Cover Art

Credits

Director: Antti-Jussi Annila Starring: Ville Virtanen, Tommi Eronen, Viktor Klimenko, Rain Tolk, Kari Ketonen Screenplay: Iiro Küttner Country: Finland

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If you step inside, all your sins are washed away...

If that all sounded a little vague, then good. The less you know about Sauna the better. This is a movie best experienced as fresh as possible, so I'll refrain from discussing any spoiling specifics. What I can tell you about Sauna is its well worth your time. It's beautifully eerie and atmospheric stuff, filmed classically with skill and control. No cheap jump scares or an over-reliance on gore here, it's far more interested in exploring the pain and psyche of its characters in a tale that draws you deeper and deeper into a dark nightmare.

Full of symbolism and thematically rich, dealing with guilt and redemption for starters, the interpretive nature of some of Sauna's finer aspects certainly make it ripe for discussion and repeat viewings, but never does it feel incomprehensible or leave you hanging. It's refreshing to find a horror film with a touch of ambiguity that takes itself seriously in terms of tone and theme, all the while staying on track, delivering scares and engaging completely.

Performances are strong right across the board, and as eluded too earlier, it's a visually stunning film. Right from the opening close-up of a flowing river that reddens with blood, Sauna's a bleakly beautiful experience, and the marsh like setting, shot in dreary daylight, brings an impressive foreboding quality.