Szauna

Well, I find myself in a situation where I’m not sure whether this film disappointed me or thrilled me. If I look at it from a strictly horror point of view, I’d say it’s excellent. I felt pleasantly scared after a long time; Nordic swamps in winter are an amazing location for horror. The film also works very well as an allegory for a frequently debated philosophical question. But that allegory is so obvious that basically anyone should get it (and they actually display it for the less attentive viewers). The problem, however, begins when I have to evaluate Wash Your Sins as a film that tells a story. In that case, it can’t be said it was very successful. Yet, despite the mildly confusing plot, Wash Your Sins confirms the high level of Nordic horror filmmaking and it left me with a positive feeling overall. Edit: That positive feeling got deeper with time. Horror movie of the year (2009.03.17)

Annila was able to perfectly capitalize on the environment of the raw Finnish landscape, which is literally full of mud and despair, although the visual of the film offers no distinctive vision or pictorial poetry. The camera is quite austere, but the overall styling was very pleasing to me with its moderation. The same is true of the speech of the Virtanen and Eronen duo in the main roles - it could not have been acted much more economically or more efficiently. As in Valhalla Rising, the problem is the plot component. Although it is based on interestingly non-literal dialogues and open symbols, the problem is that this ambivalence is completely interchangeable with absolute chaos and incompleteness. I'm sad to say that the film only makes sense if we consider the plot as a means of visual escalation - it really is done well, but not nearly enough for Evil Rising to offer something more than a few nice genre pictures and solid jump scares. This horror film obviously wants to be more than just another tale of a haunted place in the middle of nowhere, but it masks indecision and recklessness with three pseudo-intellectual dots behind just about everything that happens. However, the three dots are not enticing, but rather clueless. (2010.05.31)

I watched the movie "Sauna" mainly because of the Czech connection, which should be recognizable in it, but in fact, only Ivo Kubečka plays a significant role. The Czech influence can be seen perhaps only in the finances that went into the film production. Overall, it doesn't really matter because you get a movie that can somehow make an impression on you. It may not necessarily inspire or resonate with you more, but it can still achieve that. (2016.01.28)