The Swedish parody to Sam Raimi’s 1981 horror classic The Evil Dead, directed by Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund, is brutal, violent, and explicit. You notice that the wheels are already in action for a film with the slogan “Say farewell to your friends” and the entire event centered around an isolated cottage in the woods.
With everything from demonic possession to dismemberment and decapitation on show, it’s easy to say that Wither is a true love letter to the original film while still containing all of the elements that one associates with Swedish films.
In today’s video, we’ll give you a detailed breakdown of the 2012 Swedish horror film, as well as several fascinating facts that we’re sure you didn’t know. You had best be prepared for this gorefest!
Wither (2012)
The movie begins with a man looking for his daughter, Lisa, in the woods. He is seen carrying a gun and seems to be in utter despair. The man finally locates her daughter lying on the ground and being eaten alive by a woman. Of course, he is horrified to see it and asks the woman to stop. With the bloodied woman looking at him, he shoots her in the head. She falls back on the ground only to get up again and the man is compelled to shoot her in the head again. We are taken to the opening titles of the movie that shows us the history of the ‘Vittra’ through rough sketches.
The next scene has a young couple Albin and Ida planning a fun weekend at an abandoned cabin that the former’s father, Olof, found for them. Post gathering all the information from Olof, the couple decides to spend the weekend there along with Ida’s brother, Simon, and a few of their friends.
They drive in two groups following the directions given and after reaching a certain point realize that they have to hike up the rest of the way to the cabin. It is while walking that the group notices the same man from the beginning of the movie looking at them from a distance. While the rest of the group is a bit surprised to see him, especially with a gun, a hot-tempered Simon shouts at him and makes him go away. They finally make it to the cabin only to find it locked.
With Albin trying to lock pick the door, Marcus comes up with a plan with Marie to scare the shit out of Albin. He takes her to the backside of the cabin and shows her an open window. The plan is to make Marie get inside through the window and then have her open the door from inside. Helping her climb inside, Marcus joins back the rest of the group. As for Marie, it’s too dark inside and so she lights up a candle.
As she examines the house, she discovers a basement and goes down to check it. Marie does not really find much except for an ax and upon hearing a sudden noise, she is seen venturing deeper into the basement. Albin is finally able to gain entry into the cabin and the rest of the group goes inside. Linnea is startled to find Marie already there and looking at the former, she doesn’t seem to be doing so well. Simon and Tove decide to check the cabin upstairs and Tove ends up exciting Simon enough to make out with her despite knowing that Linnea has feelings for him.
The group starts having a party downstairs and everybody except for Marie seems to be enjoying it. We learn something happened to her while she was in the basement earlier; she seemed to have been attacked by some kind of dreadful-looking earth-like figure. Excusing herself to use the washroom, she pops a pill to calm herself down. However, her condition seems to deteriorate further when she pees blood all over the pot, her eyes start bleeding and she even spits a bit of blood before collapsing on the bathroom floor.
Tove is the first one to get attacked by Marie, who is now clearly possessed; she viciously attacks Tove and rips off her upper lip. Next, she spits blood into Linnea’s eyes. Simon is able to overpower Marie and ties her up with the help of Albin. With Ida and Linnea tending to Tove’s wounds and the rest of the group not being able to make out what is it that went wrong with Marie, they hear a sudden knock at the door. It’s the same unknown man, the Gunner, who asks them to let him in.
As shocking as it may sound, he tells them that he wants to take a look at their friend and forcibly makes his way in. Taking a good look at Marie, he tells the group that she is already dead, that she has been turned into something else, and that they need to get rid of her immediately.
Of course, nobody believes him and he decides to tell them his story. A couple of days back, he along with his wife and daughter had come there in the woods. It was the mother and daughter who had found the house and post that, everything fell apart. He lost his family to something very evil and further tells the group about a story that his grandfather had told him when he was a child.
It was a legend about creatures that lived beneath the ground and if one dared to trespass their lands, all hell would break loose. In fact, the creatures were so powerful that if you looked into their eyes, they were capable of stealing your soul. Simon breaks into a laugh hearing this and the Gunnar tells him how he couldn’t really save his family. Further asking the group if anybody amongst them has come in close contact with Marie, he informs them of the chances of infection.
With Gunner telling the group that they should all preferably burn Marie, Marcus goes to the room where Tove is. As he checks upon her, Tove wakes up resurrected and starts attacking him thus injuring him in the process.The Gunner intervenes and shoots at Tove but in spite of that, the latter manages to escape while jumping out through a window.
Simon chooses to leave and take Ida along with him. He clearly doesn’t care about the rest of the group. With Albin telling the group that he has called the police and that they want someone from the group to meet them by the cars, Simon leaves and Linnea decides to go along with him. Arming themselves with a shovel and an ax, the duo leaves. The Gunnar on the other hand is outside the cabin looking for Tove when the latter surprises him by biting him from behind. The highly enraged Gunnar is seen furiously stabbing Tove with a knife blade and then dismembering her head with it, post which, he is seen to blow his own head off while remembering the last painful memories of his family.
For Linnea on the other hand, the infection has started to spread. Her eyes have already turned blood red and after Simon sees that he ends up knocking her unconscious using the shovel. Lighting up a smoke, he thinks of a few ways and ultimately decides to bury Linnea alive. Back at the cabin, Marcus starts feeling unwell. As Albin reassures him that he will be fine and that the police are on their way, Ida realizes that Marie has managed to break herself free.
Within seconds, Marie attacks the remaining group. It is clearly a bit of a struggle; nothing seems to incapacitate Marie and it is only after Albin bludgeons her with a stone that she finally stops. While Marcus is seen succumbing to his wounds, he wakes up as an undead moments later, and no points for guessing that he begins to attack Albin and Ida. Meanwhile, Simon has come back to the cabin for his sister and after he hears a noise coming from upstairs, he goes there only to have Marcus pounce on him.
Simon is hurled through the window and he falls down. He is seen to survive the fall but then gets attacked by Linnea, who is now resurrected. Arming themselves, Albin and Ida get out of the upstairs room and find Marcus waiting right outside. Albin is able to gain an advantage over Marcus and he heads down with Ida to find a possessed Linnea grinning at them. Albin attacks Linnea with the ax and keeps hitting her till she dies. As for Marcus, he seems to be even more violent than ever and attacks the duo with an axe.
Albin and Ida are fast enough to lock themselves inside a room and post realizing that they can stamp their way below, Albin does so eventually falling through the floor and landing himself in the kitchen followed by Ida. Albin realizes that he has grievously hurt his arm and upon seeing Marcus jump from the floor above, he places an inverted stool thereby impaling him in the process.
Speaking of Simon, he has transformed into undead by then and is seen blocking Ida’s way. With Ida hitting him with an axe, he seems to be unaffected. Instead, he grabs hold of a pipe and starts hitting her profusely and even forces his blood into her mouth. Albin, who had lost his conscience for a while wakes up to find a still impaled Marcus looking at him. Grabbing a hammer from nearby, Albin strikes Marcus finally killing him. Next, looking for Ida, he finds her lying on the ground and about to transform. Simon indulges in a fight with Albin and the latter is able to lay his hands on the Gunnar’s rifle at the shed. So, when a wheezing Simon appears at the shed, Albin simply blows off his head.
Albin comes back for Ida but obviously, it’s a little too late. Ida transforms and Albin is absolutely devastated. But somehow, Ida doesn’t attack Albin right away and calls him by his name. Eventually, he is left with no option but to kill Ida by making a heavy bookshelf fall on her. What follows next is the basement door flinging open andVittra coming up above. Albin can hardly believe his eyes and remembering the words of The Gunnar, he turns away from the creature and keeps his eyes tightly shut even with the creature coming in front of him. Next, he is seen switching off all the lights and stabbing the creature with a kitchen knife making it writhe in pain. Finally, he is seen dropping the fridge on her, crushing her head in the process.
The movie ends with Albin finally leaving the cabin.
Why Should You Watch The Movie?
We will keep it pretty simple here. If you fancy movies such as The Cabin In The Woods, this one here is definitely for you. If you call yourself a fan of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead, then this 2012 movie here is conclusively for you. Please note that it isn’t a copy-paste,we agree that the premise is similar but the movie eventually finds its own identity.
Given Samir El Alaoui’s background score and that grainy visual throughout the run time of 95 minutes, the flick does give one the 80s vibe.The gore on display is pretty impressive; hats off to Laguna and Wiklund for their top-class efforts and most importantly, for staying true to the genre.We highly recommend that you give this movie a positive shot.