Popular reviews

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  Review by Tony the Terror ★★★½ 3

  I stumbled onto this little gem on the IFC prime channel and decided to give it a go even though it’s not one of the probably hundreds of movies “Ive been meaning to watch”. Go figure.

  This is a Finnish horror film set in 1595 and I’ll say that given its a period film and in another language, you have to really be in the mood to pay attention and luckily I was so I very much enjoyed it. 

  Full of great atmosphere and that constant sense of doom and despair plus some creepy imagery I’m not sure I’ll ever forget, this is worth watching in spite of it being pretty slow in parts. I say that, but it’s only 83 minutes so it never seemed too slow.

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  Review by Nikolas ★★★½ 8

  Yeah, i didnt get it.

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  Review by Joachim Andersson ★★★★½ 1

  Still the best horrormovie ever to come out of Scandinavia. And a genuinly scandinavian horrormovie as well. Here's my old review from my dead blog:

  Ok, here goes: Sauna is the best horror movie that Scandinavia has ever produced. So there. On the other hand, Scandinavia isnt exactly well known for it's quality horror output. Norway has produced a couple of nice looking slashers and the nice little chiller De Dödas tjärn, but other than that? Nothing. Well, if I'm forgetting something you're welcome to remind me but at the moment I cant remember one good swedish or danish horror movie. Thankfully Finland is here to claim the throne and show the world that the dreary, dark long winters can…

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  Review by Justin Decloux ★★★★ 2

  The Important Cinema Club Super Scary Movie Challenge

  #3 - A Finnish Horror Film

  After committing a terrible deed, two brothers head out into the swamp with their Russian superiors to map out the country's border. They end up running into some revenge-seeking ghosts.

  Moody, dark and short. It's rare to see a film inspired by Tarkovsky's STALKER clock in at a mere 83 minutes and still create a similar all-encompassing mood while walking the tightrope of getting the viewer to care for the incredibly dark people that live in its centre. I thought the title SAUNA was meant to be abstract, but nope, this is all about sauna's and what they can represent in a religious and philosophical sense.

  I wonder why Director Antti-Jussi Annila was put in director jail after this one. For some unknowable reason, SAUNA was one of our most popular titles when I worked at a video store!

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  Review by Joachim Andersson ★★★★½

  Still a kickass horrormovie that has the audacity to tell a story without telling you things, you know, letting your brain fill in the blanks. Awesome.

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  Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★

  Major props for the dark atmosphere! Great acting delivered between the 2 leading men! However the treatment and or delivery of the films overall message left much to be desired!

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  Review by Derek ★★★

  Now, this movie was OK. Shit, it was pretty good considering the low budget. It was super creepy and atmospheric. It was a slow burn, emphasis on slow, but it still held my attention. All that being said, can someone please tell me what the fuck was going here. I mean, I got the general idea of what was going on. They go to a town where they are forced to repent for their sins via a mysterious sauna(?). Everything other than that, your guess is as good as mine. It wasn't an annoying type of confusion, it was more of a bemused incredulous type of feeling. Things just kind of.... happened. There was little to no explanation or even…

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  Review by Heather Santrous ★★★★

  This is a time period movie set in 1595. It deals a lot with guilt over what happens during a war. Something supernatural (maybe) is going on that is never really explained. In this case, I thought that was a good thing though. The entire movie is very moody which pulled me into it early on. It manages to keep that mood even though it doesn't explain what is going on. I kind of felt if there was an explanation, maybe it would have broken the mood of the movie some. If you can find this one, I highly recommend it.

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  Review by towerofbears

  This is something of a placeholder because I feel like I didn’t give this film the attention that it deserves. I hope to revisit it at some point and write something a bit more comprehensive. No rating for now.

  If you are the kind of person who enjoys historical fiction horror a la Black Death or The Witch, this may be a cool one for you. It’s very high on period detail and has a very spooky atmosphere. The story follows two brothers who are surveying the border of Finland in the aftermath of the Russo-Swedish War. Unfortunately, I found it to be exactly as exciting as you might imagine a movie about surveying to be and it promptly put me to sleep.

  Viewed as part of Hooptober 8 and History of Horror 2021.

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  Review by 🇵🇱 Steve G 🐝 ★½ 7

  Film 8 of Steve G's Worldwide Month of Scary Bastard Films

  Over to Finland for this tedious supernatural horror film about a couple of soldiers who find themselves haunted by the spirit of some girl they mistreated or something. It's set around the end of the Swedish-Russian war in the 1500s so there is a lot of historical references in there that will probably get medieval historians excited but not fairly ill Mancunian copywriters.

  It really does suffer in several ways. Whilst it is nicely shot, for some reason it has no atmosphere at all despite being set in spooky woods and marshlands. It doesn't help either that the two leads are really dull and lacking in any spark or…

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  Review by Constance_Prue ★★★½

  Hooptober 9.0
  Finland

  Sauna is a Finnish horror film set during the Swedish-Russian War in 1595, something I knew nothing about prior to watching. At that time Finland was under Swedish rule; within the film the war has come to an end, and it's time for Swedes and Russians to draw new borders. This is where our two Finnish brothers come in--Knut, a cartographer and Erik, a ruthless mercenary (that matters later) set with the task of establishing the new demarcation line in the wintery Finnish wilderness.

  The setting and grey, foggy scenery is gorgeous and the period costumes look very authentic. There's no threat of being pulled out of the moment here. But the film has a problem of…

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  Review by Dan Bergstrom ★★★★

  Man, who would have thought surveying and cartography could be so messed up?

  Finland serves up a creepy little horror film with Sauna. Two Finnish brothers travel to a remote swamp on the border between Russia and Sweden. Along with their Russian counterparts, they are tasked to draw up new borders. A simple task, perhaps, but this is the late 1500s, and everyone is more than weary from the war. Brothers Erick and Knut have done things they are ashamed of.

  Erick has a tenuous grasp on his sanity. Early in the film, he locks a peasant girl in her root cellar to die for no real reason. Knut is calmer, more reserved. He clearly has his demons as well.…