Sennentuntschi

"Sennentuntschi" is the most excruciatingly tedious horror movie I have ever watched, and I have seen over a thousand horror movies.

Nothing of any interest happens in the movie.

Even if it did, you probably wouldn't notice, because everything is so drawn out and protracted that you won't be paying attention.

The movie seemed to actually "begin" at about the forty five minute mark. Everything that led up to that was basically irrelevant, or could have been established in about two minutes.

There were a couple of head-scratching (or face-palming) moments right at the beginning of the movie, making me think it was going to be bad, but at least entertaining. In one scene, after a girl says she saw a boy in the wilderness, police show her photos of missing boys on a computer, and she recognizes the one she saw. "That's impossible," the policeman says. "He went missing thirty years ago." Ooh! Mysterious. But not as mysterious, perhaps, as the question of why the policeman is showing the girl photos of boys from 30 years ago, since, if they were even still alive, they'd all be well into adulthood now, and the photos would be hopelessly outdated.

Shortly thereafter, a priest is found hanging by the neck from a bell tower. "So it's suicide, then?" asks an onlooker. Uh? Wouldn't that be perfectly obvious? Either it's suicide, or a murderer carried the victim to the top of the bell tower, tied a rope around his neck, and dropped him - all without alerting anyone near by. Hard to think the priest would have put up no struggle for that ridiculously protracted and painstaking murder-method.

The movie is apparently based on an Alpine myth about the Sennentuntschi. With that kind of ageless pedigree, with a story that would be unknown to most, from a remote region... how could it have been this dull? I guess the myth is about a created woman. That is what the movie is sort of about. It is so light on detail, and so heavy, heavy, mercilessly heavy on padding, that I don't really know and I. Don't. Care.

I knew I was going to love this film when the opening scene was a mushroom hunt!

It all begins, when a man, trying to escape the city, heads off to work on a farm in a remote area of the Swiss Alps.

He boards with two shepherds- aging man and his mute nephew.

And as they start to get acclimated with one another, the older man shows the city boy his secret project- an absinthe distillery.

They start to get totally wasted on absinthe on a nightly basis. Until, one night, they decide they need a woman...and there's only way to do that. At least, so goes the old legend...

Three lonely shepherds use a broom, straw, and rags to make the woman of their dreams. And the devil takes pity on them, by bringing her to life. The three men use her to cook, clean, and for their own sexual pleasure...until she takes revenge on them by skinning them alive, and making dolls from their bodies.

The three men do successfully manage to conjure a Sennentuntschi. And the two older men, quickly start raping her...in increasingly violent fashion.

Until she snaps and kills all their goats...skinning them alive. Striking fear into the men's hearts.

And considering this film is non-linear in nature. We have a subsequent timeline playing out. Where we are following a police officer from the local village, as he investigates the discovery of a mute woman who wanders into town. He is trying to find out who she exactly is, and where she came from.

And this all culminates in one of the most confusing and convoluted endings I've EVER seen. There is so much sh*t going on at the end...timelines converging; assumptions being made; ruses playing out; and a(albeit foreshadowed) twist that gives the Belgians and French a run for their money...before another, final twist, that is a bit more cliché (but gets you thinking).

Even when it's all over with, you are still kind of confused because there is just way too much to take in, packed into a tiny timeframe...it's almost impossible to fully comprehend.

The whole part with the priest and girl having a daughter didn't make much sense to me at all...it totally comes out of the blue and smacks you in the face.

They should have just scrapped that part of the ending for the sake of flow and understandability.

But, even with these flaws, this film is pretty awesome! I would still recommend it, just be prepared to pay full attention at the end, or risk missing something and being confused as all f*ck.

7.5 out of 10.

This isn't so much a horror movie as mystery. Which is fine by me as I am actually not a big fan of typical horror and mainly watched it because of the country it is located and made in.

Swiss Alps are a beautiful place for some mystery. Especially for the one based on a folktale. The pace of the movie is pretty slow, but it actually fits well to the story and enjoyable. Some scenes are still too gruesome to watch, but luckily there aren't too many so it doesn't ruin it. The worst was the goat scene, I won't add spoilers to it.

Great acting as well. Roxane Mesquida is especially impressive since she doesn't have any dialogue but manages to portray so many emotions in a very intense way.

It is hard to describe the movie. Especially because you would be giving away plot points or other very important things about the movie. What I can say (without having read anything about the story that is being told here) though, is that this is a very intriguing and very well made thriller. If you didn't know it yet, Switzerland is taking a stand here with a great movie.

The story is worth watching and the way it is shown, will give you some extra thrills here and there. This might very well be a great companion piece to Ketchums "The Woman". There is more than a little social criticism and other stuff in this movie. If you want to see them. Or you can just be entertained and thrilled, from beginning to end ... (with potential to watch again).

It is said (or at least was at the screening attended) that Sennentuntschi is Switzerland's first genre film. One hope that they make more, for its quite a cracker. It draws upon a little used myth (I can think of maybe one other film that makes use of it) of lonely Alpine shepherds who sew a lady companion out of straw and cloth. By and by the lady comes to life, loves them and keeps their home, until she falls out of favours and takes her vengeance. Things are a bit more complicated than that here though, with a strange and silent lady (Roxanne Mesquida) coming to a village from the mountains and immediately arousing superstitions. Local inspector Reusch is on her side, but something bad is afoot, and events in the village are parallelled by the affairs of a moutainside shepherd, his son and a city man who joins them. The film is quite a slow burner, focused on the slowly boiling drama of its characters and the tensions between superstition and reason, religion and modernity, man and woman, primal and tamed. Set in 1975 when there were still places in the Alps caught in older times, there's a convincing sense of removal from reality and rustic unease, quiet disquiet that works well with the sublime locations, crisply shot by Pascal Walder. Solid performances across the board give the film an effective dramatic tone, Nicholas Ofczarek giving the character of Reusch a sense of earnest dedication tinged with affecting romantic, longing, Andrea Zogg bringing righteous fire to his powerful priest character and Roxanne Mesquida especially good in her silent role as the rumoured Sennentuntschi, conveying feral grace and danger with an edge of primal humanity. Things come to a head in nicely intense and fairly shocking fashion with a cruelly punching final block, although a slightly tricksy approach to the narrative dilutes the ultimate effect. All in all its a quality and worthwhile watch, though not as potent as it could be. It takes a little too long to really come aflame I think, while things are ultimately satisfying there isn't so much suspense in earlier scenes. And for all the interesting oppositions the film brings up with its narrative, it doesn't really end up saying anything particularly interesting, though never less than satisfying entertainment its standard genre film mechanics do slightly sap its underlying interest. Still recommended though, 7/10