Danish thrillers are a world, or a parliamentary democracy, at least, unto themselves. Whether it’s Lars von Trier’s supernaturally tinged The Kingdom trilogy, 2003’s folk horror Midsommar or 1994’s psychological thriller Nightwatch, they envision a society in which the underlying expectation is that things are orderly and that with diligence and steadfastness things will work out. That weird sound you hear? It’s just the wind — and you genuinely believe that, as opposed to the general American thriller’s viewpoint that the mordant hints you’re seeing are the speartip of the apocalypse. (I’m looking at you, Se7en.)
Thirty years after Nightwatch / Nattevagten — in which a college student, working overnight as the nominal security person at a forensic institute’s morgue, begins pulling at the thread of something that seems off — estimable writer-director Ole Bornedal and some of the original cast reprise their roles in Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever / Nattevagten: Dæmoner går i arv. This coming week I look at both movies — the original an overseas hit that inspired a 1997 U.S. remake — in which the sins of the father are not decades distant. While I can’t yet tell you my thoughts on the sequel, I can recommend the original as deeply unsettling and f’d-up in the best sense. (It’s not streaming in the U.S. but it’s on DVD and Blu-ray, though you’ll need an all-region player. Worth the effort. The new one will stream on Shudder.)
Also, not necessarily for upcoming reviews but to keep you informed of new releases in this vein:
House of Screaming Glass
The daughter of a mentally fractured mother inherits a timeworn schoolhouse from the grandmother she has never met. She descends into a tapestry of harrowing visions and nightmares, unraveling the enigma of her grandmother's identity. It arrives on VOD and DVD May 21.
We Go On (remastered)
Paralyzed by his fear of dying, a man offers a cash reward to the first person who can show him a ghost, an angel, a demon or anything to prove the existence of an afterlife. He narrows the responses down to three candidates: a scientist, a medium and a worldly entrepreneur. Clark Freeman and Annette O'Toole star in this remastered DVD and Blu-ray of the 2016 film, coming out May 21.
Stopmotion
A stop-motion animator is struggling to control her figurative demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Now alone, she embarks upon the creation of a macabre new puppet film. As her mind starts to fracture, the characters in her movie take on a life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her. Coming to streaming May 31 after a limited theatrical release in February,
Previews: "Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever" and more