Director: Nils Alatalo
Year: 2020
Country: Sweden
Alternate Title: Svartklubb
Genre: Body-Horror
Plot:
Arriving at an illegal underground rave, a reluctant young woman joins her friends t the site of the rave at an abandoned factory about to be closed down, but as the night progresses they come to realize something has affected the guests resulting in violent and graphic body meltdowns that could affect them.
Review:
Overall, this was a solid if somewhat underwhelming effort. When this one works best is with the lead-up to the fun and generally brutal body meltdowns that take place here which serve this one quite well. The suddenness of the situation and the shock of it happening to those around them is a fine touch as the repeated symptoms recurring through the patrons add a nice touch of suspense to the graphic encounters to follow as the disregard for the situation results in even more tension as being aware of what’s going through the party adds a lot to this one. That lets the meltdowns take centerstage as the bloody sores and graphic bloodshed manage to provide some sickening moments as they occur both around the outskirts of the party and in full view of the guests. They’re all well-handed and provide plenty of goopy make-up work that’s immensely effective which offers a larger degree of urgency to get out alive due to the obvious impact shown to the body with what can happen. All told, these give this a lot to like.
There isn’t much to hold this one back but it does have a few minor issues. One of the biggest drawbacks is the inherent lack of information regarding what’s happening and how the meltdowns are occurring as that is jettisoned in favor of utterly banal and lifeless character-building moments between the group. Most of the friends aren’t that interesting being typically shallow and hollow partygoers interested in which drug will enable them to score the best high while out on the dancefloor or getting the squeamish friend to loosen up a little bit. Hardly any of this comes off as interesting or original and comes at the complete expense of knowing just what the mysterious drug that caused all the problems is doing to the bodies or what the overall goal is. Since there’s so little dialogue explaining any of this, it feels quite lifeless at times without much filling in the blanks of what’s going on and being forced to guess at everything which isn’t that helpful. Beyond that, it’s not all that bad.
Overview: ***/5
Fine enough for what it is, this effort comes off as a generally fun body-horror effort while only being let down by the sheer lack of information about what’s going on here. Those who like this style or are intrigued by this kind of feature will be the ones who like this the most while most others who aren’t into this kind of effort will want to heed caution here.
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