Sidste Time (1995) - Hammy, heavy-handed Danish teen horror

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An evil eye and a terrorized teen ditto stand out on this dark poster for Martin Schmidt's Sidste Time

A tabloid crime show broadcasts from in front of a high school, where a wave of murders is decimating a locked-in group of students.

Sidste Time is written by Dennis Jürgensen (Bag Det Stille Ydre (2005)) and directed by debuting Martin Schmidt (Kat (2001)). The original Danish title translates to 'last hour', referring to the last class of the day for a student.

A generous three heart rating here to this heavy-handed Danish horror that's very teenage-eschewed but has something worthwhile to it: A ghost-story-like fright factor. The acting is fair, - the TV host and the Last Girl performances are especially energetic, - and the dialog is decent. There is a scene with Thomas Bo Larsen (Another Round/Druk (2020)), which falls out of the overall tone of the film as only comical (and it is in fact a lot of fun.) But Sidste Time is also often involuntarily funny.

Schmidt is no great director. Here again and again he interrupts scary starts with scenes of the TV show shooting outside the school that are without real purpose. The film stalls and doesn't have nearly enough terror. It also has a horrible, 1980s-sounding score (by Frans Bak (Men & Chicken/Mænd og Høns (2015))) and a title song by Søs Fenger that is, in a word, misguided. One wonders, was the film prohibited for some incomprehensible reason from being really scary?

 

Enjoy Søs Fenger and Elisabeth Gjerulff Nielsen's misguided title song here

 

Cost: 4.5 mil. DKK, approximately 0.61 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 4.8 mil. DKK, approximately 0.65 mil. $

= Uncertain, but likely a big flop (projected return of 1.32 times its cost)

[Sidste Time was released 22 February (Germany) and runs 77 minutes. Shooting took place for 18 days in a school in Hørsholm, Zealand, Denmark, which was offered for the production because it was closed for reconstruction due to widespread mold decay. In Denmark the film sold 118,496 tickets, coming to 4.8 mil. DKK, based on the average 41 DKK ticket prize at the time. Regrettably there is no info available on the film's performance in Germany, Norway and Finland, where it was also released. Most likely it was tiny releases in those countries, and with a projected final gross of 6 mil. DKK/0.81 mil. $, the film would rank as a big flop. Schmidt returned with Mørkeleg (1996). 1,2k+ IMDb users have given Sidste Time a 5.8/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Sidste Time?

Murk/Mørke (2005) or, Shutter Jutland

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+ Best Mega-flop of the Year

Star Nikolaj Lie Kaas' face is planted in a fog over a man in a boat on this poster for Jannik Johansen's Murk, which has the tagline 'Ingen bør dø alene', translating to, No one should die alone

Jacob and his wife are journalists on the newspaper Politiken. When Jacob's fragile sister takes her life on her honeymoon, Jacob goes to the site of her tragedy in the little town of Mørke in Jutland to investigate her suspicious husband-to-be.

Murk is written by Anders Thomas Jensen (Men & Chicken/Mænd & Høns (2015)) and co-writer/director Jannik Johansen (Stealing Rembrandt/Rembrandt (2003)). Mørke is the name of a real town in Jutland, and the name translates to 'murk'.
Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Clash of Egos/Sprængfarlig Bombe (2006)) plays the protagonist as a really sour, sullen, skeptical, doubtful man; Nicolas Bro (People Get Eaten/Mennesker Bliver Spist (2015)) is frightening as the psychopath brother-in-law Anker. Together the two keep things lively in a somewhat anemic script, which trots around more than necessary in things we have already figured out. The film is handsomely shot (by Rasmus Videbæk (Island of Lost Souls/De Fortabte Sjæles Ø (2007))), if also sometimes stating the obvious, and well scored (by Antony Genn (The Look of Love (2013))).
Bit parts, especially the country cop, lack color. Laura Drasbæk (Daisy Diamond (2007)) is good but has ridiculous hair here. Murk is an overall good, quiet thriller.

 

Related post:

 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch an automatically generated Wikipedia video of Jannik Johansen here

Cost: 22 mil. DKK, equal to approximately 3.33 mil. $
Box office: In the neighborhood of 1.068 mil. $
= Mega-flop (returned around 0.32 times its cost)
[Murk premiered 23 August (Copenhagen International Film Festival, Denmark) and runs 124 minutes. Both of Kaas' parents committed suicide, when he was young. The film sold 100,682 tickets in its production country Denmark, making a gross of somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.068 mil. $, which would make the film a mega-flop. It only played in 3 other markets, only at relatively small festivals. The film was nominated for 5 Robert awards (Danish Oscars) and 2 Bodil awards (Danish film critics awards). There was talks of a US remake in the following years, which never came to fruition. Johansen returned with White Night/Hvid Nat (2007). Kaas returned in Allegro (2005), also with Bro. 2,510 IMDb users have given Murk a 6.8/10 average rating at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Murk?