THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST (2009)

 

  The first movie in this Swedish series was a great combo of thriller/horror/action and drama while the 2nd film, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, leaned more heavily into the all-out crazy action-movie genre this one course corrects to more of an all-around action/thriller similar to the first film and is a great way to tie everything up. It's kind of crazy that all 3 of these films were made so quickly and were released within the same year in Sweden, especially since they're all so long. There are 2 versions of this one out there, the theatrical 2 and a half hour cut and TV version that clocks in at over 3 hours! 

 I've never seen the Americanized version of the original movie, released only 1 year after the Swedish one was released in America, and it seems really pointless but perhaps because it was done by David Fincher it won't be as disappointing as I suspect.

 In 2018 there was another American film based on this book series, THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB, but that was based on something written after the original author Stieg Larsson had died and was a bit of a bomb so I'm in no hurry to check that out. 

   

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2009)

  In the 2010's(when this was released in America) this seemed to be a pretty big deal, it was based on a series of books and garnered a big fancy Hollywood remake in 2011, but since then it seems to have dropped off of everyone's radar and I never see it referenced at all. That's kind of a shame since this is a really well-done movie that mixes drama, thriller, horror and action. There's Nazis, rape, serial killing and our main character(Noomi Rapace) is a brooding goth/punk chick. The one downside is that this film, and each of the subsequent sequels, are over 2 hours long! They do move quickly enough that it's not a drag but it certainly makes me never want to rewatch any of these very often. 

WE ARE MONSTERS (2015)

  I haven't seen many modern Swedish thrillers but if they're all as hardcore as this one maybe I should start watching them more. Most of this film is pretty depressing as is the norm in these rape/revenge epics. It starts out right away with a kidnapping, a woman getting a bullet in the head and of course multiple rapes. This one doesn't skimp on the gore and the brutality and by the time everything is said and done we get a body put through a woodchipper, a hacked off foot, shotgun violence, other various torture and the showstopper penis bludgeoning. Very accurate title that follows the I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE archetype.  AKA ANIMALISTIC

THE YOUNG SEDUCERS 3 (1972)

  The DVD I have of this is titled CALENDAR GIRLS but the onscreen title shows that it's actually the last part of THE YOUNG SEDUCERS trilogy. Luckily it doesn't seem to have any real plot to worry about and is instead just a series of sexual vignettes told by a gal(Ingrid Steeger) who has run away from a Catholic all-girls school. German star Steeger is very easy on the eyes and things are pretty explicitly shown but do stop short of being hardcore porn despite following a very porn-like formula. Sadly Ingrid only gets nekkid in the last couple of scenes. There's also some very lame comedy thrown in. 

 This has also been released on video as SCHOOL GIRLS 7: CALENDAR GIRLS making it part of a VHS series that I'm not familiar with but would like to learn about. 

MAID IN SWEDEN (1971)

 Christina Lindberg, best known from the classic rape/revenge flick THEY CALL HER ONE EYE, here, in her very first film, plays an innocent young schoolgirl who goes off to visit her swingin' sister in the big city who lives in sin with this dude. She gets naked a lot and learns about sexy stuff from various people she runs into. Most of this sexy stuff includes getting molested and basically raped which, as occurs in many sex films of the 70's, turns consensual midway through the forced humping. Despite what the title tells us she is not a maid, I think maybe they were going for a more acceptable way of saying "made in Sweden". The plot here is mostly non-existent and this is a pretty basic sexploitation film but you do get lots of naked Christina which is always nice. AKA THE MILKMAID(she's not a milkmaid either)

EXPOSED (1971)

 What you basically get here is an earlier, gentler version of Christina Lindberg's THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE. The focus here though isn't on the revenge aspects (in fact I'm not even sure if the revenge actually takes place at all since some of the sequences in this film seem to just be dreams or fantasies of Lindberg's and not really happening) but more on the blackmailing, abuse and exploitation of our main character Lena.  In reality it's all just an excuse to shoot some great-looking nude scenes and get some great photos of Christina who probably looks better here than in anything I've ever seen her in, and that's saying something since she always looks good to me.  The pimp character here(Heinz Hopf) is the same guy from THRILLER and he does make for a good sleazy type.  Here he gets to tie Lindberg up with ropes and perform a sorta-rape(I say sorta because Lena seems more disinterested than brutalized and the line between consensual and forced is blurred by her ennui).  Also in the middle of this film we get to go out to the movies and watch some of TARZAN TRIUMPHS from the 1940's.  Probably only worth a look if you're a big Lindberg fan like myself or a non-discriminating Euro-boob & bush fan but I can see it boring most everyone else with it's slow-pace.  AKA DIARY OF A RAPE & THE DEPRAVED


1971 - The Depraved - Gustav Wiklund by Altanisetta

ANITA: THE SHOCKING ACCOUNT OF A YOUNG NYMPHOMANIAC (1973)

This early 70's soft-core Swedish sexploitation flick is probably only of interest to fans of the sexy Christina Lindberg star of the great rape/revenge flick THEY CALL HER ONE EYE.  This pic came out a year before that eye-gouging epic and features Lindberg as a 17-year old schoolgirl who's also a nymphomaniac.  Just about every few minutes you get the lovely Christina naked either having really depressing sex with various dorks or giving out blow-jobs to filthy old men or doing a nice striptease in front of her family.  How can she be cured of this deviant behavior?  Apparently having an orgasm is her key to happiness and a fulfilling love life.  Not exactly the deepest or most psychiatric-ally accurate portrayal of human sexuality ever put on screen but still a pretty fun little dirty movie for the most part despite the sort of doomed downer vibe our naughty heroine gives off.  It's weird that many of the films of Sweden(even silly sex films) have that unintentionally gloomy feeling to them.  It must be something about living in such a chilly environment or maybe it was just a 70's thing. Check it out for the supreme boob display! AKA ANITA: SWEDISH NYMPHET

THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE (1974)

A.K.A. THEY CALL HER ONE EYE.  In the sub-genre of rape-revenge films I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE has got to be my personal #1 pick while this one could possibly be a close second or maybe third after LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.  It easily beats both of those though in its stylistic choices(matching eye-patches and snazzy trench-coat)  and tops it in not just being about a rape but a long-term abduction, forced drug-addiction, forced prostitution and mutilation.  This is probably why Quentin Tarantino has called this one the roughest revenge film ever.  Being filmed in Sweden helps give it a whole unique style of desolate feeling.  The parts that bring this movie down a bit are some strange plot points(do enslaved hookers get Mondays off?) and a major overuse of super slow-motion during the revenge portion of the film.  Also don't try watching this movie if you're even a slight bit tired cuz it's super quiet in lots of parts which adds to the sorta documentary feeling but doesn't help you if you want to stay awake.  It's also generally slow going at points when you know exactly what's going to happen.  Some versions of this feature hardcore insert shots which used other actors as stunt genitals and don't really add anything except the sight of hairy private parts which might shock your grandma.  Overall it's worth seeing if you're at all a fan of 70's revenge type flicks that mix up the sleazy elements with artsy pretensions or if you ever wanted to see an actual corpse have a scalpel jammed into its eyeball. 

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008)

A good rule of thumb has been to look outside the U.S.A. for quality horror films. Hollywood stopped making movies that weren't geared towards zombies/consumerists a long time ago. According to my girlfriend if you take that big hit teeny-bopper movie TWILIGHT and add some blood and gore and reverse the gender and lower the age of the characters you would have this movie. Having never seen that mass-produced, mall-mentality Hollywood romance garbage I'll take her word on that. Overall I found this to be a really well-done take on a vampire movie. Having the vampire be a young female child made it unique in a way. Bordering on the artsy pretension that many Swedish films seem to fall into it realistically conveys a cold world. Who can't relate to the spazzy nerdish kid who's picked on and terrorized by his peers? I guess jocks and other insecure members of the mainstream can't but I know I can. George Romero's MARTIN is still my #1 vampire movie of all time but this one is worth checking out.