Sydney 2011 Review: Corridor

Rating:

Another entry in the SFF’s ‘Freak Me out’ section, Corridor makes for an intriguingly persuasive paranoid psycho thriller that draws from the best of Hitchcock, Polanski and Haneke and is all the more impressive for being the feature debut of Swedish university graduate filmmakers Johan Lundborg and Johan Storm.

Frank is a lonely, brainy socially inapt medical student who moves into a plush apartment. It is the perfect hub to concentrate on his forthcoming exams, until he attracts the interests of Lotte – the intrusive, overly keen to get close girl upstairs. It’s not long before Lotte’s continuous house calls test Frank’s patience. But then he receives threatening phone calls from her violent and jealous boyfriend and, following an eventful night of fear induced theatrics, Frank is convinced that Lotte has been murdered and that he is the killer’s next target. Unable to convince authorities of the impending danger on his own life, the medical student decides to take matters into his own hands in an attempt to prevent the inevitable.

Carrying the weight of the film on his shoulders Emil Johnsen is a solid reliable presence as Frank – all knowing intelligence and pretentious put-downs to begin with, evolving into a nervous-wreck of shuddering unease. He’s a bit of a jerk from the start but as the tables are turned we begin to relate to his plight and share in his unease, which builds to a climatic catharsis both nerve-shatteringly suspenseful and emotionally palpable. It’s difficult to describe without giving the game away, but rest assured the denouncement makes for a refreshing alternative to the tried and tested ‘twist’ endings of late. What materialises here is far more clever and calculating.

As the emotionally unhinged Lotte, Ylva Gallon is equally impressive. Her switch from creepy desperation to needy and helpless victim is what keeps proceedings unpredictably fresh and deeply involving. Her scenes with Frank turn from hilarious, awkward bemusement to touching tenderness.

Kudos must fall to the filmmakers for fully utilising all the cinematic apparatus at their disposal and conjuring up an atmosphere of eerie splendour. From the brooding, pulsating score to the menacing thuds and creaks emoting from the smart soundtrack and the brilliantly lit and functional use of the titular set-piece -  the suspense refuses to slip for a second. In fact it puts Hammer’s recent below par domestic chiller The Resident to shame, proving that you don’t necessarily need glossy high production values to make for shudder inducing cinema.

Splicing elements of both The Tenant and Hitchcock’s The Lodger, Corridor makes for a teasingly tense claustrophobic thriller with one of the most surprising but reassuringly audacious denouncements seen in a long time, and one that for once feels strangely satisfying.