Fantastic Fest 2008: VIKAREN - The Substitute
6th grade has a new substitute teacher. Evidently, she is not, what they are used to – apparently she can read the children´s minds, and when she is alone with the pupils she is downright malicious. She makes jokes about their physical appearances. She knows who is crushing on who. She seems to knows everything about anything. And she is determined to turn this 6th grade class around and make them realize their full potential. But why and for what reason? They say that this class is going to go on a trip to Paris to represent in a competition. But the hero our story, the recluse and mourning Carl, has his doubts about who she really is and discovers her dark secret. She is in fact an alien and she is planning to take this 6th grade class back to her home planet.
The Substitute is a pre-teen sci-fi fantasy film with just the right amount of dark elements and comedy to it to make it a standout from the rest. It has been a while since an adventure sci-fi film like this has been made. The Substitute starts with a very funny script by the director Ole Bornedal and Henrik Prip. Their script also infuses sci-fi elements that are just creepy; Carl takes pictures of files inside Ulla's bag and as the story unfolds more and more of his classmates appear in the photo, holding hands, standing in a circle in a field outside of chicken farm. That image is just creepy enough to add to that sense of menace. To add to all of this there is a genuine heart to the film as Carl, his father and sister cope with the loss of their mother and wife in a car accident. In regards to the times for comedy and the times for sci-fi thrills it is a very balanced film.
Most of the reason that this film is so successful is because of the performance from Paprika Steen. She absolutely rules the roost in this film. Her character, Ulla, demands so much from her as an actor. In one scene she can be gentle and warm then turn that right around and be downright nasty, for example, her final scene with Carl and she gets very dramatic but Carl sees right through it, it is like a light switch and she switches from melodramatic to serious like that. Still, a couple days after my screening I still cannot come up with an actress on this side of our shores that can do it. She is simply great in her role and I can only imagine that she had a hell of a good time doing it mixing verbal and physical comedy and mild bits of horror mixed in with the mauling of chickens.
What is ironic about Ulla's whole approach to helping her planet is that they've come to Earth to find out more about love. Her planet does not know love, that is why it is constantly at war. So the only way she knows to find out more about this love would be to abduct some of these young humans, take them back to her planet, and they would help her planet learn about love and stop the wars. As she knows nothing about love and gentleness she only knows abducting and stealing. She does try to understand more about it by sharing intimate moments with Carl's father but her mission is to abduct the children and she easily diverts the parents' attention whenever their children unravel some of here secrets and threaten to expose the truth.
The Substitute has only just been picked up for the inevitable remake here in North America. That should come as no surprise. It was one of the first things mentioned amongst friends here at the festival when the lights went up. You see, you watch this get picked up by some studio over here and get butchered. But why not, it is a winning combination of comedy, sci-fi and thrills. I think that the only glimmer of hope is that the studio that picked it up is Sam Raimi's Ghost House. If Sam is behind this project and overseeing its transfer to our shores then I think we're okay. The man knows horror and creepy. The man also knows funny. If Ghost House can keep the same childlike wonder and adventure as this film did they should have a winner on their hands. But they must release this on DVD as well. That of course would depend on how confident they feel with their version of this great family sci-fi adventure comedy.
