Sidste time

The movie is about a tv-show which is called "Sidste time". It`s a documentary show that shows the cruelty and reality of the world. The host of the show, Micky Holm, are always trying to get the best real-life story before anyone else. Seven students is trapped in their school building. They sees Micky`s face on a tv-screen in their classroom with his show "Sidste time". He is filming outside the school. The students finds a dead body in the classroom and gets really scared. They`re trying to get out, but every door and window is closed. They screams and knocks on the windows, but no-one can hear them. Soon, they`re being killed one by one. But who is the killer? Is it one of the students? And what has Micky Holm to do with all this? The movie is really scary!!!! I still can`t understand it! It`s a bit confusing, but a great horror movie.

I remember seeing this film when I was a kid and I remembered that it scared the sleep out of me and surely tributed to my current horror fetish. But over the years it seems to have vanished from everybody's minds, into that vast oblivion where only Danish horror films can go. Anyway, imagine my thrill when I happened to find the film on a crappy VHS in a just as crappy local videostore. I got it, went home, let it lay there on the kitchen table until day fell into darkness and further into night. You might call this over-the-top expectations or something, but I was a bit frustrated when the credits had rolled.

"Sidste time" comes off extremely ambitious in one sense and I can't really understand what the negative criticism, dismissing the film as a "standard" or "routine" slasher, because I have NEVER seen a film like "Sidste time". It has a fundamental difference towards other films and the closest thing I can compare it to is the odd and mysterious tone of Lucio Fulci's old masterpiece "The Beyond". While I understand the criticism in itself, yes we suffer from some seriously lame characters carrying out some equally lame dialogs while getting killed off one by one (again), I have a hard time making sense out of the critics missing the weirdness of the film. Because it's in the fundamental weirdness that "Sidste time" collects it's points. The film does start out as a standard piece, but pretty soon you realize that we have no idea what's going on. As if in an episode of Twilight Zone, the characters find themselves stuck in a parallel dimension... or is it the sadistic, blood thirsty TV-show that is a demonizing illusion? Just how much power is contained within the dice of the very satanic Mickey Holm? Or is it just a ghost story? Or are the kids going mad? We don't know, all we can do is ask ourselves the same thing as the film's Augusta, "Why is everything so strange?" It's a heartache to understand what a sensation this film COULD have been. Because as long as the film rely on it's spooky atmosphere and the horrific notion that anything can happen in this pseudo school of horror, it's one of the most haunting slashers I've seen, and probably the best (or is it "the only GOOD"?) Scandinavian horror film ever produced. But quite often this excitement is ruined by your average stupid screenplay of characters spontaneously running away and other unlikely, moronic things. Not to mention what I've already mentioned, that is to say lame and predictable dialogs.

We have good actors, we have a nice dash against media exploitation and we have a sensational engine of suspense being expanded too often. If we had a screenplay that could make the different elements of the film work better together (as it is now, it does a worse job than the kids in the film) and crunch in unpredictable turns of terror, we would have a sensational masterpiece of horror. I never asked for a new "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or a fancy "Dawn of the Dead" with Ving Rhames. I'd donate MONEY, though, to see an understandable remake of "Sidste time". Because it could be marvelous.

PS Schmidt and Jürgensen should be given some credit though, since they were two Danes trying to wake the slasher genre to life a year before Wes Craven actually did it.

I read the book(as well as just about everything else by Dennis that I've gotten my hands on, and, more to the point, eyes pointed towards) before seeing the film, and enjoyed it as I tend to with his writings, so I will be drawing comparisons between the two. While this is not a flawless adaptation(and if you have to go with one or the other, this would not be my choice), it is definitely worth watching for us who seek out his work, and much more satisfying than Backstabbed, the other effort by DJ and Martin Schmidt. Almost everything about this is in varying degrees... including how closely translated the novel(which, I understand, was published at the same time as this was released, with Jürgensen doing it and the script, rather than it being something of his that someone picked up and turned into a movie... I'm not complaining, I was delighted by both) is, which is at times a curse(as it can come off forced), sometimes a blessing(a lot of it really works, I'm not sure I agree with the taking out of all that was so... although there are *clear* moments where what was herein surpassed the text). Let's talk acting; not everyone nails it. Andersson, as Inga, is by far, in my opinion, the one that comes the closest and feels the most genuine, and almost all of the time that has her on-screen is better for it. Bille, as Kenneth, also almost gets it right, at many points. Oksen does pretty good. In the other end of the spectrum, sadly, is Jensen. I like him, I do, but he just does not sell it, I never really believed he was Taus(perhaps he spoke too much... a little joke for the Danish readers...yes, it *was* a joke); I don't know if he's just too far from that type in general, but here, he comes off much more like his character in The Lost Spring(maybe he was still stuck on that?). I personally don't care for how Augusta was done... she looked far more like a mental patient than what I pictured from her description by Dennis, and I didn't always buy her as scared of everything(meanwhile, some of the eye-stuff... great!). Bo Larsen is fine, he's just... well, twice as old as his character seems to be supposed to be. The effects aren't all magnificent, but there are some absolutely excellent ones in there, and really not that many downright poor ones... if really any at all. The direction is mixed... I don't know how wise one particular decision made was, that again differs from DJ's words(I'll take this opportunity to point out that I'm actually *not* just blindly proposing that everything be taken from there and put up on the screen, they are different mediums and what works in one does not in the other, and this does have things that are not in the other, which are *spot-on*), which may count as a spoiler, so I'm not saying it here, but you'll find out from viewing(and hey, if not, feel free to ask me). However, I cannot claim that this didn't make me jump, every single time it tried to(and this wasn't my first viewing), and the ending, whilst admittedly abrupt, was marvelously effective. The cinematography and editing are masterful at select instances. The weirdness and wondering what exactly *is* going on is stronger in, yeah... but it does come across here, and is engaging(as is the feature as a whole). If you're into Dennis Jürgensen and his stuff, I would not hesitate to place this on your "must watch" list immediately. The DVD has a five-six minutes long interview with both him and Martin, and it's not bad at all. It's also got a commentary track, which is quite informational and a listen that is unlikely to disappoint. I recommend this to anyone who fits into aforementioned group, and those who are otherwise interested in this... for the actors, the genre of horror or Schmidt. 7/10

Although I shouldn't really comment too much on a film I haven't seen in many years, I still want to recommend this film to fans of horror movies. I remember all too well when I saw this in the theatre that I was totally "creeped" out.

The plot, as I remember it, concerns some kids who stay late at their school. For some reason they are locked in and there's someone in the school with them, killing them off one by one.

I remember very well the final plot point, and it was a bit of a disappointment, but up until then the film completely had me hooked, scaring me quite a bit. I recommend horror fans try and locate this film, as I will definitely do.

Nowadays Hollywood is remaking Japanese horror movies that continually disappoint. Maybe, since they can't have an original idea to save their life, they should check out more Scandinavian thrillers for a breath of fresh air.

Yes, the Sidste Time's TV reporter wants a very big hit story. He is starting imagining... The students are arriving to the classroom. And in the end, when the last teenager girl is murdered, the TV reporter smiles. SO: he is only thinking! All of the horrific story is in his mind... But the plan will be turned into real life when the students arrives to the school. We don't know is anybody standing (or hanging) below the curtain but we can imagine that. A danish student told me the Sidste time is a big film in Denmark, and the story was published in book too.