La conferencia

Plot

A team-building conference for municipal employees turns into a nightmare when accusations of corruption begin to circulate and plague the work environment. At the same time, a mysterious figure begins murdering the participants.

Cast

Unfamiliar

Verdict

Slasher is a sub-genre I grew up with but honestly was never very enamored with. Give me monsters, zombies, vampires, something psychological but a person in a mask running around being all stabby stabby? Meh.

This Swedish stab at the genre has a couple of things going for it, the killer looks fantastic and the ensemble of characters is varied and much appreciated in a world of generic 20 something pretty people type films.

However, that's mostly it. The whole film is played very safe and doesn't bring much to the table you won't have seen a hundred times before.

It's not bad, but if you've watched many slashers you'll have pretty much seen this.

Rants

I recently watched one of the new Scream movies, you had characters stabbed 20+ times, people stabbed had the knife pulled up through their innards, people smashed in the head with bricks and then 5 4 3 2 1 they're up, running, fighting, chatting as if it never happened. Slasher shouldn't be a genre you can't take seriously and the modern king of slashers should be taking it more seriously. Absurd, laughable and as believable as Roadrunner vs Coyote in it's approach. Can't wait for an anvil to drop on a characters head in the next Scream movie and them to walk it off.

Breakdown

Great mix of characters Solid killer appearance.

Mediocre overall Instantly forgettable.

The Conference is polluted with a cast of deeply unlikable characters who get exactly what is coming to them. Though not without subtlety (a few of the good people are sacrificed along the way) this is essentially a satisfying vengeance film for people who hate corporate shills and the jerks who are destroying the environment.

The violence is genuinely disturbing so I wouldn't recommend this as a light watch if you're in the mood to just laugh, but there are a few undeniably hilarious scenes. Konferensen is primarily driven by a lot of schadenfreude.

This is also one of those flicks where you can somewhat sympathize with the killer even though they're completely out of line by the end.

First the story line, A team of municipal employees go for a team outing in the name of competency building exercise, which ironically becomes one when a killer starts killing the team and the crew!

Not a comedy-horror :- I wasn't expecting too much horror as this movie was mentioned as a satirical-horror or a horror-comedy.

Pros & Cons :- + The movie takes a pretty intense horror tone without wasting much time, even as soon as the crew settles in.

+ There maybe some comedy elements, but this was a gripping, intense and a full length horror movie for me!

+ I also liked how certain characters with negative intention suffered gruesome deaths.

• I felt the killer got lucky to find most of his victims alone and vulnerable.

Overall, you would still enjoy this movie despite its minor flaws!

Wow, the Swedes make some fun horror films! This is a slasher based at a work retreat, a conference, for a company no one would want to work for; complete with psychotic boss, his adoring female sidekick, sycophantic employee and all the subjugated employees expected.

The dubbing isn't great, but wasn't really an issue for me. The acting was decent, especially for a horror film. The killer was fun, although no great mystery.

The real fun was the banter between characters and the suppressed feelings that came out for some at the end. You could really feel the angst and peer pressure these kind of work dynamics bring out between colleagues.

The ending was satisfying and the action was well paced, somewhat brutal and even funny at times ( I almost feel guilty for saying brutal and funny in the same sentence, but doesn't that add something in a genre film?).

Overall a fun little film for those who like slashers. A nice addition to the genre.

When I saw that this is a Nordic horror, I pretty much knew it was going to be a comedy as well. The horror genre, even tho it is quite ok in that part of Europe, took the comedy route little by little, and I have to say, it now comes close to perfection. An incredible blend of comedy and kills, fast paced, quirky and overall fun, Konferensen is definitely a must see!

It manages to draw you in with an easy formula, excellent dialogue, great characters, the simplest of location - in the woods horror - but what great woods they got, a plot that reveals itself to be easily predictable yet nevertheless, fun!

The killer has a nice mask, which is always a bonus in these situations, his reasons are understandable yet see through, but the kills are very inventive. Lovely cut scenes between hunts and partying, kills and drinking, make this movie a lovely experience.

I overall knew from the start that I was going to enjoy it, thus I pressed Start with a few expectation, so I am very happy to say, I was not disappointed. This is why I am definitely going to recommend this to everyone, a movie that deserves a little recognition, because it's funny, fresh and well executed.

Cheers!