Boil It Down: A mixture of European horror, history and symbolism, Sauna may just be too dense for most American audiences.
Foreigners have a different sense of the term "horror" than Americans. Hollywood horror films usually rely on blood, guts and gore to scare the audience. Other countries do follow this model, somewhat, yet they also use a different kind of horror-psychological horror-combined with other genres (like history) to create something more than a routine slasher pic. Sauna, a Finnish film, is billed as horror, but should be labeled as foreign horror to differentiate it from Saw, Hostel and films of their ilk. In the wake of the Russo-Swedish War (1590-1595), the Russians and the Swedes sent expeditions to divide up the land and create maps of the area. Brothers Eerick and Knut (Ville Virtanen, Tommi Eronen) are part of one of these forces, with the orders to travel north until they meet with another group. When they reach a small village in the middle of a swamp, the actions of the two begin to weigh on them. Intellectual Knut sees a young girl the two may or may not have killed following them; this prompts Eerick to embark on a crisis of conscience over the things they have done. They learn they need to confront these things in a structure known as a sauna, a place which can purportedly absolve them of their sins.
Sauna has a lot going for it...and a lot going against it. Its biggest negative is the genre it falls into. To be blunt, no matter where a film is from, the audience expects certain things from it. AJ Annila's third directorial effort can't follow through on any of those promises, at least to any meaningful extent. There are isolated scares sprinkled throughout, but nothing memorable or really scary enough for modern audiences. Had Sauna been made 20 or 30 years ago, it would have undoubtedly made everyone jump in their skin. (Think about it: Jaws is not a terribly scary movie on its own. But looking at it from a 1975 viewpoint, it is absolutely terrifying precisely because of the entertainment it was surrounded with.) Sauna's moments are few and far between, which leads to a secondary problem.
The plot. There may be people who can follow intricate plots in a foreign language where true meaning is obscured by symbolism. I've never been one of them. With so much to pay attention to at any one time on the screen, something is bound to fall through the cracks. Do we pay attention to the dialogue via subtitles and the relationships that dialogue creates? Or is the important thing the visuals, designing to help propel the story along? Maybe, instead, the focus should be on the underlying meaning of every person and sequence. I'm not advocating film's should dumb themselves down for the sake of the audience-rather, the audience needs to learn how to rise to the level of the film. All I'm saying is Sauna is incredibly dense even before the added layer of history is thrown on top of everything else.
Sauna takes place because of a single act: Eerick killing a father for hiding religious artifacts and locking his daughter in an underground storage compartment of sorts. While it is true the plot is very dense with numerous things happening at the same time, part of the issue is also the editing. It consistently assumes the audience can make the leap from point A to point C without going through point B. The above mentioned scenario is a perfect example. We're never told Eerick has anything against religious paraphernalia or the orders were for it to be hidden. By leaving out that crucial piece of information, we have to back track in our own minds, figure out exactly what set him off and why it would be a problem and connect the dots...while the story continues full steam ahead. Again, a film shouldn't have to do all the work, but if it has international aspirations, it needs to do some of it.
At the heart of the film is the relationship between Eerick and Knut, both ably brought to the screen by their respective actors. They are a study in contrasts: Virtanen is tall and striking, clearly a warrior of some kind hardened by previous battles. He rarely lets that veneer down, even in the presence of his brother. While Eerick the character begins to second guess himself through the story, Virtanen the actor never really lets on what is going through his head. Knut is much less experienced in the ways of exploration, wearing his heart on his sleeve and rarely taking control of a situation. Eronen's performance is more of the every man, the character the audience is supposed to identify with. (Knut and an officer are at the center of a sub-plot the story either doesn't want to flesh out or feels is much more intriguing being left wide open. Early on, Eerick admonishes the officer for having a homosexual relationship with Knut. Moments later, Knut is basically cradled by said officer as he falls down a hillside. And, at the end, a single line of dialogue about committing an act to spend the rest of eternity with the person he wants, all point to some kind of pairing for the two.)
Annila, when coupled with cinematographer Henri Blomberg, has a keen eye, creating a bleak, barren world for Sauna to be set in. There's a foreboding nature to the heavy gray locations, as if there is absolutely no warmth to be found in the situation or the people. This approach serves the film well, recreating the atmosphere real life mapmakers must have experienced back in 1595. Intentionally-or unintentionally-it also heightens the sense of tension throughout, making whatever small amounts of color there are stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. The effect? Well, not much until a bloody and violent ending, arguably containing the most action in the entire film, not to mention the most heartbreaking moment.
So far, I've skirted around what exactly the sauna is. It's nothing special, really. A decent sized rectangle sitting in the middle of a swamp. What's inside? We never do get a good look at it; rather, the interiors are bathed in deep blacks. The back cover copy more than spoils what Eerick and Knut find inside. The sauna cleanses a person. That much is obvious. But what is it? An educated guess would be some kind of netherworld between heaven and hell, where the dead go to be absolved of their sins before moving on. Why do I say this? Little things, especially in the finale, when scars magically disappear and long-term ailments are cured. Then there's the aforementioned line about spending eternity with someone. Is God or a reasonable facsimile in there somewhere, dispensing "justice" of sorts on all who enter? Entirely possible, but the film refuses to answer these questions. Instead, it's open to interpretation, another concept American audiences are not accustomed to.
THE LOOK
The anamorphic widescreen picture is high in contrast and low on color diversity. Considering the events of the film take place in a time before electricity and fire is the only way to light any given location, the attention to the darker hues-especially the blacks-is of paramount importance. And as such, they are appropriately deep without any problems of note. Aside from a sometimes noticeable layer of grain (mostly in scenes permeated with snow) which adds to the mystique of the story, there is slight pixelation in certain forest foliage scene. The grain has the effect of making the film look weathered, a definite asset to the production.
THE SOUND
The sole audio track on the disc is a combination of Finnish and Russian (5.1) and it's perfectly acceptable for Sauna. From the get go, the speakers are alive with all manner of activity from sound effects to the soundtrack to the ambient noises at various locations. It's not a mix which demands constant attention-there are only a handful of booming moments-though the dialogue is clean. The track is balanced well, with the elements working together to create a moody atmosphere. Rear speakers are given a bit to do, largely in the environment noise arena. I didn't notice much in the way of directional sound effects. Again, that's not a problem since Sauna is largely a dialogue-driven film. English and Spanish (English SDH are also available) are included.
THE STUFF
Sauna is packed in a standard black keepcase with no insert. A selection of 16 chapters are available from the main menu. Trailers for Left Bank, The Objective, Fear[s] of the Dark and Lemon Tree play at startup. The only other bonus feature is a trailer for this film.
Sauna is available on DVD.
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