Swedish Sensationsfilms: A Clandestine History of Sex, Thrillers, and Kicker Cinema

by Daniel Ekeroth, Christina Lindberg (Foreword), Magnus Henriksson (Translator)

Sweden’s place in film history is secure and prominent. Swedish films are associated internationally with Ingmar Bergman’s successful and high quality works. However, another breed of Swedish film is notorious for its laissez-faire attitude towards nudity, relaxed sexuality, drugs, and shocking violence. Produced in the backyard of the Swedish film industry, these sexually daring films join countless sensational Swedish movies dealing with shocking or taboo subjects—street punks, space aliens, hard drugs, and drunken vikings. Other efforts are simply too strange and Swedish to ignore. Once again, Swedish Death Metal author Daniel Ekeroth delves into the arcane culture of his homeland, returning with the first comprehensive overview of “Sensationsfilms”—Swedish Exploitation Cinema.

Genres: Film

328 pages, Paperback

First published September 23, 2010

Reviews

[Jessica Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating isn’t really fair because my biggest problem with the book is that it’s not what I thought it would be. The most interesting part for me came at the end with an essay talking about the death of the sensationsfilms era. This was closer to what I wanted, which was a historical overview of the exploitation film industry in Sweden, unique among exploitation film industries in that it was extremely strict about depicting violence while being incredibly lax about nudity and sex (especially by American standards). Instead the majority of the book is one-page—sometimes one-paragraph—reviews of a collection of these films, many of which the author doesn’t seem to like. Several also include weird potshots at blockbuster Hollywood movies in different genres that came out decades later, which is an odd place to make comparisons. We had our own exploitation film industry, Ekeroth, you could compare your movies to those instead of Iron Man or Avatar. Or just look to Italy, Japan, or Australia. Now those are countries that made some ferocious exploitation movies!

[John Carlsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

En bok om svensk sensationsfilm, alltså filmer där scener med explicita våld- och sexskildringar förekommer flitigt. Sådant som i många fall kallas för exploitation, men även filmer från regissörer som Bergman och Zetterling finns med. Eran som beskrivs börjar på allvar under 60-talet och fortsätter fram till 1993, där filmen Sökarna får stå som sista exempel på den här tendensen i svensk film.

Precis som i författarens bok om svensk death metal är texten väldigt subjektiv och överdrifter och lite slarviga/slafsiga uttalanden förekommer ofta. Samtidigt är det kul att läsa om de här filmerna och man blir nyfiken på att se en hel del av dem. Gott så.

[Ghostea · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a fan of cult cinema this opened up a whole new world of trash to dig through, however I have one major complaint about this book. Each review opens with a plot summary which discloses too much of the story, if I have never seen the film I don't want the synopsis to tell me who dies at the end of the film, and why. (for example)

So when you read this book skip the last sentence of every first paragraph per review, and you should be able to go into the film with some question of how it is going to end.

Other then that, I now have a list of Swedish cult cinema to track down, which is exactly what you want from a book like this.

Pictures and stills of greats such as Christina Lindberg also does not hurt.

[Doug Brunell · Rating 5 out of 5]

First things first: amazing cover. But how is the book?

For fans of exploitation cinema, this is an essential book to have in your library. Author Ekeroth has love for and an incredible knowledge of Swedish films of the best kind (excluding all the porn). You may have seen some or all of the films written about (and if not, you need to check them out), but you'll still learn something new within these pages.

In addition to the wonderful cinematic lesson, there are plenty of film stills to whet the appetite of any reader.

[Juan Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha descubierto un mundo de cine que desconocía totalmente, yo sabía que en Australia o en Argentina si que hubo un cine tipo "destape" o "S" parecido al español