Priest of Evil -Blu-Ray

Film: Timo Harjunpää (Peter Franzén) firmly believes in the values he represents day after day as an officer of the Helsinki CID. But after his daughter is brutally beaten to death and the perpetrator is released from prison after only two years, Timo loses more and more faith in the law and is henceforth haunted by tormenting thoughts of revenge. After all, the cruel deed not only ended his daughter's life far too soon, but also destroyed his marriage. Desperate, Timo clings to a sinister case that has the Helsinki police on tenterhooks. An unknown killer pushes his victims in front of arriving trains in subway stations. The motive of these acts seems to be related to religious fanaticism. While Timo tries to track down the perpetrator, he has no idea that he is already close to dragging the police officer's desperate wife (Irina Björklund) into his sick mind as well...

Priest of Evil is based on the novel The Pigeon Ritual by Finnish crime writer Matti Yrjänä Joensuu, who died in 2011. The writer, who himself had previously worked in the Helsinki Criminal Investigation Department in the field of violent crime, adapted his own experiences and expertise into several novels based around police officer Timo Harjunpää, some of which have also been made into films for Finnish television. Priest of Evil is the first cinema adaptation, which can convince as a mixture of personal family drama and dark serial killer thriller.

While there are some dramaturgical lengths especially in the first half of the film and also the secondary characters remain somewhat pale. Nevertheless, the thriller has an enormous tension, which can be maintained by an almost dreary mood, some well-placed effects and the intense play of Peter Franzén and Johannes Heino until the finale. Admittedly, the last third of the film falls off a bit in terms of quality and the resolution can't fully live up to the high expectations that are built up at the beginning. Nevertheless, the film underpins the good reputation that thrillers from Scandinavia currently enjoy.

Because with its gloomy imagery, its suspenseful story and its convincingly acting actors, Priest of Evil manages very well to keep its viewers glued to the action even in the rather long-winded or less successful moments. If you like it dark, you will be carried away by this sometimes quite drastic thriller about revenge and vigilante justice. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: On the Blu-Ray, the dark thriller presents itself in good picture and sound quality. The visual realization convinces with a high image sharpness, which even in darker moments still smaller details can be easily recognized. The color scheme is somewhat reduced and thus fits well with the gloomy and dreary atmosphere of the story. The sound has some good surround effects to offer, but is dominated by the music and dialogue for long stretches. Good!

Extras: Apart from some trailers, the Blu-ray unfortunately has no bonus material to offer.

Conclusion: Priest of Evil is a dark thriller that deals with revenge and religious mania in a gripping way. Timo Harjunpää's battle against the dangerous killer and against his own demons is largely exciting, only struggling here and there with some minor lengths and overused clichés. Overall, however, director Olli Saarela has succeeded in creating a tense crime drama with some very tough and intense moments that can be warmly recommended to friends of gritty entertainment from the far north!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp