The Visitors (1988)

Frank, Sara and their two children have recently moved into the house of their dreams on the countryside. Frank is disturbed by mysterious sounds and somebody tears down the wallpaper from ... See full summary »

Director:

Jack Ersgard (as Joakim Ersgård)

Writers:

Jack Ersgard (as Joakim Ersgård), Patrik Ersgård

Stars:

Kjell Bergqvist, Lena Endre, Johannes Brost

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Kjell Bergqvist	...	Frank
Lena Endre	...	Sara
Johannes Brost	...	Allan
Joanna Berglund	...	Lotta
Jonas Olsson	...	Peter
Patrik Ersgård	...	Brevbäraren
Bernt Lundquist	...	Civilpolis
Lena Lindblom	...	Expedit
P.G. Hylén	...	Polis i vägspärr
Mats Lundberg	...	Polis i vägspärr
Leif Grönvall	...	Demonen

Storyline

Frank, Sara and their two children have recently moved into the house of their dreams on the countryside. Frank is disturbed by mysterious sounds and somebody tears down the wallpaper from the walls. He contacts a ghost-hunter, Allan. While conducting an experiment, Allan is killed, and Frank has to find out the truth himself. What's so special with the mysterious room in the attic?

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Plot Keywords:

house | attic | supernatural power | paranormal phenomena | family relationships | 

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Taglines:

En svensk thrillerrysare

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Release Date:

29 April 1988 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

The Visitors

Filming Locations:

Aspvik, Värmdö, Stockholms län, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

SEK 9,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

MVM Entertainment, Film 87 88 Besökarna KB

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min 98 min (video) 102 min (video) 102 min (video)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[Allan sets up a sinister-looking laser machine in the living room]
Frank: Uh, are you sure you know what you're doing?
Allan: Of course! Hell, I built this thing myself!

User Reviews

Better than it should be but still somewhat flawed

Renting a house in the Swedish countryside, a family comes to believe the house is possessed by demons and consults a trained demon hunter to help rid them of the dangerous beings inside before it harms their family.

Overall, this one was quite an exciting and enjoyable effort. One of the more enjoyable aspects of this one is the fact that there's quite a large amount of time taken up here with getting this one to the point of featuring the house as actually being haunted by real demons here as the entire middle section here is loaded with all sorts of paranormal hunting sequences that have been featured throughout the genre for ages here with all sorts of hunting techniques and scanning equipment being utilized to fight off the strange energy found throughout the house. Coupled with the tactics of haunting here with the pounding footsteps, slamming doors and ethereal voices throughout the night it really paints quite an effective picture that really sells the haunted nature quite well. As it adds these features with the previous sequences to denote the haunted nature of this effort, the complete picture of what's happening here is even more accomplished here and it really goes to add a more imposing presence to this one with it's chilling backstory involving the demonic rituals conducted in the walled-off room as well as the ghostly actions in the finale with the attacks that come into far more focus and impact with a spectacular burning-down-the-house Gothic finale to cap it all off with. These are enough to overcome it's few flaws here, most notably it's incredibly contrived and familiar story that mashes together two similar efforts without much difficulty in spotting where the influences came from which simply highlights the overall familiar ground it traipses through. It's not in the slightest original and doesn't do much to dissuade that viewpoint by taking on those common scenes without really making any big difference in them. As well, the film does take quite a while to get through here as there's not a whole lot of interesting action taking place early on with them moving into the house being just quite excruciating to follow and makes for a wholly difficult time with this not really getting the action going while it shows them settling into the house. It's a long series of boring scenes featuring them arguing with each other or goofing around before launching into the attacks well over half-way into it and that doesn't make for an intriguing effort at all. Otherwise, this one was quite enjoyable if you overlook those flaws.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Graphic Language and children-in-jeopardy.