Succubus (2008)
A mild sensation through its very existance, this independent horror flick breathes new life into the barely existing Finnish (!) genre movie scene.
Earlier attempts at horror filmmaking were hugely compromised by a censorship much stricter than the German "youth protetction", which was first abandoned in 2001, making it possible for the first time to buy and sell "18" rated home entertainment on the Finnish market.
Apart from that, there wasn't really much of a history of genre films, Finland's movie scene is best recognized by the "serious" dramas of Aki Kaurismäki.
Following shortly in the wake of the unfavourably reviewed "Dark Floors: The Lordi Motion Picture", "Succubus" has much more to do with the films of Jean Rollin than the "en vogue" wave of "retro horror"/ "torture porn", which might make it not the easiest watch for the impatient section of the audience.
"Succubus" takes it time to set up its particular mood and characters:
Our protagonist, Henri, can't cope with the untimely death of his wife Laura.
While he looses the grip on his profesional life, things are not much helped either by his discovery that Laura did indeed commit suicide by slowly poisoning herself over the cause of some weeks.
He's getting obsessed by visions of her spirit and seems to fall deeper and deeper into madness as he's trying to find out the reason behind Laura's suicide.
The film certainly takes a sinister direction for Henri when he's calling upon a "succubus" to get in contact with Laura....but I won't tell any more.
This is a surprisingly mature piece of independent horror, succeeding in building up an atmosphere of doom and mystery.
"Succubus" is also pretty clever in keeping you guessing whether or not Henri is really "seeing things" or indeed starting to go insane... until the surprising revelation towards the end.
So those getting fed up with "Hollywood mainstream horror" are offered a real alternative here, which on the other hand probably wouldn't have been possible to ever happen if horror wasn't such an "in thing" worldwide right now- thanks to the remakes, "Saw", "Hostel" etc.
You know what I mean.
The Finnish 2 disc release contains a wealth of extras and has English subs. You shouldn't be put off by the fact that it's just a "DVD-R".
If this goes well, I'm curious what the next Finnish genre flick might be like.
****
The DVD can be purchased right here:
http://www.filmifriikki.fi/~fIm6x000...02008081250571Contact to the shop in English:
http://www.filmifriikki.fi/~qtipx000...999=MSC&Y103=1
