Wait? What? Huh?: Sidste Time (1995)

Sidste Time (Final Hour) (Denmark, 1995)
Rating: **1/2
Starring: Lene Laub Oksen, Mette Bratlann, Tomas Villum Jensen

Released just a few years before the 90s teen slasher boom exploded and nearly every country in the world wanted to wet their hands in blood for masked maniacs hunting down self-aware victims, Sidste Time (1995) is Denmark's own little jab at the sub-genre, pitting seven teenagers in late night detention against a killer loose in their school. All the while, the crew of a TV documentary show called Sidste Time, lead by reporter Mickey Holm and a single cameraman, is seen covering what seems to be the same savage massacre occurring at that very school. Stranger things are afoot and as the death toll rises one by one, the kids will soon learn about the horrible truth of their predicament and that there might be no way out of it alive!

It's most fitting to compare this movie to a Twilight Zone episode, albeit a very bloody one; while it starts like any other slasher, with teens collected in a ridiculously convenient empty school for reasons equally just as obscure, only to end up brutally snuffed off by a killer, Sidste Time (1995) flips the expected with a haunting twist that defies any grounded explanation as to what is going on here. Nightmare logic basically takes over the narrative in full force with buildings locking themselves up to keep the victims in, cryptic TV messages appear in units that aren't even plugged in and tabloid news groups start covering crime scenes almost at an instant after a murder happened. It plays with the strange factor, toying with ideas like the supernatural, paranormal or even psychological horror being at work here, teasing enough of an idea to suggests this title wanted to be a thinking man's fright flick.

If one would read in between the lines of the movie's climax, you may get a few choice interpretations of what's really happening in this one night, but it wouldn't be much of a surprise if the trippy weirdness of the story isn't going be anyone's cup of tea. Especially if it have the film ending with more questions left hanging than answered.

On a technical note, the acting is fair and I do give kudos to the amazing lighting and expressive cinematography, but Sidste Time (1995) do feel a tad dry when it comes to the killings seeing a good deal of the bodycount occurred offscreen. However, knowing the direction was more focused on making a psychedelic and psychological nightmare movie than a standard bodycounter flick, I can understand the lack of onscreen bloodletting at an acceptable level.

Overall, Sidste Time is a movie with definitely divided its audience; one could either appreciate its uniqueness as a slasher, or simply abhor it for this fact alone. If you do find yourself wanting something a bit more off than your typical dead teenager movie and wouldn't mind a mind-bending twist or two, then I say give Sidste Time a roll!

Bodycount:
1 male hacked to death (flashback)
1 male thrown off a roof
1 female found dead with her face burnt against a stove
1 female found strangled with a phone chord
1 male beheaded
1 male found with his face slashed open
1 female found murdered, method unknown
1 female had her throat cut with a knife
Total: 8