Finland Looks To Ride The MILLENNIUM Success With Olli Saarela's PRIEST OF EVIL

Perhaps emboldened by the massive, global success of the film adaptations of Stieg Larsson's Millennium novels - though only The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has been released so far here in North America all three are now out, and raking in cash, in other parts of the world - and forced to sit on the outside looking in at the dominantly Swedish / Danish produced pictures, Finland is looking to their own history of crime fiction as cinematic fodder.

One of Finland's most popular writers - and most critically acclaimed - is Matti Yrjänä Joensuu, and Joensuu's most famous creation is detective Timo Harjunpää. And now director Olli Saarela is bringing Harjunpää to the big screen.

In production now is Saarela's adaptation of Joensuu's Harjunpää ja pahan pappi, a novel translated and released under the English title of Priest Of Evil. Though I can't find any English language information on the film version, here's the official synopsis of the novel:

After a strange succession of deaths at Helsinki tube stations, the police are baffled: no one has seen anything and the tapes from the CCTV show nothing. Detective Sergeant Timo Harjunpaa of the Helsinki Violent Crimes Unit has seen more than enough of the seamier side of human nature in his career, but the forces of evil have never before crossed his path in such an overwhelming fashion. It emerges that his adversary is a deluded but dangerous character living in an underground bunker in the middle of an uninhabited Helsinki hillside. Detective Sergeant Harjunpaa must now face his most terrifying case yet.

Will this one live up to the recent successes of Nordic crime cinema? That's a tall order, but if the just released teaser is any indication of the quality here, it just might. This is impressive, though very dark, stuff. Check the teaser below.