Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.10.2018, Síða 42

Demons And
Day-Drinking
The first Icelandic horror film still packs a punch
Words: Þórður Ingi Jónsson
Film
Buy a DVD of "Blood Red Sunset"
from the director at www.hrafng.
org.
One of Icelandic cinema’s most
interesting hidden gems is argua-
bly the country’s first horror film,
“Blóðrautt sólarlag” (“Blood Red
Sunset”). Made for national TV
in 1977 by the legendary director
Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, who, in the
‘70s and ‘80s, gained some clout
by working for RÚV and the Rey-
kjavík Arts Festival. It aired on TV
but was never released more wide-
ly, meaning it was, in effect, lost
other than some messy VHS boot-
legs. Two years ago, however, the
director wrangled up the original
version, which can now be viewed
on a white-label DVD, availa-
ble to buy from Hrafn himself.
Let’s face it—Icelandic cinema
is often pretty clichéd. Home-
grown films seem to follow some
standard of Scandinavian re-
alism, where everything is uni-
formly grey and depressing. It
was wonderfully refreshing to see
this forgotten low-budget film—
even forty years on, it achieves
what many Icelandic films aspire
to in terms of mood and setting.
Boogeymen on
our front porch
The film tells the story of two
middle-aged guys from the city
who decide to go on a fishing and
day-drinking trip to Djúpavík,
which is still today an all-but
abandoned former fishing town.
In their attempt to get away from
the hustle and bustle of city life,
the two become increasingly iso-
lated, paranoid and inebriated,
and strange things start hap-
pening. The claustrophobic and
uncomfortable vibe of the film
makes it feel a bit like a ‘70s Nor-
dic take on a Polanski film from
that era. The film is not without
its faults, but it ages gracefully.
Without spoiling the plot, the
film uses elements of ancient Ice-
landic folk hor-
ror, which is ba-
dass since there’s
so much material
in the old Sagas
and myths that’s
ripe for cinemat-
ic exploration.
The film’s elu-
sive boogeyman
is a play on the
tradition of “fífl”
(“idiots”) in the sagas, alluding
to the savage treatment of men-
tally challenged people in the
settler years, a thousand years
ago. The mentally challenged
would sometimes be chained up
on their family’s porch, roam-
ing the pasture like animals. It’s
an example of a motif from our
cultural heritage that’s so bonk-
ers that it would do amazing-
ly well in a horror film context.
Can you imagine Jason Voorhees
from Friday the 13th, except with
that background? Awesome!
Sadly, Icelandic filmmakers—
or rather, the film institutions
that handle grants—are not big
on taking chances when it comes
to content or direction. Anything
fantastical is very rare. Hrafn
confirmed this sentiment in a
RÚV interview last May: "I don't
think anyone here has had the
courage or knowledge to make a
legitimate film [with folk horror
elements]. Everyone just wants to
make safe, cutesy films."
Icelandsploitation
“Blood Red Sunset” fires the im-
agination on what Icelandic cin-
ema could have been in the 20th
century. With many dark stories
buried in the country's past, there
could be many movies for Icelan-
dic horror nerds to watch—but
there are almost none. All the re-
cent ghost movies made here are
mediocre. Had this film lain the
ground for a continuing tradition
in the ‘70s, might there now be
an array of “Icelandsploitation”
films? One can only imagine.
One possible
reason for the au-
thorities’ reticence
to fund more horror
films is the recep-
tion that “Blood Red
Sunset” got when it
first aired in 1977.
According to the
n e w s p a p er D a g-
blaðið, many people
were shocked that
taxpayers’ money was used to
produce this film. “You wait and
wait for fresh Icelandic material,
and then you get slapped in the
face with this,” an angry house-
wife wrote to the paper. “Blood
Red Sunset is the most disgusting
piece of trash I have ever seen.”
Not everyone agreed though—
the paper also printed a positive
reaction from someone named
Guðmundur. “Finally we get a
good Icelandic horror flick on tel-
evision... it’s been widely proven
that men are able to blow off steam
for their various violent tenden-
cies by watching such films.”
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FILM
“There’s so
much material
in the old Sagas
and myths
that’s ripe
for cinematic
exploration.”
gpv.is/film
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