User reviews

I do understand young People watch this today and dont like it , its normal of course , its a swedish B movie from the 80is and its just dont work today

I saw this when it came out 88 and I loved it , resaw it couple of years ago and it still worked for me wich is unusually, often these movies are old and forgotten, but this is timeless and still work atleast for us that grow up in the 80is

I have seen 1000 of horror movies but must say that no other scene have made me so scared as one scene in this movie, Kjell bergkvist turns around in the bed and look on his wife lena endre and for a second she looks like a dead demon from hell, though that it today would be different to watch it but still got icecold when I see it , absolute one of the scariest things Ive seen

Its not a comedy but have very funny moments, the dialoge between the medium and mailman are stunning.

Renting a house in the Swedish countryside, a family comes to believe the house is possessed by demons and consults a trained demon hunter to help rid them of the dangerous beings inside before it harms their family.

Overall, this one was quite an exciting and enjoyable effort. One of the more enjoyable aspects of this one is the fact that there's quite a large amount of time taken up here with getting this one to the point of featuring the house as actually being haunted by real demons here as the entire middle section here is loaded with all sorts of paranormal hunting sequences that have been featured throughout the genre for ages here with all sorts of hunting techniques and scanning equipment being utilized to fight off the strange energy found throughout the house. Coupled with the tactics of haunting here with the pounding footsteps, slamming doors and ethereal voices throughout the night it really paints quite an effective picture that really sells the haunted nature quite well. As it adds these features with the previous sequences to denote the haunted nature of this effort, the complete picture of what's happening here is even more accomplished here and it really goes to add a more imposing presence to this one with it's chilling backstory involving the demonic rituals conducted in the walled-off room as well as the ghostly actions in the finale with the attacks that come into far more focus and impact with a spectacular burning-down-the-house Gothic finale to cap it all off with. These are enough to overcome it's few flaws here, most notably it's incredibly contrived and familiar story that mashes together two similar efforts without much difficulty in spotting where the influences came from which simply highlights the overall familiar ground it traipses through. It's not in the slightest original and doesn't do much to dissuade that viewpoint by taking on those common scenes without really making any big difference in them. As well, the film does take quite a while to get through here as there's not a whole lot of interesting action taking place early on with them moving into the house being just quite excruciating to follow and makes for a wholly difficult time with this not really getting the action going while it shows them settling into the house. It's a long series of boring scenes featuring them arguing with each other or goofing around before launching into the attacks well over half-way into it and that doesn't make for an intriguing effort at all. Otherwise, this one was quite enjoyable if you overlook those flaws.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Graphic Language and children-in-jeopardy.

Simply an underwhelming, and clumsy Swedish haunted house film with your standard genre tropes directed without any lasting impression. Kinda low-scale, slow and particularly unevenful with frequently minor paranormal activity until the end. Think along the lines of "Amityville Horror". However there's a goofy charm (unintentional and intentional) to proceedings thanks to some questionabe, head scratching character actions/reactions, overcooked dialogues and eccentric side-characters (mailman, paranormal researcher).

Most of the storytelling is filled with family drama, growing tension and amplified squabbling (brought upon by the father's obsession over the house's strange occurances) with only a few scattered spooky atmospheric moments and a go-for-broke final 10 minutes with a climatic pyrotechnic pay-off. These well-done scenes mainly occurred during the quieter moments with a focus on vivid sound design and shadowy photography. It's just too bad whenever the intrusive music score or hamfisted dialogue delivery entered the picture it was a mood destroyer. As for trying to understand what's going on - all we get is a passage read out from a book discovered in a locked up room in the attic. It's a vague exposition dump, which doesn't share much light on the backstory of the family's new home and what awaits them if they don't leave.

Also the visual quality of the print I watched was beyond blotchy and the english dub was bad, yet amusinginly so when the characters curse their heads off... yep even the children. The family dinner table discussion regarding peakcocks will get you attention.

This Swedish movie is the scariest that ever been watched by my eyes. It is not a patriot thing from me as a Swede, no i am totally honest in my opinion. The Americans tried with "Amityville horror" and "The haunting" but they fall so flat in comparison. Here we have scary camerawork, creepy locations and some good acting from the people involved. Fascinating how soundeffects can be so scary and it has never worked as good as in this movie. Find this movie and you will be aware of a pure horror experience.

This is a straight forward, pretty simple ghost movie.

It has some real creepy, pretty scary scenes, and the haunty-stuff that happens to the family is cool, and well done. Pacing is good.

The movie is more on the quiet side, but doesn't really get boring.

Now, it is Swedish, and it is from 88, so some of the dialogue and acting is a little bit strange. But not in a way that makes it a drag to watch, though.

The first part of the movie is a little stronger than the second. And the best scary parts are in the beginning, rather than the end.

I find it very interesting that this is Swedish, a ghost horror movie, and made in 1988! If I were Swedish I would be proud of that!

Come on Norway, ghost horror movie please! Make me proud.

Even though I'm a massive horror fan, I've never been particularly fond of the haunted house sub-genre. With a few wonderful exceptions, most recent entries in the field are dull knock-offs of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, a film which was bad to begin with. Still, I've seen very few Swedish horror flicks and THE VISITORS seems to be well-regarded by the few who've seen it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. My feelings are mixed.

Plot-wise, it's what you'd expect. A family moves into a new house in the middle of the countryside. There's a lot of marital drama and the father figure (played rather well by Kjell Bergqvist) is slipping into alcoholism while losing his grasp on job security. When weird happenings start occurring in the house, the father brings in a psychic specialist and it all goes south from there.

What struck me as odd about THE VISITORS is how mild a case of haunting the family experiences. One room in the house rejects wallpaper and the cellar door keeps opening, but that's about it! It really seems like a livable case of possession to me! This makes for a slow start to a film, one only kept moving by entertaining, surprisingly solid performances by the main and supporting cast.

Unfortunately, there's not too many scares to be had. There's a couple solid suspense sequences and moments of shock, but the film mostly floats along towards its conclusion, which ups the ante a little too much far too quickly. The ending feels rushed and doesn't hit with any real impact. Factor in TV-film-level direction and a horridly cheesy music score, and THE VISITORS really falls a bit flat. It's not the worst I've seen in the genre by a long shot, but it didn't make me believe there's a lost canon of wonderful '80s horror flicks from Sweden floating around, waiting to be found.

I am really pleasantly surprised! This Swedish movie is really simple and plain haunted house story with focus on few characters and their experience with horror. The best thing is simplicity and minimalism - everything happens in and outside house without any explanation why scary events happens which is great and original approach that simply put viewer in the same line with characters on screen. Also, actions of characters tend to be realistic as it possible - with all bad, stupid and good moves without silly heroic and/or cold approach to mysterious events in the house. Very different from other haunted house movies. Also, lack of gore and usage of light, shadows and sound instead over the top FX to produce horrific atmosphere is fantastic approach and works amazing! Even awfully bad English dubbing in the version I watched, occasionally lame acting and silly ending can't reduce real creepiness of scary scenes.

Very different view of pretty exploited theme with situations and actions that are the closest to reality if this would happen to some real family in the real world.

Highly recommended!

Frank (Kjell Bergqvist), Sara (Lena Endre) and their two young children move into a new home in the country, but Frank soon becomes aware that something in the house isn't quite right and suspects that the pace might be haunted. Sara thinks that her husband is losing the plot.

The Visitors employs the standard haunted house setup employed in such classics as The Amityville Horror and Poltergeist: a young family experiences spooky goings on in their new home, leaving them no choice but to seek expert help. Unfortunately, the viewer is kept in the dark about the nature of the evil entity for the entirety of the film, making it a very frustrating experience, not helped by the fact that the majority of the movie is extremely slow and uneventful.

Only in the final ten or fifteen minutes does the film offer horror fans anything to get excited about, as Frank and the kids are attacked by the evil spirit (or whatever it is that is going bump in the night), but it doesn't make up for the preceding, extremely dull hour and a half, the highlights of which include some wallpaper falling off a wall, and an altercation with an irate postman.

This movie is one of my favorites. It doesn't rely on special effects, it doesn't rely on big name actors, at least not by U.S. standards. It doesn't rely on great dubbing, in fact it is quite bad. So what does this movie offer... a scary plot, the movie is slow and cerebral, but very scary. Pacific Heights scary. The main character has to solve a mystery about the house that they just moved into. The movie offers up just enough to keep the guesswork, wallpaper that won't stick, mysterious figures in the windows, a quite entertaining film, which is what this is, a film, not a movie, excellent, I voted a ten...

I remember watching this movie once back in 1992, back then I thought it was amazing (somehow), upon seeing it again I realize that it has a bunch of elements that really stand out, and is worthy of attention.

Don't take me wrong, I'm pretty cynic when it comes to Swedish movies, the only one I've ever liked so far is "Mannen Pa Taket" and "Noll Tolerans", however this has nothing to do with any action paced scenarios, but more the realism in it, unlike the ungraspable Hollywood-movies.

It all starts out with a series of events in the families new house in a town outskirt, where everything for a start seems to be quite alright (with a couple of flaws of course), then for some reason they start to notice that something is happening to the house, the tapestries start to fall off in one of the rooms, in another nothing 'feels' right, and then it all gets creepier and creepier.

I can't say that this movie is very particular in comparison to the great, I just think that this is a missed out movie, may it not be the Swedish quintessence, but a good portion of essence (at least).

The first one is Japan. And they know it. The second is Sweden, but for some reason horror movies are extremely rarely produced in this country. There are only a handful. But almost all of them are great, and this one is no exception. It's only the first movie I've seen that manages to be very amusing, at no expense when it comes to the fear factor. A Swedish viewer would look upon this movie with much doubt, because it is a movie starring Johannes Brost and Kjell Bergqvist, yet calls itself horror. That's sounds like a combination that doesn't work. But strangely enough it does! The movie is awesome.

I basically think this is a great movie. It's rare for Swedish movies to be good, or even great, but this one is truly great. They've managed to keep the storyline on the track, good acting, OK special effects (not that many though) and good music. I suppose this was a medium budget compared to Swedish standards, but I think this is what you mean when you imply that great art can come out of something simple. It also involves one of the funnies movie moments I've ever seen, you'll recognize it if you see it. I highly recommend it and personally regard it as Swedish top five movies together with Fanny and Alexander, Änglagård and a few other movies. (That list is short though).

When a film knocks the socks of you over 30 years after it was made, you'd normally think it's a praised classic. As I understood it, this movie was released outside Sweden with limited resources and an english dub that really didn't do the film justice. In it's swedish version you get to hear the real voices of the actors who deliver first class acting both when it comes to humour and tension. Kjell Bergqvist is INCREDIBLE in this one. Even the kids in the movie act as if it wasn't a movie. Also worth nothing is the photography, direction and not least the sound effects that has to be among the best ever in a horror movie, I am not kidding. Severely underrated horror film that deserves an HD international release with its original audio (take note Synapse or Arrow Video). Prepare to get the chills!