Drowning Ghost (film)
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''Drowning Ghost'' () is a 2004
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
slasher film A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...
directed by
Mikael Håfström Jan Mikael Håfström is a Sweden, Swedish film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the 2003 film ''Evil (2003 film), Evil'', and the movie adaptation of Stephen King's short story ''1408 (short story), 1408''. Early life Born in Lun ...
and written by Lars Yngwe "Vasa" Johansson and Håfström. It stars
Rebecka Hemse Ingrid Rebecka Elisabet Hemse (born 4 August 1975) is a Swedish actress. She is best known for her role as Martin Beck's daughter Inger. She works at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. In 2008, she was Ofelia in Staffan Valdemar Holm's t ...
,
Jesper Salén Nils Jesper Alexander Salén (born 5 December 1978) is a Swedish physician and former actor. Filmography *''Om Stig Petrés hemlighet'' (TV) (2004) *''Strandvaskaren'' (2004) *''Evil (2003 film), Ondskan'' (2003) *''Festival (2001 film), Festival ...
and
Jenny Ulving Jenny Ulving, (born September 26, 1979, in Östersund), is a Swedish film and television actress. She started her career with the role of Bella in the soap opera ''Vänner och fiender'' (''Friends and Foes'') which was broadcast on Kanal 5. Film ...
. The film features the film acting debut of
Rebecca Ferguson Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström (born 19 October 1983) is a Swedish actress. Ferguson began her television acting career in 1999 with the Swedish soap opera ''Nya tider'' and made her motion picture acting debut in 2004 with the Swedish slash ...
.


Plot

The movie opens at a boarding school, at the time of the big party before summer break. While most of the students are outside listening to the headmaster's speech one student, Rebecka, is seen showering and writing a letter before jumping off the school's tower to her death. A year later the student Sara, who witnessed the suicide, is attending her final year at the school. Two new students, math genius Felix and diplomat son Leo, start to study at school. Sara and her friend Therese start to tell them of the local legend, Strandvaskaren (the Drowning Ghost). A century ago a farmer slaughtered three male students at the school before drowning himself in the nearby lake. He is believed to return once every year on the day of his death to haunt the school, and there is a tradition among the students to have a party at that day in the barn where the farmer once lived. Sara finds out that the farmer killed the students to avenge the rape and murder of his daughter, but it was all covered up by the authorities because the rapists were upper class. At the party, Sara's former boyfriend Måns and his friend Ynge try to pull a prank on Sara, but the drunken Ynge tries to rape her. Sara pushes him away and runs away while Måns yells at Ynge for going too far. Sara runs out and finds Måns current girlfriend hanging dead in the hallway. Ynge goes to have some milk and is killed by a fork struck through his head. Måns find the hysterical Sara and tries to calm her down and apologize. A masked man appears and rams an axe into Måns' head as Sara runs off. Sara locks Leo in a storeroom and calls for Therese and Felix to help. Sara finds an 8 mm film in a box that had belonged to Rebecka, and discovers that Rebecka had a brother who has a weird similarity to Felix. Felix shows up and tells Sara that he and Rebecka were siblings. They were separated because their father was mentally unstable and put away. When Rebecka died, he swore to avenge her, dressed up as the Drowning Ghost, and started to kill the students who tormented Rebecka. He asks Sara to not say anything but believes she would any way and tries to kill her. Sara knocks him out and runs away with Therese. Therese falls into the well and breaks her leg. Sara climbs down after her. Morning comes and Felix awakens. He finds Sara and Therese, who are too afraid to call for help, in the well and climbs after them. Sara and Therese crawls down the pipe to the lake but Felix catches up with Therese and kills her off screen. Sara manages to reach the lake and escapes in a boat at the beach. She keeps her eyes on the pipe to see when Felix comes out of there, but falls asleep. When she awakens she has no idea how long she has been sleeping, and Felix is nowhere to be found. Felix tries to climb into the boat from underwater, but Sara cuts his hand by starting the boat engine. Felix tries to attack once more but Sara apparently kills him by bashing the anchor into his back. Felix sinks down to the bottom. Sara is saved by the police and reunited with Leo on the beach; the police try to fish Felix up but instead find the farmer. Sara and Leo leave the boarding school and graduate at a school in
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
. During the graduation day eight months after the events, with all parents and friends of the many students present, Sara looks out over the sea of people and suddenly sees a sign with the words written in red paint "My beloved sister Rebecka". The film ends with Sara realizing that even though she cannot see him in the crowd Felix is still alive and amongst the people watching her and her classmates graduate.


Cast

*
Rebecka Hemse Ingrid Rebecka Elisabet Hemse (born 4 August 1975) is a Swedish actress. She is best known for her role as Martin Beck's daughter Inger. She works at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. In 2008, she was Ofelia in Staffan Valdemar Holm's t ...
as Sara *
Jesper Salén Nils Jesper Alexander Salén (born 5 December 1978) is a Swedish physician and former actor. Filmography *''Om Stig Petrés hemlighet'' (TV) (2004) *''Strandvaskaren'' (2004) *''Evil (2003 film), Ondskan'' (2003) *''Festival (2001 film), Festival ...
as Felix *
Jenny Ulving Jenny Ulving, (born September 26, 1979, in Östersund), is a Swedish film and television actress. She started her career with the role of Bella in the soap opera ''Vänner och fiender'' (''Friends and Foes'') which was broadcast on Kanal 5. Film ...
as Therese *
Peter Eggers Peter Alex Tomas Eggers (born ) is a Swedish actor, best known for his starring role in the 2011 TV series ''Anno 1790''. He also plays the lead role in the 2025 Netflix series ''The Breakthrough''. Early life and education Peter Alex Tomas ...
as Leo *Daniel Larsson as Måns Weine *
Rebecca Ferguson Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström (born 19 October 1983) is a Swedish actress. Ferguson began her television acting career in 1999 with the Swedish soap opera ''Nya tider'' and made her motion picture acting debut in 2004 with the Swedish slash ...
as Amanda * Anders Ekborg as Thomas *
Kjell Bergqvist Kjell Bertil Leonard Bergqvist (born 23 February 1953) is a Swedish actor. Bergqvist finished the Royal Dramatic Training Academy in 1973 and made his debut in '' En enkel melodi'' and ''Jack''. He has since cooperated for many years with scr ...
as Peder Weine *Anders Ahlbom as Bengt * Tommy Andersson as Pappan *Sasa Bjurling as Rebecka *Alma Duran as Rebecka as a child *Patrick Gillenhammar as Felix as a child *Oskar Thunberg as Doctor 1 * Stig Engström as Professor Ek *Erik Hultqvist as Markus *Kerstin Steinbach as Laila *Magnus Ehrner as Doctor 2 * Bojan Westin as Anna-Lisa *Frans Wiklund as Yngve * Filip Benko as Student


Production

The film was shot at Filmhusateljéerna, Filmhuset in the
Svenska Filminstitutet The Swedish Film Institute () (SFI) is a statutory body located in Stockholm, Sweden that supports the Swedish film industry. Founded in 1963, the institute is responsible for administering the annual Guldbagge Awards, and for managing the Swe ...
in
Gärdet Gärdet is a part of Stockholm, Sweden, east and northeast of Östermalm. Its official name is Ladugårdsgärdet. It is renowned for its large number of modernist apartments. Gärdet is one of the largest residential districts built in Stockholm d ...
, Stockholm, Sweden.


Release

The film premiered on 13 May 2004 as part of the Cannes Film Market. ''Strandvaskaren'' had a 15+ age limit when shown in cinemas in Sweden on the premiere on 15 October 2004. The film was released ''Drowning Ghost'' on 22 August 2004 at
Screamfest Horror Film Festival Screamfest Horror Film Festival is a horror film festival founded by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in August 2001. It runs over ten days during the month of October and is hosted at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Los Angeles, Ca ...
.


Reception

''Drowning Ghost'' received some criticism for being too similar to ''
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
'' and the ''Friday the 13th'' films. In his review, Nils Nordgren described one of the film's biggest problems as "the script. It's sprawling, full of incredible and senseless incident." and referred to "The fact that Anders Ehlin's music in the film's opening is a plagiarism of
John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...
's famous piano loop in ''Halloween'' makes it painfully direct."


Awards

''Strandvaskaren'' won awards for best director and best soundtrack of the year at the Screamfest Los Angeles Horror Film Festival.Nekoneko's Movie Litterbox!! » Blog Archive » “Strandvaskaren” aka Drowning Ghost


References


External links

* * * {{Mikael Håfström 2000s Swedish-language films 2004 films 2004 horror films 2000s slasher films Swedish slasher films Films directed by Mikael Håfström Swedish thriller films Films set in boarding schools 2000s Swedish films