Tuomion saari / The Island of Doom

Keke Soikkeli: Tuomion saari / The Island of Doom (FI 2023) with Sonja Aiello, Konsta Hietanen, Markku Pulli, Elmeri Rantalainen, Emma Lahti, Jenni Rautiainen.

FI 2023. PC: Same-eYes Production / Nordic Films. P: Jesse Tervolin, Keke Soikkeli.

    D+SC: Keke Soikkeli. Cin+ED: Teemu Villikka. Makeup: Sara Niinimäki. SFX (blood effects): Marko Moilanen. M: Eetu Hämäläinen, Olli Rantanen.

    C: Sonja Aiello (Miia), Markku Pulli (Teemu), Konsta Hietanen (Kimmo), Elmeri Rantalainen (Timo), Emma Lahti (Maija), Jenni Rautiainen (Laura), Heljä Lappi (Tiina), Tiia Weckström (Eetu's lover), Timo Dadu (boy's father), Linnea O. Leino (Ilona), Karo Auvinen (Rami), Viivi Mauno (Emma), Toni Lipsanen (Eetu / the killer), Viivi Schroderus (Tuuli / waitress).

    90 min

    Finnish premiere: 29 Dec 2023, distributed by Kuusan Kino Ky.

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 3, Helsinki, 20 Jan 2024.

English Wikipedia: " Mia learns that her boyfriend Eetu is cheating on her and she goes to live with her friend Maija to recover from the shock. Maija decides to take Mia to a summer bar with her friends Rami, Laura and Kimmo, where Mia falls in love with the porter Teemu. At the bar, they try to think of some kind of pastime for Mia to get her mind off Eetu's infidelity and soon they come up with going to a remote lake island, which is called the "Island of Doom". There is an urban legend about the island, according to which a young boy guilty of murdering his baby sister was banished to the island by his father and left there to die. Mia agrees to this idea and the next day they go camping on the island. After spending the night there, Laura starts to get nervous about the atmosphere on the island, which the horror story left behind. The situation is not made easier by the fact that there is indeed a small abandoned cottage on the island, which would indicate that someone actually lived there. And when their boat disappears while they are trapped on the island, they soon begin to realize that what started out as a "horror story" has some kind of basis of truth. "

Filmikamari Pressit: " Syrjäisellä seudulla sijaitsee saari, josta kerrotaan kauhutarinaa sinne aikanaan hirmutekonsa jälkeen karkotetusta lapsesta. Kukaan ei usko hänen selviytyneen edes ensimmäisen talven yli, mutta legendan mukaan saarelle menijät eivät vielä tänäkään päivänä sieltä palaa. Parikymppinen Mia on juuri kokenut järkytyksen ja pettymyksen parisuhteessaan ja kaipaa muuta ajateltavaa, joten kyseisen kauhutarinan kuultuaan hänen onnistuu houkutella muutama jännitystä elämään kaipaava ystävänsä mukaan tuulettumaan veneillen ja telttaillen sekä tutustuen saaren legendaan. Saarelle päästyään nuoret kohtaavat tuomionsa yksi kerrallaan. "

AA: The last movie of my private "Saturday film festival" of four films in a row.

The title of the horror film Tuomion saari means in literal translation "Doom Island". I rush to the screening from Stormskärs Maja / Stormskerry Maja, also set on a tiny island. Maja's is an island of love. Tuomion saari is an island of death.

The movie is a low budget regional independent production made outside regular financing structures, shot in Kouvola and Iitti.

It is a genre movie, a splatter film and a slasher movie, with clear affinities with films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes and Halloween.

One thing can be stated for certain: Tuomion saari is not sophisticated. The female characters' main characteristic is that they are oozing with sex. I hesitate to call this aspect male abuse of feminine glory. It seems that the female performers are themselves more than happy to flaunt their youthful attributes.

The visitors to the doom island have all heard that nobody who visits it comes back alive. They do not believe in such nonsense and thus get to learn by experience. 

It's raw. It's crude. There is no excuse for stilted performances, but still there is a lesson in this movie. A horror film does not become better if it is produced on a huge budget, say, like Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, which drowns under its own weight. Tuomion saari exudes unreconstructed genre energy.

According to Stephen King in his magisterial study of horror fiction, Danse Macabre, it is all about our coming to terms with death and madness. His formative experience in his childhood was Creature from the Black Lagoon, and ever since, death for him has meant that the creature from the black lagoon comes to get you.

Despite everything, Tuomion saari does deliver this essential, atavistic and primordial horror impact.  The axe killer covered in sackcloth comes to get you. I have always refused to speak about "horror classics" because it is an oxymoron. "Horror" is the antithesis of "classic". Horror is meant to be upsetting in every way. Having said this, I wish Tuomion saari were a better film or even a good film.

There are memorable images such as the wooden doll.

Today I also saw another genre quickie, the medical drama Syke: Särkynyt sydän. It is a parallel case: not a great film, but it also conveys something of the genre essence, perhaps somehow in a purer form because it is not refined. It is also about life and death. And madness and sanity.