Sennentuntschi

Watched this on Netflix, intrigued by the description about an old folktale. The film turned out to be somewhat contrary to my expectations, but actually in a good way.

Without giving too much away, the film is a slow-burner that moves on multiple time levels. The flow feels natural, and adds to the mystery, so the chosen narrative approach was a good one. The film contains none of the modern Hollywoodian jump-scare crap - another top-notch decision by the director and writers. The main timeline's '70s setting helps to create the slightly skewered atmosphere of the film.

The film can be interpreted on several metaphorical levels, but it works well even when just taken as a genre movie. All in all, I really liked the idea and its execution. Emotional stuff, really well played.

Be warned though. As said, this is a real slow-burner, and the horror primarily comes from the atmosphere and -- well, you should check it out!

This isn't so much a horror movie as mystery. Which is fine by me as I am actually not a big fan of typical horror and mainly watched it because of the country it is located and made in.

Swiss Alps are a beautiful place for some mystery. Especially for the one based on a folktale. The pace of the movie is pretty slow, but it actually fits well to the story and enjoyable. Some scenes are still too gruesome to watch, but luckily there aren't too many so it doesn't ruin it. The worst was the goat scene, I won't add spoilers to it.

Great acting as well. Roxane Mesquida is especially impressive since she doesn't have any dialogue but manages to portray so many emotions in a very intense way.

I knew I was going to love this film when the opening scene was a mushroom hunt!

It all begins, when a man, trying to escape the city, heads off to work on a farm in a remote area of the Swiss Alps.

He boards with two shepherds- aging man and his mute nephew.

And as they start to get acclimated with one another, the older man shows the city boy his secret project- an absinthe distillery.

They start to get totally wasted on absinthe on a nightly basis. Until, one night, they decide they need a woman...and there's only way to do that. At least, so goes the old legend...

Three lonely shepherds use a broom, straw, and rags to make the woman of their dreams. And the devil takes pity on them, by bringing her to life. The three men use her to cook, clean, and for their own sexual pleasure...until she takes revenge on them by skinning them alive, and making dolls from their bodies.

The three men do successfully manage to conjure a Sennentuntschi. And the two older men, quickly start raping her...in increasingly violent fashion.

Until she snaps and kills all their goats...skinning them alive. Striking fear into the men's hearts.

And considering this film is non-linear in nature. We have a subsequent timeline playing out. Where we are following a police officer from the local village, as he investigates the discovery of a mute woman who wanders into town. He is trying to find out who she exactly is, and where she came from.

And this all culminates in one of the most confusing and convoluted endings I've EVER seen. There is so much sh*t going on at the end...timelines converging; assumptions being made; ruses playing out; and a(albeit foreshadowed) twist that gives the Belgians and French a run for their money...before another, final twist, that is a bit more cliché (but gets you thinking).

Even when it's all over with, you are still kind of confused because there is just way too much to take in, packed into a tiny timeframe...it's almost impossible to fully comprehend.

The whole part with the priest and girl having a daughter didn't make much sense to me at all...it totally comes out of the blue and smacks you in the face.

They should have just scrapped that part of the ending for the sake of flow and understandability.

But, even with these flaws, this film is pretty awesome! I would still recommend it, just be prepared to pay full attention at the end, or risk missing something and being confused as all f*ck.

7.5 out of 10.

This is not a masterpiece, but not at all bad either. I bought this on Blu-ray because it is shot in ''Schwiizertüütsch'' (spiced with some French) and a genre piece at that. The Blu-ray contains English subtitles.

To avoid unnecessary confusion for the viewer it is good to know that the beginning and the end of the film are set in ''the present day'' while the rest in between is set in 1975. Events in 1975 are not told in strict chronological order. To clarify things toward the ending (which is considerably faster paced than the beginning of the movie) two recap sequences are inserted.

The screenplay is perhaps overcomplicated, containing several crossing storylines. In hindsight quite a lot in the course of events depends on coincidences plus the fact that several characters are unable or unwilling to speak. Still, everything comes together neatly.

The present-day sequences, especially the one at the beginning, unnecessarily add to the confusion. They could have been left out without harming the story. I suspect they are there only to provide a final twist, but this could have been done just as well by moving the entire present-day part to the end, as a kind of epilogue.

In conclusion, this is an interesting picture. A bit confusing at times, but to that there is a perfect solution: watch it all over again.

The Blu-ray contains a making-of, information on the shooting locations and a German-dubbed soundtrack as well. Oh, and nice music overall. I liked the Serge Gainsbourg song that at some point breaks the action.

It is hard to describe the movie. Especially because you would be giving away plot points or other very important things about the movie. What I can say (without having read anything about the story that is being told here) though, is that this is a very intriguing and very well made thriller. If you didn't know it yet, Switzerland is taking a stand here with a great movie.

The story is worth watching and the way it is shown, will give you some extra thrills here and there. This might very well be a great companion piece to Ketchums "The Woman". There is more than a little social criticism and other stuff in this movie. If you want to see them. Or you can just be entertained and thrilled, from beginning to end ... (with potential to watch again).