2025
I had fun with this one, what a hoot! A group of municipal employees are herded off to a remote camp for team-building before breaking ground on their new shopping mall. The problem is that the mall is being built on farmland stolen from farmers without compensation. Lina just came back from sick leave and immediately knows something’s not quite right; her signature is on contracts she doesn’t remember signing. Her boss is the type to respond to questions and inquiries with motivational-speak and a manic smile that never reaches her eyes. The project manager, Jonas, is magnificently slimy, the kind of guy who steals your ideas and acts like he’s doing you a favor by letting you work with him.
Kolarsjons Holiday village is one of those budget retreat centers that looks like an abandoned summer camp, with spotty wifi, bare-bones cabins, the kind of place that screams, “We got a good deal on this! HAVE FUN!” They assign everyone to cabins by astrological sign, which feels perfectly on-brand for corporate team-building. Nobody seems concerned that they’re completely isolated by a lake in the middle of nowhere. They do trust exercises, sack races, and zipline nonsense, and then people start disappearing and getting killed….by someone wearing the creepy papier-mache mascot head! Kills are brutal and creative: a frying pan, a chainsaw, a golden shovel. The killer isn’t a supernatural force or an unstoppable slasher movie villain; they just seem to be a person with weapons and intent who keeps coming. They’re clumsy, misjudge their swings, and get their weapon stuck in things. The human awkwardness of it all maybe makes everything more disturbing…?
Watching these people try to survive together is almost as entertaining as the kills. They outnumber the killer by a lot, but workplace dynamics being what they are, they’re too busy protecting themselves, deflecting blame, and covering their own asses to coordinate any meaningful defense. Corporate culture breeds this kind of murky self-preservation instinct, and when actual survival is on the line, already there’s no trust between anyone, so of course it is only going to get worse.
If you work with people, you recognize these guys; they’re the ones you get stuck with at office parties, team meetings, after-work drinks, or just sitting near during regular work hours. Insufferable in normal circumstances. Watching them panic and turn on each other when someone’s trying to decapitate them is grimly cathartic.
If I understand correctly, the movie is based on a novel by Mats Strandberg and I’d like to read it if there’s an English translation. This was already so much fun that I have to imagine the book is even better, and I’m really curious to find out how much of the workplace satire was already in the book?
Looking for more 31 Days of Horror? Day Ten 2024 | Day Ten 2023 | Day Ten 2022 | Or check my 31 Days of Horror category for more!
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