Kuutamosonaatti

One of the rare Finnish efforts in horror movies, Olli Soinio's Kuutamosonaatti is a tale of scandalous model that is sent to Finnish small town in north after some mishappenings in Milan, to cool it off for a while and let the dust settle. But there are more hardships ahead, as local maniac family's eldest psychotic son starts to harass her with dramatic results.

Watching Kuutamosonaatti can be a mind altering experience. You'll probably hate the movie, or love it. I remember watching this one first time years ago, and have been a fan ever since. Kuutamosonaatti has some of the most demented and questionable characters in the Finnish movie history, and the way it depicts a small northern Finnish village and it's inhabitants would probably scare away every possible tourist in the world. The movie has loads of both intentional and unintentional comedy, and to me it flies way deep into the Turkey Territory.

It's not a turkey because it would be badly acted or badly produced, without any professionalism. Most of the characters are spot-on, no matter how small or large their part is, or how twisted or strangely hilarious the going gets. The acting is mostly good, but the most of it is so over the top that the mood turns from scary into laugh-riot inducing. Maybe out of inexperience in making any kind of horror movies, the director Olli Soinio fails to deliver the real horror effect on it all, and instead what has meant to be menacing and creepy, turns out to be really cheesy and funny. Kari Sorvali as Arvo Kyyrölä the maniac easily steals the show with his corny one-liners, spot-ugly looks and over-the-top blown mannerism.

My rating for the movie is a some kind of median: As a movie it is around 3 or 4 out of 10; as a camp entertainment it deserves 10 out of 10. Still, so far it's the closest thing of Texas Chainsaw MAssacre that has come from Finland. I sure hope some company makes the effort to release this on DVD.

This is my truth. What is yours?

Finland is my favorite country in the world for a couple of reasons. Beautiful nature (as it's the Land of 1.000 Lakes), incomprehensible but awesome-sounding language, and - most of all - because they have the most and the best metal bands. Also with regards to my other great passion, horror movies, Finland has a few titles it can be proud of, like the classic "White Reindeer", the folklore gem "Sauna", and the exquisite more recent work of talented writer/director Jalmari Helander ("Rare Exports", "Sisu"). "Moonlight Sonata" - or "Kuutamosonaatti" as they so lovely say in Finnish - isn't a national treasure, but I'm still very glad to have seen it.

This is Finland's take on the contemporary (70s - 80s) popular backwoods slasher/exploitation flick, and worth seeing for the uncanny atmosphere, the breathtaking filming locations, and a handful of truly odd moments.

After causing a bit of a media scandal, the gorgeous but spoiled fashion model Anni Stark is forced by her manager to avoid the spotlights for a while and spend a few days in a remote cabin in Lapland. Here, Anni is terrorized by a local hillbilly on a tractor and loses her (not-so) loyal dog to a freak who howls at the moon whenever he breaks out of his cellar.

In fact, compared to other female protagonists in this sort of films, Anni can't really complain. She doesn't get raped, beaten up, or traumatized for life, which - ironically - makes "Moonlight Sonata" a rather tame and slightly disappointing backwoods horror effort. Still, there's suspense aplenty, lead actress Tiina Björkman regularly showcases what a perfect body she has, and the two driveling rednecks - Arvo and Sulo - are eerie as hell. There are only two genuine horror moments in "Moonlight Sonata", but they are definitely grisly. Apparently, there also exists a sequel, but that one is even more obscure and impossible to track down.

Small and almost forgotten Finnish horror flick is something you should not miss. If you are tired to death with supernatural monsters and over-intelligent psychos who always manage to reach their goals this small movie may be a welcome alternative. Everything that is somehow scary is that in a natural way and you can imagine it to happen to you too. But this does not mean that the film is boring, the plot is full of clever little quirks that keep your interest up all the way up to the end.

It is a good solution that at the start the film could induce you to make false assumptions in regards to the plot. I cannot talk of clichés because Finnish film industry hasn't made too many horror movies and this one shouldn't be compared to foreign ones too harshly. What the film does not really attempt to support is the Finnish landscape and culture which results in that the community appears as a bit stereotypic one. The best work is done by Kari Sorvali who seems to transform into the village idiot role exceptionally well. If a horror movie can be 'cute' this one perhaps is it?

Let's keep this little comment of mine simple and to the point. Moonlight Sonata is a hillbilly horror flick from Finland that revolves around a smoking hot model (she gets naked) who's being seriously hassled by the small town wacko. Throw in a mysterious behemoth of a man who has an affinity towards canines and some solid black comedy, and what you got is a surprisingly good film.

The more I think about Moonlight Sonata, the more I like it. Almost every aspect of the film was done well; especially the small things.

When it comes down to hillbilly horror the first and foremost thing that should work is the hillbilly characters. The character(s) playing the menace should be memorable either through their actions or their personality. And if we're lucky, which we are in this case, that hillbilly should be memorable in both categories. The nutso personality this hillbilly gave off was an absolute blast. He came off like some type of obsessed celebrity stalker, and it worked really well. And whoever thought of the idea of his ride to be a tractor....that person should get a raise. Badass ride.

I can go on and on about the hillbilly, the giant lumbering man, the effectiveness of the small amount of dialogue, the snowy isolated setting, but I won't. I'll just say if you want to see a solid little flick, do yourself a favor and check out The Moonlight Sonata.

The set-up for Finnish horror The Moonlight Sonata has plenty of potential, with sexy fashion model Anni (Tiina Björkman) stranded in a remote skiing cottage where she is menaced by redneck Arvo (Kari Sorvali); later, Anni is joined by her younger brother Johannes (Kim Gunell), and the pair must defend themselves from attack using whatever means are available to them. The film's other characters include Arvo's hulking mentally impaired brother Sulo (Mikko Kivinen), who likes to howl at the moon, their crazy old mother (Soli Labbart), and a cousin who works in a butcher shop.

Stylishly shot, making good use of the remote locale and the snowy landscape, The Moonlight Sonata is a great looking film with plenty of atmosphere, but suffers from a lack of gory violence. With just two protagonists (who are clearly going to survive) and one main villain, the film is virtually blood-free. It sorely needed Arvo's relatives to help him lay siege to the cottage, with Anni and Johannes dispatching their attackers in inventive and bloody ways (à la Straw Dogs), but the rest of Arvo's clan remain largely uninvolved. In fact, the only people to meet a grisly fate are a TV license man who is in the film for just a few minutes, Sulo sticking a sickle in the guy's head, and Arvo, who dies when his tractor explodes.

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for Björkman, who provides the film with some welcome gratuitous nudity.