From Finland

 

 (imdb)

THE MATCH FACTORY GIRL-1990-In Finland, lonely Iris (Kati Outinen) works a mundane factory job to support herself, her mother and stepfather who she keeps house for. She goes to dances but doesn't attract a partner. She buys a new dress but her parents disapprove. Later she meets a strange guy and they have sex. On a second date, the guy tells her he doesn't want a relationship (he thought she was a prostitute) and she should beat it. Later she finds out she's pregnant. It looks pretty bleak for Iris but then she decides to buy some rat poison….

This unconventional drama directed by Aki Aurismaki, is regarded as one of the greatest films to come out of “the land of a thousand lakes”. It's the third installment of the director's “Proletariat Trilogy”. I have to check them out some day...

Aurismaki is also known for his movies about the Finnish rock band “The Leningrad Cowboys”.

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Nonsense

DARK FLOORS-2008-A nurse, a high strung guy, a security guard, a nutty guy and man with a semi-comatose daughter are trapped in a hospital. All the doctors and patients have disappeared and they are menaced by a strange apparition (it looks like Uncle Creepy from the black and white Warren comics). It all seems to be related to the daughter. A scaly monster bites the high strung guy's leg. Later the monster (which looks like The Predator dressed to go clubbing) kills some of them. Two survivors become "displaced" in time and eventually corpses come back to life. It's all Stephen King/David Lynch/J-horror inspired nonsense very drawn out and un-entertaining.

This Finland/Iceland co-production (in English) was directed by Pete Riski and features English actor Ronald Pickup and the Finnish rock group Lordi  (I like their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah") as most of the demons.

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