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Craig
Denmark / USA 2008
produced by Jan T. Jensen, Jim Pedersen, Art D'Alessandro (executive), Michael Dolen (executive), Kevin Eade (executive), Dan Jagels (executive), Christopher Longoria (executive), Justin M.Lord (executive), Sojourner Manns (executive), Jason Perlzweig (executive), Joanne J-Bird Phillips (executive), P.Alberto Sanchez (executive), Ashley Scott (executive), Duncan Skinner (executive), Kim Sønderholm (executive), Christie Soria (executive), Jeff Stoll (executive), Chris Villafano (executive), Rocky Whitehead (executive), Fabrizio Wiederkehr (executive) for Cetus Productions
directed by Kim Sønderholm
starring Kim Sønderholm, Peter Ottesen, Christian Magdu, Jan Tjerrild, Trine Stårup, Merete Van Kamp, Claire Ross-Brown, Christa Møller Nielsen, Lloyd Kaufman, Manoush, Anna Bård, Zoe Hunter, Anja Owe, Sarah Louise Christiansen, Bianca Abel, Ian Burns, Alice Haaber, Robyn Griggs, Maria J.Tesch, Karin Bertling, Melany Denise, Russ Diaper, Lars Bjarke, Michael René Jensen, Jenni Lykke Olsen, Pia Beenfeldt
written by Kim Sønderholm, with ideas by Jan T.Jensen, music by Russ Diaper, special effects makeup by Lone Kirkegaard, digital effects by Jan T.Jensen/Objektor
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Craig (Kim Sønderholm) has just lost his parents in a fire that also
put his sister (Anna
Bård) into a coma, and from here on, his life goes
downhill: At work, he's constantly bullied by his female boss, his
attempts at dating go horribly wrong, he has become hooked on lithium
pills that eventually lose their effect, he starts to seeing things that
simply aren't there (like a man on the TV [Lloyd Kaufman] telling him to
kill), and sex with a prostitute (Christa
Møller Nielsen) leaves him horribly unsatisfied. So
unsatisfied in fact that it pushes him over the edge and he kills her. This
doesn't solve anything of course, actually it only makes him hungry for
more killing, like his boss or a stripper (Barbara Zatler) ... and it
makes him see his dead father, who reveals that it was Craig himself who
set his family's house aflame, to avenge himself for the years of abuseby
his father. When all seems lost, Craig rather out of the blue finds a
girlfriend, Angela (Trine
Stårup), and for a time, his life couldn't be better, no
killings, no depression, nothing - until she breaks up with him for no
apparent reason, which once more pushes Craig over the edge, and this
time, he goes after Angela, with cop Johnny (Peter Ottesen), who has put
him under surveillance for quite some time now, close behind. Craig kills
his comatose sister (whom he never wanted to hurt when he set the house on
fire), takes
Angela captive, but sets her free in a forest to hunt her down with a gun,
shoots her in the back and then rapes helpless Angela, struggling for her
life. But before he can stab her too, cop Johnny shoots him ... but fails
to kill him, so when Johnny looks after Angela, Craig stabs him, only to
be in turn stabbed by Angela, who still had enough life left in her to end
his miserable existence ... Craig has all the necessary
elements for your typical exploitative shocker: Violent killings, gore,
naked women, a car chase and of course a cameo by Lloyd Kaufman -
yet director/writer/star Kim Sønderholm is less interested in making just
another genre film, and instead he has used all the typical ingrediences
to make a psychological case study (using the term case study rather
freely here). The outcome is interesting, depressing, but also weirdly
entertaining - entertaining mainly because as a writer/director,
Sønderholm doesn't try to hammer a message home and as an actor he gives
a powerful, compelling yet sympathetic performance of the main character
that allows the audience to identify with him without condoning his
killings, understanding him without finding excuses for him. Quite a
good film, actually.
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