Salmo 21

I can see perfectly well why certain people would reject this movie out of hand, since - in spite of their possible expectations - this is not a horror film, but a scathing indictment of fundamentalist religion and an examination of the destrucive impact that the sexual abuse of children will have on many lives.

If I had to criticise the film I would have to observe that the tone is somewhat over-emotional at times, in many of the characters, including the main lead, whose inner "demons" have produced a volcano of repressed feelings which are obvious throughout the movie.

The performances are strong, the writing is decent, the imagery and the direction are effective and the message is laudable.

Do the nay-sayers really believe that this is a bad movie, or do they regard it as simply striking too close to home.?

In the interests of balance, I have given this a rating of ten, but it actually deserves a seven.

According to the IMDb this film has a run time of one hour fifty four minutes; on Netflix the run time is a little over seventy minutes so presumably the version I saw had quite a lot removed. I watched it in Swedish with English subtitles.

Henrik Horneus is a popular priest, preaching at a church in Stockholm. He has a fairly modern outlook; telling his parishioners that there is no such thing as Hell. One day he learns that his father, who was a priest in a remote rural area, has died in suspicious circumstances. He heads there to try to discover what happened. Strange things start to happen; he hits a woman with is car but upon stopping there is no sign of her. On his arrival he meets a girl who transforms into a terrifying apparition. When he talks to the locals he learns that his father was a very different sort of priest; hellfire and brimstone always featured in his sermons. During his stay Henrik has a number of frightening ordeals that lead him to question what he has believed for so long.

I thought this was a solid little horror movie. It may not have been full of death and gore but does feature some genuinely chilling moments... the 'girl in the barn' scene was the most effective chill I've felt watching a horror film for some time. Religious belief has often been used for horror movies, including some of the best examples in the genre; here it is effectively used as our protagonist undergoes a spiritual change. The remote setting looks good and is suitable atmospheric; it is easy to believe that the small community might believe a priests dire warnings of eternal suffering for those who stray from the path of righteousness. I have no idea what was removed in the version I watched but didn't feel I was missing anything; in fact I didn't know I wasn't watching a shorter version till I came to post my review. The acting is solid; particularly Jonas Malmsjö who plays Henrik. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of religious horror.

A fairly good attempt of venturing into the genre of modern Asian horror, although, with a Scandinavian touch to it. In the story line, we follow when a young priest battles his personal stand point alongside with the modern theology, involving the issue that hell does not exist! However, he will soon experience the contrary when he visits the village where his father recently died.

The move contains some chilling scenes when normal people transforms into demon like characters. These special effects are regurgitated throughout the movie, which, in the end loses its supposed scariness.

Due to this, my drowsy eyes gains control and the only thing that is occupying my mind is the need of a good night rest. That night, I slept like a baby!

I was a bit afraid to watch another flick in the 'horror collection' series. But luckily this one did deliver the goods. The use of the camera was well done and they even washed the colours to add the creepiness toward this flick. Although the effects were CGI it didn't bother me at all because the used CGI to change faces just like they do in Asian flicks. This is also a perfect example that you can make a good horror without blood.

But this movie delivers even more. Due the fact that it concerns religion it also add something special towards religion. They included many questions about religion and some will say this is blasphemy but if you think about it you must agree. In Belgium they had serious problems with priests that misused children on a sexual base. And that's what this flick is about on some parts.

The acting was really good I must say. Especially the younger priest Henrik Horneus (Jonas Malmsjö) did a good job. It's funny that the director Fredrik Hiller chose to add male nudity in it when having sex with a young girl. And for being his first effort into direction he really knew his stuff, the way of editing delivered an extra touch to sometimes some arty shots. He even wrote this flick, but we all knew him as the Frisian Leader in Beowolf (2007).

This was really a nice surprise coming out of Sweden. I won't recommend it to gorehounds but if you can dig Asian horrors or horrors about religion then this is one for you and do listen to the preaching at the end, it will make you think...

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 4/5 Comedy 0/5

I had to give this a higher rating than it deserves because so many have not managed to figure out what this film is and what its purpose seems to be.

This ain't a supernatural horror movie!

This is commentary on abuse, hypocrisy, elitism, and the blind respect of privileged authority figures by the masses, which is made possible by the creation and the manipulation of superstitious beliefs.

The imagery which is used to make these statements belong to the horror genre, but supernatural horror is not the point of the film.

The performances of the actors are very strong, although the director has coaxed out more histrionics from some of them than was probably wise, and the final denouncement in the church is definitely too on-the-nose to be subtle.

But the lessons here are important ones to take on board, for those who - incredibly - still haven't managed to learn them.