''Drowning Ghost'' ( sv, Strandvaskaren) is a 2004
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...
directed by
Mikael Håfström
Jan Mikael Håfström is a Swedish film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the 2003 film ''Evil'', and the movie adaptation of Stephen King's short story '' 1408''.
Early life
Born in Lund, Sweden, Mikael Håfström studied film at ...
and written by Lars Yngwe "Vasa" Johansson and Håfström. It stars
Rebecka Hemse
Ingrid Rebecka Elisabet Hemse (born 4 August 1975) is a Swedish actress. She is best known for her role as Martin Beck's daughter Inger.
She works at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.
In 2008, she was Ofelia in Staffan Valdemar Holm's t ...
,
Jesper Salén
Nils Jesper Alexander Salén (born 5 December 1978) is a Swedish physician and former actor.
Filmography
*''Om Stig Petrés hemlighet'' (TV) (2004)
*'' Strandvaskaren'' (2004)
*'' Ondskan'' (2003)
*''Festival'' (2001)
*''Naken'' (2000)
*'' Vita l ...
and
Jenny Ulving.
Plot
The movie opens at a boarding school, at the time of the big party before summer break. While most of the students are outside listening to the headmaster's speech one student, Rebecka, is seen showering and writing a letter before jumping off the school's tower to her death.
A year later the student Sara, who witnessed the suicide, is attending her final year at the school. Two new students, math genius Felix and diplomat son Leo, start to study at school. Sara and her friend Therese start to tell them of the local legend, Strandvaskaren (the Drowning Ghost). A century ago a farmer slaughtered three male students at the school before drowning himself in the nearby lake. He is believed to return once every year on the day of his death to haunt the school, and there is a tradition among the students to have a party at that day in the barn where the farmer once lived.
Sara finds out that the farmer killed the students to avenge the rape and murder of his daughter, but it was all covered up by the authorities because the rapists were upper class. At the party, Sara's former boyfriend Måns and his friend Ynge try to pull a prank on Sara, but the drunken Ynge tries to rape her. Sara pushes him away and runs away while Måns yells at Ynge for going too far. Sara runs out and finds Måns current girlfriend hanging dead in the hallway. Ynge goes to have some milk and is killed by a fork struck through his head. Måns find the hysterical Sara and tries to calm her down and apologize.
A masked man appears and rams an axe into Måns' head as Sara runs off. Sara locks in Leo into a storeroom and calls for Therese and Felix to help. Sara finds an 8 mm film in a box that had belonged to Rebecka, and discovers that Rebecka had a brother who has a weird similarity to Felix. Felix shows up and tells Sara that he and Rebecka were siblings. They were separated because their father was mentally unstable and put away. When Rebecka died, he swore to avenge her, dressed up as the Drowning Ghost, and started to kill the students who tormented Rebecka. He asks Sara to not say anything but believes she would any way and tries to kill her. Sara knocks him out and runs away with Therese. Therese falls into the well and breaks her leg. Sara climbs down after her. Morning comes and Felix awakens. He finds Sara and Therese, who are too afraid to call for help, in the well and climbs after them. Sara and Therese crawls down the pipe to the lake but Felix catches up with Therese and kills her off screen. Sara manages to reach the lake and escapes in a boat at the beach. She keeps her eyes on the pipe to see when Felix comes out of there, but falls asleep. When she awakens she has no idea how long she has been sleeping, and Felix is nowhere to be found. Felix tries to climb into the boat from underwater, but Sara cuts his hand by starting the boat engine. Felix tries to attack once more but Sara apparently kills him by bashing the anchor into his back. Felix sinks down to the bottom.
Sara is saved by the police and reunited with Leo on the beach; the police try to fish Felix up but instead find the farmer. Sara and Leo leave the boarding school and graduate at a school in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
. During the graduation day eight months after the events, with all parents and friends of the many students present, Sara looks out over the sea of people and suddenly sees a sign with the words written in red paint "My beloved sister Rebecka". The film ends with Sara realizing that even though she cannot see him in the crowd Felix is still alive and amongst the people watching her and her classmates graduate.
Cast
*
Rebecka Hemse
Ingrid Rebecka Elisabet Hemse (born 4 August 1975) is a Swedish actress. She is best known for her role as Martin Beck's daughter Inger.
She works at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.
In 2008, she was Ofelia in Staffan Valdemar Holm's t ...
as Sara
*
Jesper Salén
Nils Jesper Alexander Salén (born 5 December 1978) is a Swedish physician and former actor.
Filmography
*''Om Stig Petrés hemlighet'' (TV) (2004)
*'' Strandvaskaren'' (2004)
*'' Ondskan'' (2003)
*''Festival'' (2001)
*''Naken'' (2000)
*'' Vita l ...
as Felix
*
Jenny Ulving as Therese
*
Peter Eggers
Peter Eggers (born 1980) is a Swedish actor, best known for his starring role in the TV series '' Anno 1790''.
Selected filmography
*''Evil
Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely b ...
as Leo
*
Daniel Larsson as Måns Weine
*
Rebecca Ferguson
Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström (born 19 October 1983) is a Swedish actress. She began her acting career with the Swedish soap opera ''Nya tider'' (1999–2000) and went on to star in the slasher film ''Drowning Ghost'' (2004). She came to in ...
as Amanda
*
Anders Ekborg
Jon Anders Ekborg (born 9 October 1960) is a Swedish actor and singer who has performed the roles of Karl Oskar in '' Kristina från Duvemåla'' and Freddie Trumper in ''Chess'', two musicals that were written by former ABBA members Benny Anders ...
as Thomas
*
Kjell Bergqvist
Kjell Bertil Leonard Bergqvist (born 23 February 1953 in Enskede, Stockholm County) is a Swedish actor.
Bergqvist finished the Royal Dramatic Training Academy in 1973 and made his debut in '' En enkel melodi'' and ''Jack''. He has since coope ...
as Peder Weine
*
Anders Ahlbom as Bengt
*
Tommy Andersson as Pappan
*Sasa Bjurling as Rebecka
*Alma Duran as Rebecka as a child
*
Patrick Gillenhammar as Felix as a child
*
Oskar Thunberg as Doctor 1
*
Stig Engström as Professor Ek
*
Erik Hultqvist as Markus
*
Kerstin Steinbach as Laila
*
Magnus Ehrner as Doctor 2
*
Bojan Westin
Bojan Westin (5 September 1926 – 4 October 2013) was a Swedish actress. She appeared in more than 30 films and television shows between 1941 and 2011.
Selected filmography
* '' The Talk of the Town'' (1941)
* ''The Ghost Reporter'' (1941) ...
as Anna-Lisa
*
Frans Wiklund as Yngve
*
Filip Benko as Student
Production
The film was shot at Filmhusateljéerna, Filmhuset in the
Svenska Filminstitutet in
Gärdet
Gärdet is a part of Stockholm, east and northeast of Östermalm. Its official name is Ladugårdsgärdet. It is renowned for its large number of modernist apartments. Gärdet is one of the largest residential districts built in Stockholm during th ...
, Stockholm, Sweden.
Release
The film premiered on 13 May 2004 as part of the Cannes Film Market. ''Strandvaskaren'' had a 15+ age limit when shown in cinemas in Sweden on the premiere on 15 October 2004. The film was released ''Drowning Ghost'' on 22 August 2004 at
Screamfest Horror Film Festival
Screamfest Horror Film Festival is a horror film festival founded by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in August 2001. It runs over ten days during the month of October and is hosted at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Los Angeles, Ca ...
.
Reception
''Drowning Ghost'' received some criticism for being too similar to ''
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
'' and the
''Friday the 13th'' films.
In his review, Nils Nordgren described one of the film's biggest problems as "the script. It's sprawling, full of incredible and senseless incident." and referred to "The fact that Anders Ehlin's music in the film's opening is a plagiarism of
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...
's famous piano loop in ''Halloween'' makes it painfully direct."
Awards
''Strandvaskaren'' won awards for best director and best soundtrack of the year at the Screamfest Los Angeles Horror Film Festival.
Nekoneko's Movie Litterbox!! » Blog Archive » “Strandvaskaren” aka Drowning Ghost
References
External links
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{{Mikael Håfström
2000s Swedish-language films
2004 films
2004 horror films
2000s slasher films
Swedish slasher films
Films directed by Mikael Håfström
Swedish thriller films
Films set in boarding schools
2000s Swedish films