Séminaire

Ever noticed how, in horror films, co-workers are always portrayed as loathsome and egocentric people that passionately hate each other? And especially when they're away on a retreat or team-building activity together? I think screenwriters do this deliberately to show "ordinary" people who work in offices and watch horror movies to relax - like me - that we don't have to complain about our own colleagues, after all.

The Swedish "Konferensen" is very similar to the British "Severance". In both films, fellow office workers, who can't stand each other, are taken out of their comfort zones to participate, very much against their will, in forced team-building activities somewhere in a remote location. The films also have in common they are both very light-hearted slashers without too much significance, but very entertaining, nevertheless.

In "Konferensen" we have the administrative employees and project-developers of a rural municipality who are obliged to spend a few days in a sort of boot camp, and at the same time celebrate their great recent achievement; - namely the building of a large shopping center on the grounds where a large, expropriated farm used to be. Lina, who has been absent for a few months due to a burnout, discovers that the over-ambitious Jonas has been falsifying permits and cheating landowners. There is also talk of leases for the new shopping center that don't seem to exist, such as IKEA. Can you imagine a shopping zone in Sweden without an IKEA?

When referring to farmers who were forcibly expropriated, you also know that you don't have to guess long for the identity of the bloodthirsty killer who soon starts butchering the participants one by one, whilst putting on the idiotic mask of the project mascot. It is also not the intention or ambition of writer/director Patrik Eklund to bring forward an original and incredibly intelligent horror film. He clearly just had a pitch-black comedy with a lot of blood, creative kills, and a bit of suspense in mind. He succeeds with "Konferensen".

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!

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.

The title refers to my home country across the bay. In Finland, the quality of films and series still varies to an unfortunate extent, and in many areas we seem to have difficulty in exploiting our own strengths. The Swedes, on the other hand, know how to make films of guaranteed quality in every genre.

I'm not a fan of this genre myself, but this film was quite entertaining. Great actors and the ability to laugh at the silly aspects of Swedishness as seen from Finland - of course, it seemed that the filmmakers also understood the silly aspects of Swedishness.

From a Finnish perspective, the characters were quite relatable and also the municipal politics. The film also touched on the pain points of Swedish society, but only very briefly. There was no real message, and I don't think anyone expects that from a film of this genre.

In the spirit of neighbourly love, it was implied that one of the main characters (Ingela) was of Finnish background. Ingela was, of course, a rather unpleasant person. En finne igen! Thanks for this, Sweden ;)

All in all, however, the film was a very traditional slasher film. I don't like this kind of movies. However, this was more entertaining than average in this genre.

Swedish take on the horror genre. Amusing, Charming. Nerdy. But with some excellent slasher scenes.

The bad; this movie takes some time to get going, the first 45 minutes it is just nothing else but an slightly amusing portrait of a group of municipal workers on a training session.

The good: the killing starts at about 45 minutes and from then on it is basically a full blown slasher movie, the Swedish way, with lots of aburd, dry humor the Swedish are good at.

All in all a reasonably nice slasher movie, for those who love this kind of Swedish dry, dark humor. Not recommended, but definitely still a fun watch.