stanman23

Nordic horror films really have no filter when it comes to violence especially involving children, something that is not seen in Hollywood or Asian films. Thus probably why there is no rating for the film.

This is a film centered around a group of children who slowly discover that they have supernatural abilities and their playing around with these powers leads to some dark events. These powers give some of these children the ability to let out and vent their internal struggles growing up in abusive situations with some devastating consequences. While others use their powers to help others. There is sort of a theme about how the parents treat their kids can affect the children's behaviour. As the kids play around with their powers and each other, there are some disturbing and mean things that kids do to each other which may very well happen in real life. Yet there are limits to how far one can go and the film shows that while kids may be cruel they do have a sense of what is wrong and right when it crosses a line. There are some racist undertones with the choice of the cast depicting certain characters and actions.

Apart from the disturbing scenes, this film had some excellent cinematography which really puts you in in the children's (who are the main actors) shoes. The zooming out shots are especially effective at giving a bird's eye view of the world.

Overall, would give it a 6.7/10 (rating system only allows whole numbers) for excellent acting by the children and vivid imagery. If they would have left out some of the violent depictions then it would have deserved a higher rating. The writer and director (same person), Eskil Vogt, certainly has some sick ideas that they wished to do as kids.

This is a horror movie so some gore is not unexpected but some of the scenes may be too graphic and disturbing for some viewers. The film breaks a code with its depiction of violence towards a certain group, but maybe it is only distasteful in Hollywood. It is about a Danish family who are invited to a Dutch family's home for the weekend whom they met while on vacation abroad. They soon realize the unpleasantness of their hosts yet try to stay polite as the guests.

Acting and music is on point for the story. Various shots of the protagonist are effective at hinting that something is wrong. There are elements reminiscent of other recent horror movies. The major blow to this film is the unnecessary graphic scenes. It could have got the message through without them.

This is a story about a unique and peculiar child named Hanna (Saoirse Ronan), on the run from presumably the CIA, finding out about herself and the world during a life-death struggle with a heartless American intelligence officer (Cate Blanchett). Blanchett scares as the cold and calculated killer spy trying to eliminate loose ends from an old case. Eric Bana is the protective father who excels at displaying the right emotions. The movie takes us from the serene and snowy arctic where Ronan grows up training to be an assassin to her travels across Europe with a quirky and clueless family on vacation to reach her target destination. We have an interesting performance by Tom Hollander as the evil accomplice chasing Ronan. An exciting ride.