Saw the Swedish movie The Conference (
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26547864/) and it was pretty meh. Honestly a bit surprised I stuck with it, since the first half hour is utter shit, but it gets a lot better after that.
I guess it's supposed to be a comedy-slasher, but it didn't really do either that well. A group of Swedish low-level government bureaucrats go for a retreat to celebrate the opening of a strip mall that they have facilitated, and wind up getting killed off (along with the staff of the retreat) by
the son of the farmer who anheroed when they kicked him off his farm to build the mall. I don't know why I spoilered that, since they don't try and hide it, and full on show who and why they are killing everyone on the very first kill. The group thinks it could be someone else, but there's never any doubt in the audience's mind.
The group are much more tedious and annoying than actually funny - I think they were going for kind of an Office or Parks and Rec vibe, but they missed the mark completely, either because they're Swedish, or they weren't actually going for that despite seeming that way. A couple of the workers are actually corrupt and malicious, rather than just incompetent, which kind of ankles your whole comedy attempt right from the start. I feel like they should've picked one or the other - make them all incompetent, so it's actually funny, or make them corrupt and malicious so it can be a good slasher (I mean their actions are causing the killer to kill, so it isn't just random). All of them are pretty unlikeable, some intentionally (the overbearing leader who puts the trip together and runs everything, the smug guy and his crony who are corrupt), and the rest just because they are bureaucrats, weak and annoying. There's the obvious final girl who you're bored of almost immediately when she's introduced.
The one actual funny part is kind of a meta-backfire, where they're going over an advert for their new town or whatever they're building, and it's very OTT trad-Swedish (or at least what the rest of the world considers Swedish) with all blondes with big tits and fit guys in it. The bureaucrats are like we can't put this out, it's only white people, is it an ad for Swedish Front, and the head bitch says something like "Yeah, we actually want people to want to come here." It's like they tried to virtue signal, but came off doing the opposite. In any case, that's the only attempt at pozzness, really, and it actually comes off as pretty based (especially since the people criticizing it are unlikeable faggots from the get-go).
The kills get progressively more gory as the movie goes on, starting with bloodless snap cuts, and ending with a full on (relative) bloodbath, but there's really only a couple interesting/funny ones (
the main bitch getting hoisted up a flagpole gave me a sensible chuckle, and the smug guy at the end was at least gory (although I don't think it would've been fatal)).
There's some odd stuff in it too, like the killer gets the mask from the preview after his third kill, and it's completely unrelated to him. I couldn't figure out if it was a Friday the 13th part 3 homage or just a random thing. Also he starts out like hiding the bodies and covering for the killings like he's trying to get away with it, which I thought could've been interesting, but then he just gives up on that immediately.
It's pretty by the numbers, really, It's only 90 minutes, but it seems longer, mainly because the first 30-40 minutes are a bit of a drag with the Swedish attempts at comedy. I think I'm going to have to give it a 2.0. That seems a little low, considering the last 30 minutes are pretty good, and there's no obnoxious DEI shit in it...but also there were no tits in it, so I guess it's appropriate. I guess that's about right for an inoffensive, if uncreative, by-the-numbers slasher.
