The Finnish horror movie "Sauna" by A-J Annila

A week ago I was visiting the small but cozy movie theater Orion and watched a Finnish movie released in 2008 – Sauna. During the movie I felt excited, fascinated, scared, breathless, confused. In other words I just stared at the screen and forgot the candy I had in my lap. Just like I should do during awesome movies.

The movie Sauna is located in Finland at the end of a long war between Russia and Sweden, in 1595, when a new border is needed. Two brothers are in this project – Knut and Erik – and they find a desolated Sauna in the middle of a shockingly quiet swamp. They stay at the nearest village, the existence and meaning of which remains a mystery to the viewer until the end of the movie.

It is interesting to ponder about the brothers – Knut is an academic young man who feels a huge guilt when he shuts a girl into a cellar and later finds out that his brother didn’t let her out. Erik is the older one who has been so long near the brutalities of the war that he can kill easily and violence is a inseparable side of him. Even though he is accustomed to death he carries within him a number – 73. At least until he lefts the girl in the cellar, then it’s 74.

Personally I was impressed by the usage of Finnish deserted areas and fields in the movie and how well they suit the horror theme. Especially the sauna itself gave chills, already when I was watching the trailer. It was interesting to see how the mythology around the sauna is used in this movie. In the old days there was belief that the sauna was a place to wash your sins away – like the brothers wish and in the end can not avoid.

In this text I have used the original name Sauna, since the translated name – Evil Rising - is not good at all. It does not describe the movie in a mysterious way like Sauna does since it is a movie with unexplainable things and psychological issues. The name Sauna raises questions and so does the mysterious events – and the movie does not answer them. Still it is an amazing movie and just the kind of horror I want to watch. Sauna does not explain itself and it doesn’t need to, since the horror is in the minds of people and it continues to live out there.