Sauna (Antti-Jussi Annila, 2008)

Sauna, otherwise known as Evil Rising, does play a trump card right at the outset: a swamp in North Karelia in 1595 has to be the most outlandish setting for any film of 2008, let alone a horror film. Unfortunately, it doesn't make the most of the idiosyncrasy. Annila squeezes every cent out of a paltry million-Euro budget, and the end result looks the part, with some of the incidental musings on the nature of war and borders hinting at a film deeper than a bog-standard demonic retribution piece, but the overall point is muddled. The brothers in the wilderness, seeking to chart the King's lands in the aftermath of a ghastly war, commit an unforgivable sin and all that remains is the wait for their punishment, which is eventually delivered kicking and screaming as a mish-mash of hand-wringing guilt and supernatural gore.

4/10