Another review for SINT

[Our thanks to Kees Geuze for the following review. Kees has been a longtime ScreenAnarchy-collaborator behind the scenes on anything concerning IFFR or other cool stuff happening in The Netherlands]

For me Sinterklaas came early this year in the shape of a ticket for the gala premier of "Sint" in the Amsterdam Stopera, a big music theatre not normally used for screening films.
"Sint" is a real Dutch slashermovie about a rogue bishop on a white horse who pillaged and plundered in Holland around 1500 A.D. until he was burned (boat and all) by angry villagers. As in any good slasher this isn't truly the end of him of course and he returns for revenge whenever the 5th of December coincides with a full moon, not picky about who will be his victims.

The movie is very well made on a technical level and can easily pass for a slick Hollywood production. Especially seeing the bad holy man himself riding on his horse on the rooftops of Amsterdam is a well executed special effect.

This film has a lot of jokes referring to the Dutch legend of Sinterklaas (a holy man who gives presents away on his birthday to well-behaved kids and takes the bad ones back to Spain), which were fun but might be lost on an international audience. In fact this was already the case with some Amsterdam-related jokes, which went over the heads of many Dutch people who don't happen to live in the capital (like me: I only noticed these because of the reactions of the mainly Amsterdam-ese audience during the screening).

But "Sint" has enough good scare moments and bloody actions to make it a worthwhile viewing for a non-Dutch audience, while for the Dutch themselves it is a welcome break from the Sinterklaas festivities and obligations.

I give it three stars out of five.