Skyggen aka Webmaster
Unlike the US, Denmark has a fairly small film industry, which mostly produces cinema aimed at a local Danish market. There's not a whole lot of Danish horror or sci-fi movies, and the ones that get made tend to be godawful, with very few exceptions.
For some reason I am not entirely aware of, I have decided to collect all of these Danish genre movies, since that seemed to be an achievable goal. Hence my collection of almost all of the terrible Danish horror movies:
I'm going to slowly work my way through these and write about them. First up is one of the more interesting titles: Skyggen, or as it's known internationally: "Webmaster". The front cover compares it to Blade Runner, but it is in fact significantly closer to Johnny Mnemonic.
Our story starts by introducing us to a central character of "Technopolis residential zone 4", an autistic super hacker that goes by "J.B." - After being caught inside a system that he shouldn't have access to, he's been made into a White Hat InfoSec type working to make the internet more secure. Sorry, did I say internet? I of course meant Cyberworld. Oh, and InfoSec was also wrong, he's a "Webmaster". Cyberworld is mostly your typical William Gibson metaverse as seen through the VR glasses and voice control used to interact with the virtual world.
To be a bit more specific, your level of access is dependent on three things. First is the transfer speed of the cable you're connecting with. To be able to access all parts of the network you need to be connected through a Tera Bit Connection, which is only available to a select few important users in the residential zone. Secondly you must be a member of Usenet type groups, which are based in a hierarchy that decides what you can and cannot do.
Lastly your access is granted using an ID optical disc, which serves as your credentials showing you are who you say you are, and gives you access to your "Cyber Ego", i.e. your virtual avatar. For a super hacker in charge of digital security, a single factor login system seems incredibly ill-adviced... But I'm no expert on InfoSec, and don't know enough to dispute it.
J.B. has a semi-platonic relationship with a private investigator known as Miauw, who is seemingly one of the only reasons he ever leaves his room and Cyberworld to interact with meat space. His own time is spent on routines and playing with his rich fantasy universe in the form of Cyber Egos that he trains.
I honestly don't want to spoil the story. It's a neo-noir crime story with your usual femme fatales and a ticking clock, as well as a few twists and turns. The writing isn't great and the acting is generally pretty bad - but it's all so very charming.
Content warnings for the movie though. It features a kink nightclub, several sex scenes, people getting brutally murdered and hints of previous pedophilia, so I completely understand if that's not your thing.
On the other hand it features a wonderful drag character, some very 90s ideas of the future, a protagonist who surfs the internet in just his undies while hanging upside down and wearing cool VR shades and of course a nightclub full of bargain bin Cyberdog ravers.
I had a lot of fun with this one.
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I know I just posted, but here’s some fanart of Jason from Terkel In Trouble.
I’m Danish, and I grew up with this movie. I decided to draw my favourite character from the movie, Jason.
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Mads Mikkelsen in "Riders of Justice" (2020) and "Another Round" (2020).
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I relate to the characters of "De fortabte sjæles ø" a lot (translation: The Island of the lost souls)
Like the ghost of the 35 year old ghost dude from the 1800s possessing a 10 year old kid by accident, who got dragged to an Island, trapped in a warehouse with a living scarecrow outside. And then when he pulls the covers off a machinery and falls on his back, tiredly and calmly says "I'm getting too old for this" in an old man voice. As if he was a dude in his sixties and not 35 in a 10 year old boy's body, that he also can't get out of. Gets zapped out then comes back and says "a warning would have been appreciated". Afterwards goes around zapping other ghosts out of people.
Or the 13 year old boy who's afraid of deadly heights but not driving old and questionable machinery with no brakes. When the machinery is about to crash he jumps out and wakes up to a frog and says to himself "stupid frog". Then promptly falls down the hole of the evil dude's lair, and is seconds away from setting hundreds of souls loose on a small town, 14 year old girl with common sense stops him. Souls get set loose by accident. When they find out the evil dude is the one from the 1800s he whispers, "now again? Are there no souls that just die?". Relatable. Also with the world-domination thing, "why does it always have to be the entire world? Couldn't he figure something more original out?" Actually mostly this guy. Gets possessed at the end and forced to fly an airplane, the ghost is zapped out, and the clairvoyant dude pushes him out of the plane with a parachute and learns to fly.
Or common sense girl with a justice drive who is also the only one able to use the magic book without dying horribly. Common sense is however sometimes a bit chaotic. Typical teenage hormones too. Saves the day.
Or Clairvoyant adult dude who gets way too excited about the supernatural again when he finds out it's actually real. And sails a boat (never explained) out and saves them from the scarecrow. Studied physics for seven years to build a ghost attractor, it attracts dogs. Agreed to help although he said no to ghost stuff the moment they offered to pay.
Even better is the bad guy turns out to be the 13 year old boy's step dad, or rather step dad offered his body in exchange for riches. They find out when they try to get him possessed and it doesn't work. Gets real creepy when the bad dude says he was the scary things in his childhood, including the shadow outside his window, monster in the closet and what not. On the subject matter the 13 year old boy says, "This is the last time my mum gets to choose my step dad"
Or
"Great, the whole world's fate depends on an overgrown dog whistle" when they need the machinery the clairvoyant made. It does turn out to work though
Common sense girl defeatedly says "Great, an insane nazi pilot" when they summon a pilot, tbf he does call Hitler a Schweinehund when he hears Germany lost.
For a kid/teen movie it had a lot of blood and violence. No wonder my friend got nightmares at 8, although only from the bald evil guy (bald people phobia)
Ending is pretty cool
Best movie of my childhood though
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