Lake Bodom (SXSW 2017)
Drew Tinnin
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Starring Mimosa Willamo, Nelly Hirst-Gee, Mikael Gabriel, Santeri Helinheimo Mäntylä
Directed by Taneli Mustonen
Screened at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival
Premiering at SXSW this week, Austin, Texas is now well aware of the true story that inspired the Finnish slasher Lake Bodom. In June of 1960, four teens camping on the edge of the lake were brutally stabbed and bludgeoned to death in the early hours of the morning. The tragedy continues to be somewhat of a national obsession in Finland, still making headlines today.
The international interest surrounding the film hasn’t brought any new facts to light, but the surprises found throughout the running time certainly feed into the many theories that have circulated over the last fifty years.
Centering around four teenagers in modern day that set out to recreate the original murders, the fictional characters of Lake Bodom think that some amateur investigating may lead to a new clue. What happens to them is really the fault of their nebbish friend, Atte (Mäntylä), who has an unhealthy fascination with the infamous cold case. His much cooler, hormone-driven friend Elias (Gabriel) agrees to tag along and helps to wrangle in two reluctant girls to make the trek as well. Under the guise of a rebellious adventure under the stars, Ida (Hirst-Gee) and Nora (Willamo) essentially seal their fate. Instead of solving the mystery, they become new evidence, but the violence inflicted is carried out in unexpected ways that upend the traditional, linear slasher film.
Because of the ubiquitous nature of the original crime, intimate details are widely known about the murders, so anyone could conceivably be the perpetrator once the killings begin. Once the first revelation of Lake Bodom presents itself, a completely new dynamic emerges between the surviving teens, with school day flashbacks used to tease a possible secret alliance. Inevitably, the new blood conjures up the past, causing a new threat to come creeping out of the shadows.
There’s no one to really root for in Lake Bodom, but the characters believe their motivations are justified, much like the way teenagers sometimes have a skewed and overly emotional view of their own lives that drives them to act irrationally. When an outside presence comes in, that worldview is quickly and forcibly shattered, letting in a violence that can’t be controlled.
Fast-paced and suitably unhinged, the direction by Taneli Mustonen is confident and stylized, complemented by foreboding shots of an endless forest lensed by cinematographer Daniel Lindholm. Interestingly, the events here don’t offer any closure to the original crimes and don’t necessarily add to the now mythic stature of the 1960 murders. Smartly, the filmmakers manage to satiate Finland’s appetite for true crime while introducing the world to a local legend without exploiting the victims and without falling into typical failings of the slasher subgenre.
Lake Bodom will be released exclusively on Shudder in May 2017.
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