Plot, short version: "Det Okända" ("The Unknown") is a low-budget horror/suspense flick about five young biologists investigating the environmental effects of a forest fire in a woodland area in northern Sweden. After a couple of days and nights in a camp consisting of a caravan and a couple of tents, they discover something else... Or maybe it's more pertinent to say that something discovers them?
I like this movie. The actors/actresses are young, talented and believable. The setting and environment used for shooting this flick feels OK too - Although it was shot in a national park just south of Stockholm (Sweden), about a thousand kilometers from where the movie is supposed to take place. But most of us won't notice such differences, trees are trees to a city slicker like me.
This movie suffers from a unjustly deserved reputation as a kind of "Blair Witch Project-rip off", probably because it was released a couple of years after BWP. In my opinion, this is totally wrong. Yes, it is a low-budget production, and yes, it takes place in a wood. But I would personally demand more similarities than that to deem it a BWP-rip off. (Think about it, there are quite a few low-budget horror flicks shot in some dark forest somewhere.) If I'd make a comparison between those two movies, I would definitely pick "Det Okända" as the better one. The actors are more skilled and experienced, the plot feels more solid*, and actually comes to some kind of conclusion, although it won't conclude much. And of course, what's more entertaining than three hysterical youngsters in a dark forest? Well, five hysterical youngsters in a dark forest. ;-)
So, summan av kardemumman, as we say in Sweden, I give this movie 6 acorns out of 10. Not really a screamer, but not a dozer either, for that matter.
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* With "more", i mean in the way that a tree is likely to be more intelligent than a rock, duh.
I like this movie. The actors/actresses are young, talented and believable. The setting and environment used for shooting this flick feels OK too - Although it was shot in a national park just south of Stockholm (Sweden), about a thousand kilometers from where the movie is supposed to take place. But most of us won't notice such differences, trees are trees to a city slicker like me.
This movie suffers from a unjustly deserved reputation as a kind of "Blair Witch Project-rip off", probably because it was released a couple of years after BWP. In my opinion, this is totally wrong. Yes, it is a low-budget production, and yes, it takes place in a wood. But I would personally demand more similarities than that to deem it a BWP-rip off. (Think about it, there are quite a few low-budget horror flicks shot in some dark forest somewhere.) If I'd make a comparison between those two movies, I would definitely pick "Det Okända" as the better one. The actors are more skilled and experienced, the plot feels more solid*, and actually comes to some kind of conclusion, although it won't conclude much. And of course, what's more entertaining than three hysterical youngsters in a dark forest? Well, five hysterical youngsters in a dark forest. ;-)
So, summan av kardemumman, as we say in Sweden, I give this movie 6 acorns out of 10. Not really a screamer, but not a dozer either, for that matter.
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* With "more", i mean in the way that a tree is likely to be more intelligent than a rock, duh.