness (1951), which was controversial upon release due to several nude scenes but received critical attention at the Berlin International Film Festival and Cannes. However, most of Mattsson's subsequent genre films were more mystery / crime that occasionally dipped their toes in the horror genre as opposed to all-out horror. They were quite similar in that regard to the Edgar Wallace 'krimi' adaptations made in Germany at around the same time. Mattsson's first foray into this genre was the five film Hillman series starring Karl-Arne Holmsten and Annalisa Ericson as a married pair of detectives. Perhaps especially noteworthy here is Mannequin in Red (1958), which shares some striking similarities to Bava's influential Blood and Black Lace... only it was made six years earlier. Mattsson also did a 1958 remake of Phantom Carriage, the serial killer film Mask of Murder (1985) starring Rod Taylor and Christopher Lee and a few other titles. He's by far the most prolific Swedish genre director from this time.

Of course Bergman himself couldn't resist infusing many of his grim, heavily symbolic psychological dramas with genre elements... but to the extent where I feel entirely comfortable including most of them here? I go back and forth on this. Should I include The Virgin Spring (1960) due to its obvious impact on the genre, particularly Wes Craven's infamous shocker The Last House on the Left (1972) and all that followed? And could a case also be made that a number of his other titles, like 1958's The Magician and 1976's Face to Face, are at least partially horror?

An interesting BFI article theorizes that Bergman was, in fact, a pioneer of the later folk horror subgenre and obviously just as good a case could be made for him also being a pioneer of psychological horror. Many articles have recently been popping up about his films, their impact of the genre and their continual usage of nightmare imagery and other obvious horror tropes; even one going so far as to dub him "the greatest horror filmmaker in cinema." I'm still considering all of this, but I'll be leaving most of his movies off of here for the time being. Once I revisit them I'll make up my mind on a film-to-film basis. One Bergman movie that's a definite inclusion is Hour of the Wolf (1968), which one critic (I think it was Leonard Maltin) noted was "the closest Bergman ever came to making a horror film" and Rotten Tomatoes dubs "Ingmar Bergman's only horror film." Wolf wasn't well-received upon release, but is much more respected nowadays.

While I've read on more than one occasion that horror films weren't very popular in Sweden during this time, the country certainly wasn't entirely all about atmospheric, classy silent epics and Bergman's heavy, deadly seriously, critically acclaimed art house dramas. Rest assured, they've made their fair share of trash as well! One of their first notable B movies was Virgil W. Vogel's "20 foot tall" alien yeti film Terror in the Midnight Sun (1959), which is a fun enough monster movie granted you avoid the re-cut "Americanized" version from Jerry Warren called Invasion of the Animal People.

Though most of the 60s was dominated by more of the same from both Mattsson and Bergman, a storm was brewing over the horizon with director Vilgot Sjöman. His then hugely controversial 491 (1964), which involved youth criminals being forced to partake in social experiment "therapy," featured more graphic sexual content than what was generally allowed at the time, including depiction of male-male rape and even a scene where a woman gets raped by a dog (!!) Of course this isn't as graphically depicted as what would be filmed later on, but it was plenty to get the film frequently banned and censored back in 1964. Sjöman took that notoriety and ran with it; seemingly intentionally courting controversy along the way. One of his next films was the incest-themed My Sister My Love (1966). Then, in 1967, came I Am Curious (Yellow); which was the real game changer. 

Yellow featured full frontal nudity (both male and female) and simulated sex, which immediately got it banned from exhibition numerous places and sometimes prints were even seized by authorities. The film's notoriety in the U.S. turned it into not only one of the highest-grossing films of 1969 but also the all-time highest-grossing foreign-language film up to that time. Though it seems an odd title to single out when discussing horror films, it's not when you see the wave of Euro sexploitation films that followed. Just within the genre, there was Sensuous Sorceress (1970), the filmed-in-London Deviation (1971), The Devil's Playthings (1973) and Dirty Fingers (1973). Bo Arne Vibenius made the most popular one, though, with his revenge film Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973) ▲, which had loads of nudity, rape, grisly violence (including an eye gouging that reputedly used a real corpse) and sometimes even hardcore sex inserts added. It became an even bigger cult hit once Quentin Tarantino started singing its praises. However, Laslo Benedek's The Night Visitor (1971) starring Bergman regular Max von Sydow is likely the best genre film the country had on offer in the 70s. 

The 80s saw a few more highlights, most especially Richard Hobert's TV movie Twelve Months of the Summer (1988) and the 20-minute animated short Exit (1990). I also quite enjoyed Peter Borg's ghost tale Sounds of Silence (1989) though many others seem less impressed with it than I was. Rather randomly, Sweden also decided to get involved in the short-lived 80s "hair band horror" subgenre with the hilariously awful The Bleeder (1983), a SOV cheapie centered around an awful all-female metal band called "Rock Cats," and Blood Tracks (1985), centered around the male glam band "Easy Action." Another title that was a frequent presence in U.S. video stores was Jack Ersgard's haunted house film The Visitors (1988).

Of the many titles released here in recent years, Ari Aster's Midsommar (2018); a U.S. / Swedish co-production set in Sweden but mostly filmed in Hungary, is by far the most popular. Sweden also had their hand in co-producing Lars von Trier's Antichrist (2009) and The House Jack Built (2018), James Watkins' The Woman in Black remake (2012), Rowan Joffe's Before I Go to Sleep (2014) and Jim Jarmusch's disappointing zombie comedy The Dead Don't Die (2019).

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1950s

- Sir Arne's Treasure (Herr Arnes penningar) (1954; Gustaf Molander)

- Lady in Black, The (Damen i svart) (1958; Arne Mattsson)
- Mannequin in Red (Mannekäng i rött) (1958; Arne Mattsson)
- Moon Over Hellesta (Moln över Hellesta) (1958; Rolf Husberg)
- Phantom Carriage, The (Körkarlen) (1958; Arne Mattsson)

- Woman in a Fur Coat (Kvinna i leopard) (1958; Arne Mattsson)

- Rider in Blue (Ryttare i blått) (1959; Arne Mattsson)
- Terror in the Midnight Sun (Rymdinvasion i Lappland) (1959; Virgil W. Vogel) [co-USA] ▲

1960s

- Devil's Messenger, The (1962; Curt Siodmak, Herbert L. Strock) [co-USA]
- Doll, The (Vaxdocken) (1962; Arne Mattsson)
- Lady in White (Vita frun) (1962; Arne Mattsson)

- Yellow Car, The (Den gula bilen) (1963; Arne Mattsson)

- Morianerna (I, the Body; Morianna) (1965; Arne Mattsson)

- Nightmare (Nattmara) (1965; Arne Mattsson)

- Coffin, the Sadist, The (Träfracken) (1966; Lars-Magnus Lindgren)

- Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen) (1968; Ingmar Bergman) ▼

- Galgmannen (Gallows) (1969; Olof Thunberg) [TV]

1970s

- Sensuous Sorceress (Skräcken har 1000 ögon) (1970; Torgny Wickman)

- Deviation (1971; José Ramón Larraz) [co-Spain]
- Night Visitor, The (Papegojan) (1971; Laslo Benedek) [co-USA]

- Devil's Plaything, The (Der Fluch der schwarzen Schwestern; Vampire Ecstasy) (1973; Joseph W. Sarno) [co-Switzerland, West Germany]
- Dirty Fingers (Smutsiga fingrar) (1973; Arne Mattsson)
- Thriller: A Cruel Picture (Thriller - en grym film) (1973; Bo-Arne Vibenius)

- Breaking Point (1975; Bo-Arne Vibenius) [X]
- In Search of Dracula (Vem var Dracula?) (1975; Calvin Floyd) [co-France / USA]

- Metamorphosis (Förvandlingen) (1976; Ivo Dvorák)

- Terror of Frankenstein (Victor Frankenstein) (1977; Calvin Floyd) [co-Ireland]

1980s

- Sleep of Death, The (Ondskans värdshus) (1980; Calvin Floyd) [co-Ireland]

- Bleeder, The (Blödaren) (1983; Hans Hatwig)

- Blood Tracks (Heavy Metal) (1985; Mats Helge Olsson) [co-UK]

- Ghost Hunters (Spökligan) (1987; Mats Helge Olsson)
- Resurrection of Michael Myers, The (1987; Mike Beck, Richard Holm, Henrik Wadling) [short]
- Scorched Heat (1987; Peter Borg)

- Lethal Film (Livsfarlig film) (1988; Suzanne Osten)
- Mask of Murder (The Face; The Investigator) (1988; Arne Mattsson) [co-Canada]
- Moon God (Månguden) (1988; Jonas Cornell) [TV]
- Twelve Months of the Summer (Sommarens tolv månader) (1988; Richard Hobert) [TV] ▼
- Visitors, The (Besökarna) (1988; Jack Ersgard)

- Forgotten Wells, The (Grottmorden) (1989; Anders Nilsson, Mats Helge Olsson)
- Resurrection of Michael Myers Part 2, The (1989; Richard Holm, Henrik Wadling) [short]

- Sounds of Silence (1989; Peter Borg) [co-USA]

- Exit (1990; Stig Bergqvist, Martti Ekstrand, Jonas Odell, Lars Ohlson) [animated short]

TOTAL FILMS:
41

NOTES:

- Some of Mattsson's listed films may be removed once I see them. Thus far I've only seen Mannequin in Red from his early crime cycle, which qualifies. I'm not entirely sure if the rest do.

- The Devil's Messenger (1962) is an anthology utilizing episodes of the short-lived 1959 Swedish TV series 13 Demon Street.

- I've heard I need to take a look at Bergman's The Serpent's Egg (1977) for possible inclusion.

- A mysterious title, Las cuatro noches de la luna llena / "Four Nights of the Full Moon" (1963), has turned up on various movie sites. Supposedly it ran out of money during production and had to be turned into a short that was then screened theatrically. And now it's missing. According to what info has been posted about this online, the director (Sobey Martin) is German, the leading lady (Gene Tierney) is American, most of the supporting cast is Spanish and the producers are Swedish. Bizarre. I'm leaving this off of the main list for the time being.

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Any additions or comments? Post 'em below.

Exit (1990)

Directed by:

Stig Bergqvist

Martti Ekstrand

Jonas Odell

Lars Ohlson

Is there any such thing as too much fun? How about too much entertainment? Too much excitement? No? Well then, how about too much stimulation? Åke, two of his friends and one of their hyperactive young sons have saved up for an entire year to take a dream vacation to an amazing amusement park called "Get Happy." Whatever brings you joy, they've got it! After you enter through the inviting golden gates and exchange your cash for a sack of happy face tokens, you have access to roller coasters, bumper cars, old school carnival games, 3-D movies, circuses, casinos, disco dance clubs, chocolate fountains, video games, live music, endless delicious junk food and much, much more. For, shall we say, more adult tastes there are all manner of drugs, booze and male and female sex workers to indulge yourself in. A sadist with a craving for violence? Then try their gun-down-cute-woodland-animals shooting range!

Feeling overwhelmed by all of the "fun," Åke lets his friends (who are - unlike him - having a blast) go on their way and decides to sit down on a bench for a minute to take a breather. Unfortunately, a whale security guard shows up to push him into rejoining the festivities. The guard is so dead set on making everyone have a good time that he'll force you to smile and laugh... even if it takes pointing a gun to your head! Åke plays a carnival game and wins a giant stuffed panda bear that comes to insanely codependent life. All it wants is a hug. Make that many hugs. Endless hugs you could say. And if you're not hugging it, it will stalk you down until it can find you and hug you some more. There's no escape!

Åke tries to make a mad dash for the exit but has a hard time actually finding it. He's also neglected a park rule that states you can't leave until you use every one of your tokens. He's still got a bag full. Every time he tries to throw them away or give them away, the whale shows up to inform him that he's breaking the rules. And there's an especially strict rule about panhandling. Do it and you get executed. Åke rejoins his friends, has an encounter with a depressed old pig with a laundry list of diseases he's survived and a woman doing a live reading of Shakespeare in an abandoned theater that no one's interested in viewing before he decides to splurge on games, drink and sex. Anything to spend most of his tokens and get the hell outta there. He must however save one token back, which is needed to open the real exit door, but there's even a catch there!

This great, highly imaginative and surrealistic 20 minute animated short from Sweden is amusing and nightmarish in equal measure, so packed with small, clever details that it requires more then one viewing to soak it all in and makes a lot of interesting observations about excess and need for instant gratification in our consumerist, capitalist culture. Åke is far more pensive, generous and empathetic than his friends and, interestingly, the one moment that seems to bring him true joy, giving to the poor and needy, is quickly extinguished by the guard, who's sometimes shown dressed up like a fascist dictator. Not surprisingly, most of the directors have successfully continued on in animation through the years. Especially prominent are Bergqvist, who later worked on the Duckman and Stressed Eric TV shows and made the feature Rugrats in Paris, and Odell, who ended up working on numerous shorts, commercials and music videos for the likes of Franz Ferdinand (which earned him a Grammy nomination), Goldfrapp, Madonna and U2.

Thirty years after its initial release, this is still regularly screened at film festivals around the world. It's available on DVD on several Swedish animation compilation releases, including Livet Från den Mörka Sidan: Animerade Filmer För orädda Vuxna ("Life from the Dark Side: Animated Movies for Fearless Adults") and Alla talar svenska! ("Everyone Speaks Swedish!") English subtitles are available.

★★★1/2

Morianerna (1965)

... aka: Die Verkommenen (The Depraved)
... aka: Hillittömät (Unchecked)
... aka: I, the Body
... aka: Moi, un corps
... aka: Morianna

Directed by:
Arne Mattsson

Filthy rich businessman Verner Vade (Anders Henrikson) appears to get great pleasure in being as cruel and condescending as humanly possible. To him, common folk are “peasants” and “parasites,” while his own wife, daughter and other relatives who live in his home are nothing more than “freeloaders.” Not surprisingly, pretty much everyone hates him and they're all growing impatient waiting around for the sadistic old geezer to croak so they can finally get their hands on his money. Verner tells his daughter Monica (Ella Henrikson) that he'll leave her one of his many homes but only if she'll leave her fiance. When she refuses and threatens to find him legally incompetent to overrule the will, he then informs her that he's really planning on leaving every cent to charity; adding that she's not his real daughter and thus has no say in the matter. Because of what a lying jerk he's been her whole life, Monica can't even tell whether he's telling the truth or not. In even worse shape is Verner's much younger wife Anna (Eva Dahlbeck), who might as well forget it since she'd already signed a prenuptial agreement.

Anna and Monica aren't the only ones who want a piece of the pie. Anna's sister Agda (Elsa Prawitz, the director's wife at the time) is married to Verner's lawyer Bengt Ahlgren (Ove Tjernberg), who's recently been busted embezzling money from his client. Monica's fiance Jonas (Walter Norrman), who she's deeply in love with but maybe not vice versa, insinuates that without the money there may not be any marriage. Anna is having an affair with their neighbor, playboy architect Ragnar Synnéus (Erik Hell) and, for good measure, there's also a flamboyant, perverted nephew named Boris (Heinz Hopf), who stays drunk much of the time, lets rats crawl all over his body and has a thing for sexy blonde maid Rita (Lotte Tarp) who, in turn, is sleeping with a shady waiter named Valter Velin (Tor Isedal), who may have past ties with Verner. In other words, it should come as no surprise when one or more of the above finally decide they've had it and try to bump Verner off.

A few days before his 80th birthday, Verner receives a telephone call to his office from a male who only refers to himself as “Death.” Despite that major red flag, Verner agrees to meet up with "Death" at the man's apartment, which turns out to actually be the architect and Anna's “love nest.” When he arrives and walks into the bathroom, he's caught off guard by the sight of Rita taking a shower. He's then attacked and severely beaten by an unknown assailant. Though Verner's left for dead, his body disappears soon after. Luckily, Detective Durell (Olle Andersson) happened to be passing by Verner's office and overheard snippets of a strange conversation going on between Verner and his cab driver prior to the attack. Already with one clue to go by, Durell volunteers to take on the case and gets to work checking out the entire family. Things get more complicated when Verner shows up at home battered (but as big an asshole as ever) and then someone kills him again... or did he / she / they?

Coming out smack in the middle of the popular West German / Edgar Wallace krimi cycle, this minor mystery has much in common with those films (tons of suspects / red herrings, action set primarily in an old dark house, shadowy b/w photography, etc.) but seriously lacks punch. The production values are rather low and there's no humor, no bizarre camerawork, no real sense of style, no suspense and (worst of all) no real surprises. That all results in a fairly-competent, though dreary, murky, overly-talky and plodding film. The cast isn't bad at all (Hopf is especially memorable) but ultimately can't save the whole thing from being forgettable and utterly routine.

Likely because there was no other way to effectively sell this bland film to an international audience, it had to be misleadingly marketed as a sex film to play up a few instances of nudity. Most countries put Lotte Tarp (who shows breasts and ass in three different scenes) front and center as the star despite the fact she appears here strictly in a supporting part. On the Italian poster, she's billed as “La Sex Bomb.” Here in America, the 1968 press kit calls it “A most candid sensual film” and is filled with topless shots of Tarp. She's the only actor even billed on the Morianna poster and her character is referred to as “...a maid in the House of Sade!” It was also re-titled I, the Body in some places to try to entice viewers who had seen Mac Ahlberg's then-scandalous erotic film I, a Woman (1965).

A good number of mystery-thrillers would come out soon after Morianerna (an adaptation of a novel by Jan Ekström) was made that were far more graphic with the sex and violence, essentially nudging this down the path of completely obscurity. It never received a VHS or DVD release here in America as a result, nor anywhere else other than Sweden to my knowledge.

★★