He horror cinema has always been a magnificent instrument to reveal the fears deepest of human being and, among them, there is undoubtedly the deaththe loss of a to be loved. What if the person we love most, after passing away, come back to life turned into a monster?
This is what the Norwegian’s debut film proposes. Thea Hvisteldahl, Rest in peacebased on the novel by Ajvide Lindqvistfrom which several of his works have already been adapted, including, Let me inby Tomas Alfredson (which would later have an American version) and Borderby Ali Abbasi.
What the writer of Swedish origin does is ‘reupdate’ a good part of the horror myths and place them in the present, whether they are vampiresthe trolls or, as in this last case, the zombies. “It is one of the reasons that attracts me to this author, because his novels are based on horror, but they reinvent the genre in some way, as if he put himself in the shoes of those monsters and I thought: what would my life be like if I were a troll right now? It does not rely so much on the supernatural, but on the reality of the characterswith which you can perfectly empathizer”, the director tells Infobae Spain.
For the director, her works, among which is also the short film Children of Satanare a mix between terror and psychological drama that try to delve into the deepest cracks of the characters, in this case, through a triple story: a mother that has lost his sona family facing the death of their mother and an elderly woman burying the woman of her life.
He empty that settles into their respective existences will be abysmal, impossible to explain, so that their entire world will collapse. “I wanted it to be a meditation on painabout sadness and duel through these three independent stories that made the viewer reflect, think about what they would do if the same thing happened to them, how they would feel,” continues Thea.
From there, he created the language of the film, which is being cooked slow firewith a nordic style very content, minimalist and perfectly outlined planes that generate a atmosphere of deep discomfort. “I wanted there to be few dialogues, for the images to tell the story, inviting the viewer to feel things, even if it requires effort. I like to make people uncomfortable, because it has its rewards.”
In that sense, no limit was imposed. “The less you see, the more you imagine, and it tends to be even worse.” Thats why he sound also becomes a fundamental part of the film, and perhaps for that reason, also its musicmade of Peter Raeburnwon the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival.
So, sometimes, what you hear is almost worse than what you see. There is a specific scene, related to a rabbit, which is really creepy. “I wanted the terror to come from the faces of the characters and, for me, that scene was important to tell the story, so that the family finally knew that their mother was not alive, but was… something else.”
Definitely, Rest in peaceis one of the most disturbing zombie movies and different which we can get closer to and which talks about Apocalypse in such a way subtle as distressing.
The film also stars the two stars of The worst person in the world, Renate Reinsve (which we can also see in the Apple TV series, Alleged guilty) and Anders Danielsen Liewhich has just been released perfect livesnext to Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain.
