Sennentuntschi: Curse of the Alps (2010)

Watched this on Netflix, intrigued by the description about an old folktale. The film turned out to be somewhat contrary to my expectations, but actually in a good way.Without giving too much away, the film is a slow-burner that moves on multiple time levels. The flow feels natural, and adds to the mystery, so the chosen narrative approach was a good one. The film contains none of the modern Hollywoodian jump-scare crap - another top-notch decision by the director and writers. The main timeline's '70s setting helps to create the slightly skewered atmosphere of the film.The film can be interpreted on several metaphorical levels, but it works well even when just taken as a genre movie. All in all, I really liked the idea and its execution. Emotional stuff, really well played.Be warned though. As said, this is a real slow-burner, and the horror primarily comes from the atmosphere and -- well, you should check it out!

I watched it once, would love to watch it again.. One of the best European movies I have seen, plot wise. The cinematography is awesome. The Alps are simply beautiful. The 70's rural male psyche is portrayed well. The way how things play out, is quite plausible and understandable. Lead actress has done such a convincing job, best one could ever have in such limited roles. In-fact all the actors played their characters well. Kudos to the screenplay and the direction, had me till the very end. Super. PS- I actually wrote this review, as one Boogieman seemed to have not grasped the story. The 3 bodies were that of the Temp hands, our Hooch (Potent) maker had previously hired. He may have had a fetish for skinning, especially after a heavy dose of the green fairy. Yes the movie is dark.

"Sennentuntschi" is a Swiss movie from 5 years ago and certainly one of the most famous film in recent history from the country of neutrality. Maybe because it is a horror mystery movie which is not too frequent for the German-language areas. Then again, I should be careful saying German as the Swiss accents in here are so heavy that you will not understand the dialogs even as a German native speaker. Get subtitles for that. The film got some awards recognition, especially at the Swiss Film awards and it has a bunch of experienced actors in it who all do a fairly good job. One of these is Joel Basman, who just won a German Film Award very recently. The female lead and at the same time the only female character which plays a bigger role in this film is played by Roxane Mesquida. She is really stunning and was a nice choice for the character of Sennentuntschi. She plays a young woman who shows up at a Swiss village and she seems to lack basic human abilities such as speaking for example. But that is also what makes her so appealing to the men of this village, apart from her looks of course. It is the fact that she is so different.Still, at the same time, there are always suspicions that she may be evil, a witch possibly or even the devil personified. The solution comes at the end. Until then, she gets raped by several men of the village, but thanks to a police officer who takes somehow care of her she does not get killed. Also, she is accused of being responsible for the death of several people and also maybe turns some of the village people against each other. As a whole, it was a fairly mediocre film. It definitely has a couple pretty good moments, but none of these were really great enough to let me recommend this films. I wish Michael Steiner, who wrote and directed it, could have kept it a bit more essential at 90 minutes max instead of 110. There were really quite a few scenes that added totally nothing for me. What I did like was the whole setting. The nature added some really nice atmosphere to it. But still, there are just too many uninteresting factors about this film in my opinion. Only give it a watch if you are really into horror/mystery pieces.

The Swiss are hardly noted for their thriving film industry, but viewers shouldn't let that affect their pre-conceptions about Sennentuntschi: Curse Of The Alps. This wonderfully atmospheric chiller from Swiss director Michael Steiner manages to be a real surprise. That is to say: creepy, mysterious and ingenious in equal measure. Steiner takes a piece of ancient Alpine folklore and fashions it into an absorbing 1970s-set thriller, boosted in no small part by its vast, lonely mountain locale, as well as a clutch of memorable performances by the main actors.The story moves – perhaps too ambitiously – along three fronts. It opens in the present with an intriguing sequence in which a young girl uncovers a long-lost corpse in alpine woodland, guided to its resting place by a ghostly apparition. The second segment shows a long flashback describing a series of unnerving events which brought fear and superstition to the region in 1975. Following the shocking suicide of a priest in a remote Swiss community, the villagers suddenly find their superstitions brought to a head when a young mute girl (Roxanne Mesquida) turns up. Everyone assumes that her inexplicable appearance is somehow connected to the priest's death, except for village cop Sebastian Reusch (Nicholas Ofczarek) who isn't prepared to explain away the puzzling mystery with talk of ghosts and ghouls. The locals express concern that something may also have happened to a trio of herdsmen who live and work high on the mountain behind their village, and urge Reusch to go up to make sure they are safe and well. He does, but when he reaches their high alpine farm there is no-one there. Reusch simply assumes they are out hunting and returns to the village. The third thread of the story, presented as a flashback within a flashback, recounts the story of the three shepherds (Carlos Leal, Andrea Zogg and Joel Basman). Drunk, lonely and frustrated, their decision to make a 'Sennentuntschi' (a woman of straw, given life by the devil) has grave consequences for everyone.Steiner skilfully blurs the chronology of his story, creating a fragmentary narrative which keeps audiences guessing right to the very end. This disjointed rearrangement of narrative and time threatens to become irritating in the early stages, but Steiner quickly wins over the audience with his uniquely unsettling style. Mystery is piled upon mystery, intrigue upon intrigue, drawing the viewer into a labyrinth of perverted fairy-tale and superstitious frenzy The performances are pitch-perfect, with Mesquida in particular giving a riveting turn as the titular creature. Is she a minion of the devil or just the innocent victim of irrational backwoods beliefs? Her wordless portrayal of the 'Sennentuntschi' is absolutely central to the success of the whole film, and she is, in a word, excellent. To convey such a range of emotion solely through eye contact and body language is no mean feat. Ofczarek, Leal, Zogg and Basman all add memorable characterisations of their own, while Ueli Jaeggi rounds things off impressively as a fanatical priest with murky ulterior motives. Sennentuntschi: Curse Of The Alps is a beautiful-looking, cleverly crafted horror film with much to admire. If it is indicative of the future of Swiss movie-making, then audiences have a lot of good stuff to look forward to!