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Cecilie and
Mads have just moved into a new house and
is hoping for a new start since Cecilie has just
recently gotten out of the psychiatric ward after
getting raped. She works as a teacher and has just
been assigned a 9th grade class and it seems as if
things are finally looking up for Cecilie. Unfortunately,
a girl that died several years ago soon starts to
haunt her, giving her clues as to what she wants
Cecilie to do. But when no one believes Cecilie, it's
difficult to stay sane.
You'll have to excuse me for being a bit patriotic
but every time a new Scandinavian horror movie comes
out, I'm ecstatic. We simply don't produce many horror
flicks since the business is very limited for whatever
reason. While campy comedies and generic detective
thrillers like "Beck 17 or 18" (seriously, I think
there are more than twenty Beck films out) rule the
Swedish box office charts, indie horror movies like
Frostbiten are left outside the top 20 despite wide
releases and heavy marketing. Cecilie is the latest
horror effort from Denmark, the country that's
responsible for most Scandi horror flicks, and this
time it's time to rip off The Grudge.
Yep, just like every other small nation trying to get
on the horror map in the world, Denmark (AND Sweden
and Norway) usually tries to copy a popular concept
and do little to improve upon it. Cecilie tells the
story of, well, Cecilie. A woman who has just started
working as a teacher again and is suffering from
terrible visions of murder and rape. She soon finds
out that a young girl called Camilla was raped and
killed several years ago and starts to believe that
Camilla wants her to stop the killer before he finds
another victim. However, it's difficult to pursue this
theory as her husband isn't very understanding and
tries to commit her to a psychiatric ward - once again.
Cecilie is actually a pretty good movie to be honest
with you. It's got an outstanding cast, terrific
directing and, well, decent cinematography. The
colours are pale and the scenery, which really is
beautiful, isn't utilized what-so-ever. Anyway, what
annoyed me about Cecilie is that it didn't even try
to be original. Just like most ghost movies involving
a long-haired girl, there's a mystery to be solved and
a killer to be caught before it's too late. I don't
necessarily mind the concept but the people behind
Cecilie seem to have forgotten that they were making
a horror flick after twenty minutes or so and simply
stopped trying to scare us.
This really is a shame as the first twenty minutes are
genuinely creepy and provide us with one really good
scare. After that however, it becomes a mediocre drama
thriller which feels way too Scandinavian and not
innovative enough. It's like they wanted to make a
The Grudge rip-off but didn't dare to make it a pure
horror flick. This has been the problem with several
Scandinavian horror flicks in the past as well (such
as 22 and Drowning Ghost). Potentially good horror
flicks gone to waste simply because they tried to
make the movie so mainstream that they forgot that
they were making a horror flick.
Ultimately, Cecilie is a decent supernatural thriller
and might be worth checking out, but it's definitely
not something memorable or frightening. It feels like
the script was originally meant to be made into some
campy TV-thriller but due to lack of better ideas,
they decided to make it into a theatrical movie instead
and throw some suspense in there. Decent movie but
nothing more than that.
Minor blood, some scars.
Very competent creepy music that could have created
a great atmosphere if only the movie had allowed it.
We also get some generic dance music.
Cecilie is a decent thriller but far from a horror
movie, even though that's what this movie was meant
to be. I can't help but to feel like they were
somewhat inspired by the Danish horror-flop "Bag
Det Stille Ydre" which suffered from the exact same
problems that Cecilie suffers from. Worth a rent but
not a whole lot more.
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