Horror-comedy is a Swede success
Bloody and brutal with a game cast
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Netflix
Swedish horror-comedy The Conference balances the two genres extremely well.
In similar style to 2006 Brit flick Severance, a team-building conference for municipal employees turns into a nightmare when a mysterious figure begins murdering the participants.
Helmer Patrik Eklund and his cowriters have a great time with their game cast and wisely include as many amiable characters as nasty ones you wouldn’t mind seeing on the wrong end of a bloody weapon.
And boy does the killer make use of several tools and objects to lay waste to his victims in the dull, earthy-coloured setting.
Blood and organs flow freely during a series of kills that would make Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers jealous.
Eklund often includes sudden shifts in scenes and sound effects which add to the scares.
The ensemble don’t just sit back and accept their fate. For the most part they are a brave bunch and it was pleasing, and surprising, to see elderly characters stepping up to the plate and kicking some a**.
The cast and script superbly encapsulate a team at odds with each other when it comes to beliefs and morals, as well as the mundane nature of most business retreats.
Adam Lundgren plays oily, selfish team leader Jonas in an oafish way that allows him more charm than he deserves, while Katia Winter’s flawed
Lina embraces her battle to reach horror movie final girl status.
Claes Hartelius (Torbjörn) and Eva Melander (Eva) are a delight, and feel like real people, Maria Sid (Ingela) does a good job with the thankless task of organising the outing and trying to keep the team on the same page, and Cecilia Nilsson’s Anette drops in zingers and prescient points about the ethics behind the company while knitting.
As I often say with foreign films, don’t let the subtitles put you off; put in the work and you’ll be rewarded with a brilliantly boisterous bloodbath to make you want to phone in sick when the next work get-together takes place.
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