Himmel og helvete

The pot-movie to end them all, "Himmel og helvete" (Heaven and hell) was co-scripted by the director, Øivind Vennerød, who wanted an entertainment, and a Norwegian medical expert, who wanted a stern warning to young people about the evils of drug-use.

The resulting bastard of a script is hilarious. The pot-heads in the audiences went crazy when the film was shown back in 69, and loudly applauded every badly acted line of dialogue. They KNEW what it was like tripping out on illegal substances. The makers of this movie most certainly did not!

"H & H" follows the traditional drug-movie set-up: Young, nice couple are lured into a life of sex, addiction and crime via their first puff on a marijuana-cigarette. They end up - well, if you've read this far you already know.

Every usable and unusable cliche is dragged screaming out from the closet of hoary movie-ideas: Desperate father killing sleazy, foreign drug lord who turned his daughter into dope- fiend; Smooth talking doctor airing his eloquent views on drugs in smoke-filled office; Worldy-wise police-officer ruminating about liberal university-professor advocating drugs in the presence of students; Fat old man making sexual advances on helpless, money-crazed female drug-addict.

Yes, they're all here. In gruesome colour, complete with the worst special-effect ending this side of "Plan 9 from outer space". Apart from that, it's really "Reefer madness" all over again. Only worse.