This movie is a perfect example of how a large budget, familiar actors and skillfull videography just cannot replace proper storytelling. It feels a lot like another one of those movies where the scenery shots, music and speechless parts make the whole runtime seem better than it actually is.
With only the plot points, conversations, action and narration Bodom is a mediocre film really in all of the genres it promises to represent. For a comedy, it's not funny. Aside from a few gags and jokes occasionally thrown around here and there it contains almost zero comedic elements to speak of. For a horror title, it does try to deliver some scaryness, altough every horror-focused scene is really straightforward and fails to deliver any actual elements of suprise. As for a thriller, all foreshadowing and tension the movie tries to rise is killed of by the constant fake-jumpscares and mundane interruptions. The film simply tries to hit too many genres at once - resulting to fail in all of them.
Now to its credit, the budget of this film shows in certain scenes where the camera angles, shots and included music give a nice sense of environment. However, even this is too infrequent and it certainly seems like the producers should have dedicated this time and effort to crafting a proper story and characters first. All motives are messy, none of the characters are likeable or relatable and and this misconnection between the viewer and them cause constant questioning of the teenagers actions, reactions and conversations.
Overall, Bodom is not a completely terrible film but does not honestly contain much worth watching. The idea of discussing the historic real events through the film is not very well executed and most rorror film enthusiasts would probably get more out of reading about them on Wikipedia. The movie doesn't really suit it, I recommend skipping this one.
With only the plot points, conversations, action and narration Bodom is a mediocre film really in all of the genres it promises to represent. For a comedy, it's not funny. Aside from a few gags and jokes occasionally thrown around here and there it contains almost zero comedic elements to speak of. For a horror title, it does try to deliver some scaryness, altough every horror-focused scene is really straightforward and fails to deliver any actual elements of suprise. As for a thriller, all foreshadowing and tension the movie tries to rise is killed of by the constant fake-jumpscares and mundane interruptions. The film simply tries to hit too many genres at once - resulting to fail in all of them.
Now to its credit, the budget of this film shows in certain scenes where the camera angles, shots and included music give a nice sense of environment. However, even this is too infrequent and it certainly seems like the producers should have dedicated this time and effort to crafting a proper story and characters first. All motives are messy, none of the characters are likeable or relatable and and this misconnection between the viewer and them cause constant questioning of the teenagers actions, reactions and conversations.
Overall, Bodom is not a completely terrible film but does not honestly contain much worth watching. The idea of discussing the historic real events through the film is not very well executed and most rorror film enthusiasts would probably get more out of reading about them on Wikipedia. The movie doesn't really suit it, I recommend skipping this one.