Hidden first thoughts

Today the first two episodes of Hidden aired on Viaplay. The series is the latest big budget effort in an improving Scandinavian mainstream fantasy scene. Since only two episodes have aired, we’ll leave a complete review for later, and only look at a few things in the first episodes. “Aired” is not the correct term,…

Hidden preview

The Scandinavian TV & streaming network Viaplay is jumping on the local supernatural / fantasy wagon with Hidden, an urban fantasy drama based on a bestselling novel by Filip Alexanderson. After having been an actor since 2002, Filip Alexanderson published his first novel in 2015, called Förstfödd (First born). In November 2017 it was announced…

Watch Valdemar for free

In addition to professional, theatrically released features and independent low budget films, Scandinavia has its fair share of zero-budget amateur films. One of them is Valdemar, the Viking-influenced horror short you are welcome watch right here, right now. Valdemar is the 37-minute Swedish horror short released in 2017 and directed by Krister Twizz Forsberg, Erik Hansson…

Operation Ragnarok preview

A submarine born virus, a quarantined city and infected monsters are the key ingredients of Operation Ragnarok, which opened yesterday in Swedish cinemas, after an exceptionally long production period. Formerly known as Zone 261, writer-director Fredrik Hiller’s Operation Ragnarok (original title: Operation Ragnarök) will be the last Swedish horror/fantasy film to premiere in 2018, which…

Finale preview 2

Today is launch day for the new Danish feature film Finale, that was to be Denmark’s first theatrical torture porn film. Based on the award winning book by Steen Langstrup. We first reported on the film in 2015 when it was scheduled to open in theatres in October 2016, but it’s not until today that the…

Recent and upcoming DVD releases

Halloween and the weeks leading up to Christmas is the right time for genre movies to be released on home video. People are in the mood for horror, the nights are getting darker and if you’re the cool uncle you need to place scary films under the Christmas tree. This autumn several Scandinavian films arrive…

Watch Insane for free

The Swedish direct-to-video slasher Insane was released on DVD on October 31, 2010 – Halloween night – but is currently being distributed on Youtube, and is free to watch for anyone. What is quite amazing for a Swedish horror film is it’s viewing numbers! In the 1990s, director Anders Jacobsson made one of the most culty of…

Whispers from the grave preview

Black magic is not the most common theme in Nordic horror or fantasy, so thankfully it is a theme in the upcoming Danish horror-comedy Whispers from the grave. Written and directed by Sohail A. Hassan and produced by Jannick Raunow, Whispers from the grave (original title: Lad de døde hvile, meaning “Let the dead rest”) has…

Alone in Space preview

The first proper Swedish science fiction film in many years is coming to cinemas today. Alone in Space is a sci-fi adventure for children but also a hommage to genre classics their parents grew up with. Directed by Ted Kjellsson, Alone is Space (original title: Ensamma i rymden) started shooting in July 2017 and is…

The Quake is good business

After one week in Norwegian cinemas, The Quake is shaking up some real business and on its way to become a success, just like its predecessor, The Wave. The opening weekend alone was the strongest in 2018 for any movie. In its first weekend more than 155.000 Norwegian film fans went to see Oslo shaken…

Vidar the Vampire preview

Today another Norwegian indie horror opens in cinemas. Vidar the Vampire is the debut feature of two directors and mixes dark comedy with horror elements and politically incorrect satire. Vidar the Vampire was actually finished last year and premiered at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund in August 2017, and has also been shown…

The Quake preview

Roar Uthaug was an established director in Norway when he flooded Norwegian cinemas with The Wave in 2015. Now the sequel is here, in which director John Andreas Andersen takes the disaster to Oslo. The Wave was Norway’s first proper disaster film and pulled a huge crowd to cinemas, with more than 800.000 tickets sold.…

Review: Room 205

A ghost slashes students in this Danish teen horror that touches on Nordic social issues in a merger of two successful genres that were not common in Scandinavia at the time it was made. As we have seen, for example when Norwegian horror movies started to take off in the early 00s, small countries don’t…

Review: Sargad

They save female-driven revenge movies is the hottest in exploitation cinema these days. Sweden’s most recent genre entry Sargad is part of that trend. Written by and starring Sarah Giercksky, Sargad (a Swedish word meaning hurt, damaged, broken) tells the story of what happens when Elina, her younger sister and mother spends a few days…

The art of Thelma

Poster and art gallery in honour of the record-breaking number of Amanda nominations for Thelma, Joachim Trier’s supernatural drama that became one of the most applauded Norwegian genre movies in recent times. The young student Thelma moves to Oslo where she falls in love with another girl, and soon discovers that her feelings trigger inexplicable powers. This summer,…