“What a lovely day to slaughter some lives,” moans a stock character upset in the war drama of Mikael Håfström (1408). Though, in spite of the two and a half hours of excusable running time, it would probably not be the first to come to mind when talking about Stockholm Bloodbath, which is based on the events of scandinavia in the year one thousand five hundred and two – such is the case because such an assertion has been preempted by the film’s opening title card which states, “This occurred in great deal.”
This is the first case that makes ‘black comedy’ perhaps a different perspective in looking at the new feature film, one that a cinesnob will likely think of similar ‘loosely inspired’ ones sometime of a David O. Russell upon glancing at the title card, with his award winning comedic mystery thriller American Hustle leading with one which read “some of this took place, truly.” Whereas his film Amsterdam goes a step further saying “This is not a fictional story, A lot of this actually happened” in its opening.
The thing about Russell and Håfström is that Russell gets properly good amusement.
In the current work, Håfström with the script of Erlend Loe and Nora Landsrød, would however as well as have preferred ‘war epic’ as much of the sequences are blood-soaked and the real subject is dreadful. The attempts at fictitious humour that are interspersed in this work do not in any way make this a wholesale ‘dark comedy’ and more often than not destroy its suspense. Both Indien and Zangre are possible contexts for Håfström’s recent sci-fi project, but to say that it was ambitious is still an understatement. Håfström’s sci-fi strung-out gadget was titled Slingshot and got released recently; a drama that seemed to have gisted the essence of psychological without any reserves. Of course the director will probably prefer that, because Stockholm Bloodbath, despite featuring a horde of international stars, is simply tedious – the picture lasts forever and is drenched in blood.
The world of Zack Snyder, specifically most of his fantasy-based films that are generally shot with high contrast, might be depicted in vivid splendor during the opening massacre, featuring a multitude of murderous thugs at a red wedding. It was approximately in the year 1502 that all was chaos in Sweden and Denmark due to a deep rooted enmity where power struggles turned into blood bath after blood bath Actually it was just the beginning.
Anne and Freya finally reach the eponymous city of Stockholm with a bloodlust. The twist? It is also the place where the oppressive King Kristian II of Denmark, portrayed by Claes Bang, has decided to take residence in as well in order to improve relations with the opposing Sweden. What could possibly go wrong? Well, how about this Danish king’s, er, do we really have to introduce him. Almost as if director Håfström would wish Robert Eggers to see his other project – The Northman – and ask actor Bang in the audition “How would you like to bring something about a dark ages cruel villain into my project?”
All his outrageous scandals notwithstanding, the King as performed by Claes Bang is definitely a scene stealing actor, someone you can’t help but pay attention to every time he appears onscreen, particularly when he opens his mouth and lets out that signature voice of his. A surprising comical resemblance to America’s recently elected President in the 2024 election, regardless whether you liked the outcome or not. The rest of the considerably large cast of characters is left fairly out of the narrative and mostly ineffective which makes a number of them hard to follow.
The story remains dark when there is a pair of treacherous brothers who are allied with the King, a royal Queen who comes to houses against the vengeful sisters who continue their saga in Stockholm, but perhaps the most intriguing figure to watch in this case is the double agent Hemming Gadh (Ulrich Thomsen) who use’s the sweden during this time of war as an occupation, and pretty much a means of survival at the end of the day. The elaborate inter-continental shifts stable all culminate towards a series of fights, and bloody mass killing that can be described in messiahnic terms. The brightly colored and unconventional final title cards do answer the questions but also explain the fate of some of the historical characters. But if you were a bit lost regarding how a character arrived to being in the situation they were when addressed, then those explanations offered no real satisfaction.
And on the topic of Håfström’s title cards, it is also donning the same structure styled beginning that gives tribute to cinema that is intended for comic-book fans which tells the audience that it is going to be a strange dark-humor film. It is based on actual events; however, the maximalist approach which Håfström tries to push, Leans into is unfortunately not enough of a lean which makes for a disappointing hybrid experience altogether.
The jokes won’t get anyone looking to LOL in plenty as it gets serious in the middle with a more focused approach to elaborate on the underhanded politics employed by Denmark and Sweden. Certainly yes, the more violent scenes deserve the hard R for blood & gore and Håfström knows how to shoot a scene as he has already demonstrated in this and previous projects. Perhaps this will satisfy those who are more of in the mainstream audience demographic.
To add fuel to the fire, confusion may emerge as to why all characters in the film including Swedes and Danes cannot speak any language except English. Today, as director of a successful medieval film Best Foreign Film Out of Darkness once told us, relying on audiences in North America and including characters speaking their tongues in their films is hardly something that is frowned upon, especially after Parasite (2019) scooped a lot of Oscar awards. For grown up cinema fans, understanding the culture through the prism of some slangs used by the native speakers would add yet another little but very important detail to the story.
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