Streaming on Shudder May 17th is NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER, the chilling sequel to the Danish cult-classic NIGHTWATCH (1994), which inspired the 1997 U.S. remake starring Ewan McGregor.
22-year-old medical student Emma (Fanny Leander Bornedal) has just taken a job as the night watch in the same forensic department where her parents were once almost killed by the famed psychopathic police inspector Wörmer. The events led to her mother’s suicide, and her father Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has turned to tranquilizers to suppress the memories. Determined to investigate what exactly happened to them, Emma tracks down and confronts Wörmer, only to unintentionally reawaken his bloodthirst and ignite a violent revenge on everyone who sealed his destiny years ago.
Written and directed by Ole Bornedal (THE POSSESSION), 1994’s Nightwatch was a success in Denmark and was shown at the Fantafestival in 1995. An English-language remake of the film, also directed by Bornedal, was released in 1997. The original Nightwatch was included on a list of the top 100 Danish films as chosen by Kosmorama.
A scene from the Swedish-Danish crime TV series “The Bridge.” Courtesy of Topic
Back in 2011, the Scandinavian crime series, “The Bridge,” was not only hugely popular in Europe but spawned quite a few remakes and derivatives on both sides of the Atlantic. The now oft-used premise is that a body is found straddling the national border of a bridge joining Denmark and Sweden, creating jurisdictional confusion. That gets worse when they discover that the top and bottom halves are from two different women. Successor series have been set on the US/Mexico, Singapore/Malaysia, Greece/Turkey and the Russia/Estonia borders. A France/England version used the Chunnel in the same way. That list may be more illustrative than complete, since variations exist under non-bridgey titles. In each, a cop from one side partners with one from the other, despite cultural and personal differences that add tensions and friction to the whodunnit component.
This original paired Sweden’s detective Saga Noren (Sofia Helin) with Denmark’s Martin Rhode (Kim Bodnia). Since all cop duo dramas or comedies must begin with irritating differences, Saga is somewhere on the high-functioning end of The Spectrum – brilliant, hyper-focused, feeling virtually no emotions in her professional or personal lives, and blunt with everyone about what she’s thinking – unable to use normal sensitivities in any conversation. What she thinks will be what she says.
Martin is the grizzled, world-weary Dane who can be soft and supportive when the situation calls for tact. The two don’t particularly like or understand what makes each other tick, but mutual respect evolves during this somber season of shared sleuthing, weaving their way through a maze of political and financial motives and suspects.
Season Two opens 13 months after the first and introduces some new detectives before settling in with the first pair. This year’s plot escalates from the realm of crime to international terrorism. Even so, there’s a significant carryover from Season One affecting roles and actions in the new case. Without providing details, the season ends in a way that might preclude the two sharing any other cases.
Season Three, another 13 months later, pairs Saga with a younger Danish partner, Henrik (Thure Lindhardt) and returns to the more familiar realm of civilian murders, with a serial killer dispatching victims in apparently ritualistic, attention-seeking displays. Really gory, too, with each posed differently. Both seasons are filled, if not overrun, with characters and subplots, giving viewers more of a challenge than average. As usual, I recommend starting from the beginning to understand the carryover elements. Bingeing each season is advisable for keeping their plots and players in mind. As one expects from a Scandinavian drama, the tone is somber – longer on mood than action, and even lower on moments of levity. Both sets do a pretty good job of living up to Season One’s level of quality in scripting, acting and production values. A final fourth season aired abroad and is sure to follow here shortly. Stay tuned , as they say…
“The Bridge: Seasons 2 and 3,” mostly in Swedish and Danish with English subtitles, streams on Topic starting Tuesday, Dec. 26.
