Nightwatch: Demons are Forever, on Shudder

Serial killers are beyond reform or redemption—but that’s a good thing for movie producers. When a serial killer film is successful, they can always make a sequel, even in Denmark. If you haven’t seen the original Nightwatch or the American remake (both helmed by Ole Bornedal), forget the name Peter Wormer. It seemed Martin Bork and Kalinka Martens survived the killer at the end of the 1994 film, but they never escaped the post-traumatic stress. Unfortunately, Wormer also survived, so he most likely returns to his old ways in Bornedal’s Nightwatch: Demons are Forever, which premieres Friday on Shudder.

Despite the promise of a happy marriage, Martens was paranoid Wormer would return for her and Bork, she took her own life several years ago. Maybe in a future sequel, we will learn she was really murdered, but Bornedal does go there yet. Consequently, Bork has been a pill-popping shell of himself, who is largely dependent on his college student daughter Emma (played by the director’s daughter, Fanny Leander Bornedal), rather than vice versa.

Obviously, it is an extraordinarily bad idea, but Emma takes the same night watchman job at the morgue where her father worked in the first film. Her parents never told her about the incident with Wormer, so Emma hopes to learn more at the infamous site. However, her family investigation quickly leads her to the state mental hospital, where the blind and supposedly feeble Wormer remains in custody. Her inquiry takes on great urgency when a copycat killer starts gruesomely butchering Bork’s old friends, using Wormer’s old scalping M.O.

Fans of the original will be happy to see Bornedal got the old gang back together again—at least the characters who are still living, including Bork’s somewhat sleazy pal, Jens Arnkiel. The original Nightwatch was a breakout film for both the director and lead actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, so it makes sense Bornedal’s screenplay explores the notion of legacy. Instead of just bringing back the old-timers for fan-mollifying cameos, Demons are Forever digs deeply into the long-term psychological distress experienced by the survivors and how it shaped their offspring—including Wormer’s (just who that might be would be telling, but it is easy to guess).

Paprika Steen in Applause

For an actress straight out of rehab, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? might not be the best comeback vehicle. Yes indeed, for Thea Barfoed, the role of Martha is only too fitting. Still, there is no denying it is a tour de force performance, both for Barfoed on-stage and Paprika Steen bringing her to life on-screen. If not a household name, the Danish star of Dogme 95 classics like Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration deserves to be in Oscar contention for her fearless work in Martin Pieter Zandvliet’s Applause (trailer here), which opens in New York this Friday on the heels of a special one-week Oscar qualifying run today in Los Angeles late last year.

Barfoed is like an older Lindsay Lohan with talent. She makes a show of her sobriety, but she spends more time off the wagon than on. Having voluntarily relinquished her two boys to their father Christian, she now wants back in their lives. He agrees for their sake, but only to an extent. It is hard to blame him. After a few binges, it is clear she remains a stranger to stability.

From her embarrassingly transparent attempts to win over Christian’s new wife Maiken to her casual hostility towards her theater dresser, we quickly understand there is something seriously flawed with the way Barfoed relates to others. She is openly contemptuous of her public, yet she still craves their attention. To call her a train wreck of conflicting neuroses does a disservice to train wrecks, but it is impossible not to gawk at her self-destructive behavior.

Utilizing footage of her real life stage turn in a Danish revival of Albee’s play, Applause really represents two performances in one for Steen. With the parallels between Barfoed the thespian and Martha the character plainly obvious, they effectively reinforce viewers’ mounting uneasiness with the problematic protagonist. Yet, for all her ill-contained psychological turmoil, one is still always wondering if Barfoed still has any semblance of a soul buried within her.

Steen is scary good as Barfoed. Unflattering, unlikable, and uncompromising, it is not a performance tailor-made for Oscar love, but the sheer power of Steen’s work is an unmistakable knock alongside the head—if they saw it, that is. There is no question Applause is Steen’s picture lock, stock and barrel, but Michael Falch is also quite good tacking a more understated course as the understandably frustrated Christian.

With its reasonably professional lighting and an often distracting electronic non-diegetic soundtrack, Applause falls short of the rigid criteria of the Dogme 95 school of grungily realistic filmmaking. However, its grainy look and handheld camera work show the lingering influence of the Dogme aesthetic.

Throughout Applause, Steen puts on an acting clinic. Granted, her character might trouble many viewers, but it is supposed to. Searingly intense, it opens Friday (1/21) in New York at the Village East.

In Contention: Paprika Steen in Applause

For an actress straight out of rehab, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? might not be the best comeback vehicle. Indeed, for Thea Barfoed, the role of Martha is only too fitting. Still, there is no denying it is a tour de force performance, both for Barfoed on-stage and Paprika Steen bringing her to life on-screen. If not a household name, the Danish star of Dogme 95 classics like Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration should definitely be in Academy Award contention for her fearless work in Martin Pieter Zandvliet’s Applause (trailer here), which begins a special one-week Oscar qualifying run today in Los Angeles.

Barfoed is like a Lindsay Lohan with talent. She makes a show of her sobriety, but she spends more time off the wagon than on. Having voluntarily relinquished her two boys to their father Christian, she now wants back in their lives. He agrees for their sake, but only to an extent. It is hard to blame him. After a few binges, it is clear she remains a stranger to stability.

From her embarrassingly transparent attempts to win over Christian’s new wife Maiken to her casual hostility towards her theater dresser, we quickly understand there is something seriously flawed with the way Barfoed relates to others. She is openly contemptuous of her public, yet she still craves their attention. To call her a train wreck of conflicting neuroses does a disservice to train wrecks, but it is impossible not to gawk at her self-destructive behavior.

Utilizing footage of her real life stage turn in a Danish revival of Albee’s play, Applause really represents two performances in one for Steen. While the parallels between Barfoed the thespian and Martha the character are plainly obvious, they effectively reinforce viewers’ mounting uneasiness with the problematic protagonist. Yet, for all her ill-contained psychological turmoil, one is still always wondering if Barfoed still has any semblance of a soul buried within her.

Steen is scary good as Barfoed. Unflattering, unlikable, and uncompromising, it is not a performance tailor-made for Oscar love, but the sheer power of Steen’s work should give Academy voters the necessary knock alongside the head—if they see it, that is. There is no question Applause is Steen’s picture lock, stock and barrel, but Michael Falch is also quite good tacking a more understated course as the exasperated Christian.

With its reasonably professional lighting and an often distracting electronic non-diegetic soundtrack, Applause falls short of the rigid criteria of the Dogme 95 school of grungily realistic filmmaking. However, its grainy look and handheld camera work show the lingering influence of the Dogme aesthetic.

Throughout Applause, Steen puts on an acting clinic. Granted, her character might trouble many viewers, but it is supposed to. Searingly intense, it opens its limited run today (12/3) in LA at the Sunset 5, in advance of its regular New York theatrical engagement at the Village East on January 21st.