Strandvaskaren (2004)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Mikael Håfström

Writers:

Mikael Håfström (writer)
Vasa (writer)

Release Date:

15 October 2004 (Sweden)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Plot:

Hundred years ago, three students at the Hellestads Boarding School were brutally slaughtered, the murderer...

Plot Keywords:

Boarding School | Suicide | Murder | Fetus | Escaped Mental Patient

Cast

Rebecka Hemse	...	Sara
Jesper Salén	...	Felix
Jenny Ulving	...	Therese
Peter Eggers	...	Leo
Daniel Larsson	...	Måns
Rebecca Ferguson	...	Amanda (as Rebecka Ferguson)
Anders Ekborg	...	Thomas
Kjell Bergqvist	...	Peder Weine
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Anders Ahlbom	...	Vaktmästare Bengt
Tommy Andersson	...	Pappan
Sasa Bjurling	...	Rebecka
Aalma Duran	...	Rebecca som barn
Magnus Ehrner	...	Läkare 2
Stig Engström	...	Professor Ek
Patrick Gillenhammar	...	Felix som barn
Erik Hultqvist	...	Markus
Kerstin Steinbach	...	Rektor Laila
Oskar Thunberg	...	Läkare 1
Bojan Westin	...	Anna-Lisa
Frans Wiklund	...	Yngve

Also Known As:

Drowning Ghost (International: English title)

Runtime:

Brazil:100 min | Argentina:100 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Filmhusateljéerna, Filmhuset, Svenska Filminstitutet, Gärdet, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company:

Greta Film AB

Trivia:

Director Mikael Håfström got his inspiration from Old Norse myths.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Sara and Therese are chased through the house and crash in to the drain pipe, Therese's top changes from red to blue and back again.

Just sit right back and watch it drown.

A student doing an essay on her boarding school's dark past, where three students where killed and the murderer was found dead in the lake over 100 years ago. Discovers a horrifically dark secret behind these murders and that off a recent suicide. The problem is that secret can have some big consequences on that of a respected student and his father who provides beneficial benefits to the school. While, Sarah is digging further into this mystery there's a killer on the loose knocking off people. During the hundredth anniversary of the murders a party is organised, but this night is when Sarah comes face to face with the killer.

When I got to the ending credits I thought what a big waste of time I spent on this very lukewarm Swedish slasher. Other than the freely defined camera-work and glaringly grand location, nothing else hugely appeals or breaks any new ground. Simply it looks great, there's no denying that, but its has to have more then strong visuals to back it up with because it doesn't go anywhere that we haven't been before and the tangled up story aimlessly plods about. If you going make a slasher with a plot structure that we've seen over and over again, you might as well go out of your way to provide the big draw cards, instead it decided to wimp out and come up with a rather mercifully plain offering. The story is very familiar that it's just simply worn out in its supposed twists and it doesn't provide much in a way of suspense, so hopefully you would ask for some blood and gore then, well sorry it cops out on that factor too.

So what does it have going for it then! Well, actually the haunting opening scene with its pulsating score (that crops up at times) makes a better impression than it deserves. The performances are fine, if a little glum I thought, although the characters are your standard stereotypes waiting for their chance to be killed off. Like I said the film's features are attractively glossed up. But in the things that mainly count in these films, all of that falls vapid. Please! Just add something in once in a while to make me sit up and pay notice in this drawn out fodder, because nothing, that is NOTHING (ah other then camera-work and location setting) is formidable and remotely enticing about what's happening. The deaths are incredibly lacklustre with most of it happening off the screen and when we did see one all we get was a puddle of blood in the most basic knockoff. Where was the atmosphere? Sadly with the countryside location and that of gloomy boarding school that has many poorly lit rooms, there was nothing generated to get your skin crawling and that's a sorely missed opportunity.

The screenplay is handled in a wilted manner and the script tediously strings along its muddled back-story and the coincidences that make headway are all a bit too convenient. When things start to unravel you can't stop thinking of why didn't this come sooner, as pointless scenes cement themselves and the whole mystery becomes increasingly ragged with bits and pieces from other slasher flicks that aren't hard to pick up on. When it came to the sudden climax, was that it!? Also the ending was a bit puzzling in what it was trying to accomplish with the suggestion. The concept could've used some blatant energy to help with the stalk and slash moments too. Hence you know you're in for a jagged time when the murder scenes are even more boring than what's happening in between them.

The film's production is well made and it might be a highly unoriginal slasher, but what killed it for me was that is was so dead flat and tame in its execution that it just moulders away without much of a spark.