Review by Chris Rennirt
I’ve often thought that revenge provides the best motives for the best horror movies. Revenge can turn ordinary people into monsters, at least for the time needed to cut, hack, slash and torture their way to happiness or some form of satisfaction. What is a greater catalyst than the cold-blooded murder of a loved one? A normally mild-mannered person can become a dealer of death, an eye-for-an-eye killer, smiling with crazed satisfaction, glassy eyed at the sight of their victim’s blood. Add to it the rape and torture of a loved one as motives for revenge, and you have the elements of a cult classic at least, and a mainstream classic, possibly. SARGAD–the feature film from actress/writer/producer Sarah Giercksky and director Andres R. Ramos–is just the type of revenge horror that is, true to their production company’s name, “Bloody Fierce,” and a sure staple of horror movie collections everywhere. And yes, in Sargad, the word “staple” has significance beyond the usual paper-collating purpose. And, oh what beautiful horror it is!
What would revenge horror be without some creepy locals? Not much, I say!
What’s it all about? Elina (Sarah Giercksky), along with her mother Agnieszka (Alicia Henriksson), and her younger sister Lily (Tindra Hedlund) return to the family’s house in the woods (no, not a cabin) to spread her father’s ashes. They haven’t been back to this house in a long time, and memories of dad make for mostly melancholy moments of reflection and sadness. Yes, it’s all is just a typical family-bonding drama, set amidst memories of a dead loved one–with a dash of young romance for balance–until…. Yes, in all good horror films everything is always fine, until it’s not. Soon enough, something happens to create the all-important, inevitable need for the highlight of Sargad’s horror–pure, raw, violent revenge!
In a revenge-horror film, don’t mess with a girl and her father’s ashes!
Of course, revenge as a motive brings to mind some of the most famous (albeit infamous to some) films in the genre. Yes, I’m thinking about I Spit on Your Grave, Ms. 45, Audition, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance just to name a few. With the isolated setting of Sargad, being in a remote, wooded area, with the locals being deranged and predatory, there is also a welcome Deliverance-style, hillbilly-horror element about it. However, Sargad, even with its similar settings, motives, and routine revenge, departs from its cinema-siblings with a uniquely different story. Compared to a film like I Spit on Your Grave (the original and the remake), they are the difference between night and day…or, perhaps, the difference between a bloody gash and a well-healed wound. Rather than being mindless exploitation plain and simple, Sargad has a multi-layered story, with characters it takes time to develop…and “flesh out”…literally.
“…on top of the body, there was a strange animal feasting on it. You know, the stomach was open, intestines hanging out…” ~ Elina
One of Sargad’s qualities is exactly about its characters. They are normal, ordinary people who act as many normal, ordinary people really do. Too often movies include characters that, while entertaining, are too dramatic in their mannerisms and reactions to almost everything. In many Hollywood films, people are more animated and hyper than people really are in life. In an Amazon review I read earlier, someone (whose name is but a moniker) commented on how “flat” the character of Elina is. I did not see that at all, at least not as a point for criticism. I saw a girl who was, instead, like many low-key people I know in real life; rather than Elina being an underplayed character in the film, her part was, no doubt, scripted with purpose and skillfully acted. Elina spoke and reacted with as much energy as necessary, with a detachment signaling a buried complexity and mystery about her. Her low-key personality was actually effective, as a contrast, after her transformation, highlighting her spirit of revenge all the more horrifically. Seeing the vengeful Elina come alive, eyes widened, smiling like never before, made the horror more mental, more powerful, every bit as visceral as the blood and gore. She emerges from the horror stronger, bolder, more confident, albeit bloody and “wounded.” From a crying, bleeding victim with her face in the dirt, will Elina evolve into a heroine who saves at least herself? The film’s writer and producer, Sarah Giercksky, gives Elina a muti-faceted contrast of character and believable metamorphosis, adding copiously to Sargad’s success.
Lily (Tindra Hedlund), Elina (Sarah Giercksky, and Agnieszka (Alicia Henriksson)
Speaking of blood and gore, I saw what is labeled as the “Uncut” version of Sargad. I don’t know if there is a cut version, but I would certainly not have wanted to see the movie with anything missing. Lovers of revenge horror have little use for cut versions, especially when the blood and gore is what gets cut. Although Sargad is a lower-budget, Indie film, it is not lacking in the special effects department. Everything looked so real that at least one scene is enough to make a man faint. I won’t spoil it here, but, trust me, it’s brutal and graphic–easily the stuff of man’s worst nightmares! (And yes, using the word “man” only is not being politically incorrect here!)
Sargad is subtitled, but even for those who avoid such movies, this is one that poses none of the typical turnoffs. “Subtitled movies don’t leave the words up long enough for me to read,” you say. Not the case here. “Subtitles are always bad translations, losing and altering too much of the real dialogue,” you say? Sargad is in Swedish language, and, although I don’t understand Swedish, I had no issues with it. Often, when there is a problem, it’s obvious, leaving me confused, with an intuitive sense that something is missing. Not so here again, thanks to the awesome translating talents of Jasmine Martinez (from Bitches of Horror on Youtube, with Sarah Giercksky). And, to those who tell me they refuse to watch subtitled films for any reason, I say you’re missing too many good movies. And here, you’d be missing a certain great film–Sargad.
The more tender the beginnings, the more brutal the revenge!
Also worth mentioning, last but not least, is the performance of Birgitta Nord, as Marit, the neighbor with secrets and demons of her own. Possibly, she is also an example of the equally-destructive consequences of not taking revenge. Yes! It’s as if the forces are inescapable, at work against us, one way or the other. Marit is one of those secondary characters we might not remember, if not for a performance from Brigitta Nord that’s more than we expect, and more than the script necessary asks for. She gives memorable life to her character, with minimal time on screen–exactly what all good actors do!
Also interesting is information I found as “Trivia” on Sargad‘s IMDb page. The main character Elina is said to be “very similar to Sarah Giercksky in real life.” “She [Sarah Giercksky] wrote the character based upon her own experiences with the death of her father and how she had to end her mixed martial arts career due to an injury.” Yes! This certainly explains how Giercksky is able, so naturally, to make Elina come to life as a real, authentic, and most believable character. There’s nothing quite like authenticity found in drawing from one real-life experiences. Also interesting is that Alicia Henriksson who plays Giercksky’s mother in Sargad is actually Giercksky’s mother in real life. Oh, how I love that IMDb and those trivia facts!
“I’ve looked for a woman like you all my life. I know I can get carried away sometimes. But if you don’t open the door…I’ll have to kill you.”
Speaking of facts, let’s face it! In a revenge horror film, the better the revenge, the better the movie. And, as I have suggested, and hinted at earlier (trying not to spoil the fun), Sargad delivers the paybacks with blows, stabs, slices, and cuts to impress a butcher. And knowing Sarah Giercksky personally, I’m not surprised at all. Yes! They don’t call her “Sarah of Horror” for nothing! And that scene that makes a man faint is all the proof you need! And, in case raw, visceral, entrail-entailed horror isn’t enough, Sargad also delivers a story with substance that doesn’t leave you hanging or cheated in the end. It all wraps up, makes sense, and satisfies, respecting its viewers. And oh yes, that ending (and I mean the very end) was so slick that I watched it twice. Yes! Sometimes its the small things we notice so much. The attitude, the look on the face, and that hoodie! I want one myself now.
A vengeful woman with a huge pair of shears! Yikes! (Sarah Giercksky as Elina)
Sargad (translating to Wounded in English) is available on DVD on Amazon now, “with only 7 left in stock.” I know this, because I just checked today. Luckily, I have a copy that’s autographed by Sarah Giercksy herself. I have a feeling that Sarah has only just begun thrilling us with the emotion that Poe so correctly called “the finest.” Terror!
SARGAD also stars Jesper Hall, Krister Twizz Forsberg, Oscar Rusanen, and is produced by Sarah Giercksky, James S.M. Parker, and Xander Turian, with cinematograpy by Javier Vilar Ehrlin and Andres R. Ramos, and music by Our Untold Story and Xander Turian.
Be sure to also check out Sarah Giercksky (aka “Sarah of Horror”) on Youtube!
Check out Sarah and Jasmine Martinez, on Youtube, at Bitches of Horror!
Check out Sarah of Horror at Bloody Fierce Productions!
Rocket Rating – 8
Chris Rennirt (the author of this review) is a movie critic and writer in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as editor in chief at Space Jockey Reviews. He has been a judge at many film festivals, including Macabre Faire Film Festival and Crimson Screen Film Fest, and he attends horror and sci-fi conventions often. Chris’ movie reviews, articles, and interviews are published regularly on Space Jockey Reviews and in Effective Magazine. His mission statement (describing his goals as a movie critic and philosophy for review writing) can be found on the “Mission” page, here at SJR. For more information about Chris Rennirt (including contact details, publicity photos, and more), click here.
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Hell yeah! I’m the one in the craziest scene, still not healed. Haha
Great review.
Thanks, Twizz! And thanks for stopping in at Space Jockey Reviews! Great scene in the movie too!