Cult films aren’t deliberately made—they’re spontaneously created by word-of-mouth, their outrageousness, absurdity and all-around badassery spread far and wide by fans who’ve discovered their awesomeness and are eager to share it with others. Let me, then, join the swelling chorus heralding the arrival of a new movie destined to assume a place in the pantheon of delirious modern genre favorites: Sisu, a balls-to-the-wall Nazi-killing affair that more than lives up to the hype.
In theaters now, Sisu is an English-language WWII grindhouser from Finnish writer/director Jalmari Helander, who’s best known stateside for his demented 2010 Yuletide action-horror fable Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. Imbued with the same gonzo verve as that holiday saga, Helander’s latest tells its story with compact concision, even as it also indulges in great gooey gobs of over-the-top mayhem.
Wasting not a second on extraneous plot details or superfluous exposition, it’s a lean, mean machine designed only to provide the pleasure of seeing SS soldiers get slaughtered at the hands of an unstoppable hero with a grudge a mile wide and an unwillingness to die at the hands of his enemies. The result is a bloodbath of lunatic extremeness, as expertly staged as its recurring sights of Nazis meeting their deserved demise is satisfying.
Source: ‘Sisu’: The Wildly Violent Nazi-Killer Film Everyone’s Talking About
