User reviews

If this would have been an American movie, the monster would have been silly, the parents understandable in their gullibility and the kids more concerned with their social standing. Also, anything scary would have probably been removed and the film would have been a Disney production.

Well, they do things differently in Denmark, so they have some smart kids, with a complex relationship dynamic, completely ignorant parents that only believe what suits them best (especially when it comes to their children fantasies) and the monster is both fairly benign, totally scary and absolutely alien.

The film is thus suitable for both parents and children, although I would call it more a family film with horrorish specks, and even if the whole "planet without love" thing was too corny and not very related to the rest of the film, the movie is watchable and enjoyable. At least I liked it.

When an alien comes from another planet to learn the meaning of love on Earth, it possesses the body of Ulla Harms (Paprika Steen), who is the wife of an owner of a poultry farm in Denmark. Meanwhile, the boy Carl (Jonas Wandschneider) grieves the loss of his mother, who died in a car crash, and is outcast in his school. His father Jesper Osböll (Ulrich Thomsen) wrote a bestseller about the power of love and also grieves the loss of his beloved wife. When the teacher of Carl has a health problem with salmonella, Ulla is assigned as the substitute teacher for his class. Soon Carl and his friends discovers that Ulla is a monster from outer space, but their parents do not trust them and believe the children are fantasizing.

"Vikaren" (a.k.a. "The Substitute") is a great movie for adults and children, with a witty story and great performances. The unknown Danish actress Paprika Steen has an awesome performance with her change of behavior, and her body and facial expressions are fantastic. She really makes this movie work and I regret only the cover of the DVD that misguides the genre to the viewers, indicating that it is a horror movie when it is actually a funny sci-fi adventure. The conclusion is weak and could be better and better. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Note: On 05 January 2021, I saw this film again.

The films opening scene explains that aliens know only war. Their goal is to learn about and understand the human emotion of love. In attempt to do just that, they send a sphere that lands on a deserted chicken farm. They take over the body of a farmers wife who reports to work as a grade six school teacher. Paprika Steen who plays the teacher is fantastic. She plays the wickedly nasty teacher with over the top enthusiasm and absolutely nails it. It is one of the most amusing and entertaining characters I have seen in a horror film in some time. The kids figure out almost immediately that there is something not quite right about their new teacher. She taunts and humiliates the children with insults and appears to have the answer to every question. The more they learn about their new teacher the more horrified they become. The first half of this film is rock solid. A real masterpiece. Unfortunately the films conclusion is a complete and utter crap-out. The ending seemed hurried and the finale was anti-climatic to say the least. It is intended to be more amusing than horrifying but it would have been appropriate to add a little more suspense, particularly for the final scene. There is no gore in this film and no scares at all. There are only a few isolated moments of suspense. This being said this film is still extremely watchable and I think that people who aren't generally fans of the horror genre will also enjoy it. More "PG" than our regular fair but some really good clean fun!

Here's a refreshing delightful horror-spoof from Denmark. Usually parents tend to say no to their kids when it comes to horror movies but with 'Vikaren' they should make an exception as it would be wrong to deprive children from the sheer entertaining experience of this film. Yet, this film isn't restricted to children as adults can easily enjoy it. Ole Bornedal and Henrik Prip have written a superb screenplay meshing it with both humour, irony and horror while telling a linear story. The washed out colours and score bring that horror movie feel. The cinematography and special effects are topnotch. Then there's the outstanding performance of Paprika Steen as Ulla Harms. The use of a lesser actress could have easily ruined the film. Steen beautifully carries the role very naturally and with an amazing balance between restraint and over-the-top acting she just proves what a masterful actress she is. The child actors also do a good job. 'Vikaren' is sheer fun and one of the best examples of family entertainment. It doesn't go over the top in delivering its message while maintaining a fine gradient such that both adults and children could enjoy it to the full.

This movie is a bet. A bet that is insanely strange. Henrik Prip has written the script together with the director Ole Bornedal, and they must have smoked a huge bean, because this film is insanely strange.

It's always exciting with a bet, respect for it, and the film is not completely lost behind a wagon either, but it does not always fully understand whether it is a horror, or a youth film, so it sits a little awkwardly between two chairs.

It's also insanely strangely shot. I'm not a big fan of that.

However, it is an honorable performance by Paprika Steen who manages to maneuver between all the emotional registers, both when it has to be fake and genuine. But an insanely weird movie.

There are no scary scenes in this film and only one pseudo-startling "large marge" reveal. The R rating is only because the kids swear a lot. That's it. Seriously. This film is about as scary as the average Goosebumps episode - only its three times as long and its predominately shot with a blue filter.

I think its obvious that in Denmark (where the film originated) one can not show the amount of violence that films can show in the USA. So the filmmakers attempt to create intensity by implying dread... which it completely fails at. We learn in the first minute where the creature's origin is, so there's never any real intensity. The creature's goals and abilities are poorly defined so we have no idea why scenes are unfolding in the way they are and not according to how they unfolded in previous scenes. Its just a mess.

Its like salsa that's too mild to be considered anything but a letdown.

The scariest part of this movie happens in the first 3 minutes to a farmer's chicken. After that we are introduced to a dubbed Danish film with poor voice overs. The acting, the plot, the dialog and direction are like watching some poor Japanese Anime. I watched this as part of the "Ghost House Undergrouund" series and really felt like it was the poorest of the series. Most children will find Scooby-Doo scarier and more entertainning. All the little girls voice overs sounded like adult females trying to sound like a little girl. I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the little girls and little boys in this film without substance. I am really surprised there wasn't the cliché giant robot fight.

One might be ready to believe a film about Middle School children to be a Ghost House movie. But, this isn't about Middle School children, it is about the substitute teacher in the 6th grade class.

The students know right away that something isn't right, but it isn't until later that they discover just what is wrong. Of course, their parents don't believe them, and it is up to the kids, one in particular, Carl (Jonas Wandschneider), to save the others. Of course, Carl is the least likely student to save the day as he lost his mother in a car accident and has not gotten past it.

The film has first rate acting by Paprika Steen as the substitute teacher, outstanding cinematography, lots of black humor, a slam on psychology and parents who don't trust in their children, and some really fascinating special effects.

I am really impressed with Ole Bornedal, who wrote and directed this film and look forward to his new films.

... they're all the same ... well actually this one isn't really quite as the others (as you might have read in the synopsis and/or seen in the movie).The main actress is also the main selling point of this movie. She is really great and it shows that she has fun with her role and the overall story.

The kids and the parents are good too, the story has some neat twists (although most of them are pretty easy to spot), but it never achieves a status of greatness as I would call it. Something is still missing, to make this movie great. It might also be the fact, that once you've seen a few movies, like this one, it doesn't affect you as much. Soild Film then, with which you shouldn't be disappointed ... but expect to get to excited about it either!

A quite simple kids movie plot gets elevated to hilarious heights by the truly inspired casting of Paprika Steen as Ulla Harms, the substitute who dares to say and do all the things some of the more cynical teachers in this world only dream of. Steen's trademark Dogme-trained nuanced, natural acting this time only serves as a masquerade for a flat-out over-the-top monster, and you can see how much wicked fun she has switching between those two faces, proving her impressive emotional outbursts and character quirks to be nothing but a cold, calculated lie within the blink of an eye.

The other actors do fine, too, as only Danish actors can. The kids are not annoying, even if they have to scream and be cute occasionally. Our hero Carl manages to be a sympathetic if troubled young man, my only nit-picking being that he might be a bit too self-consciously handsome to really convince as the class weirdo and outsider. Also, his love story with the new girl remains a bit under-developed. But hey, they're teenagers, love comes and goes quickly at that age, I guess.

The film is a great fun romp from start to finish, never buried under the weight of its kid-friendly message, and comes highly recommended. As stated before, Paprika Steen deserves prizes and kudos for what she does. And Ole Bornedal keeps the promise he made with Nightwatch. Mainstream family cinema doesn't get much better than this.

P.S.: The only real letdown: right at the beginning of the end credits there is a high school prom dance scene that is totally out of tune with the rest of the film. It's as if the filmmakers wanted to be 'cool' with the young audience in a way the film otherwise thankfully doesn't feel the need to be.

One of the best surprises I had in early 2008, when one professor brought to the film school where I work one of those "for your consideration" copies for some kind of national academy award. It was "Vikaren", a very funny, original and sometimes scary science-fiction comedy, in which an ugly alien who comes from a planet where love is unknown, assumes the figure of an attractive teacher to replace the one who, in a Danish school, has to prepare 6th grade students for a competition in Paris. If you can, do not miss this version (my favorite sequence is the first day she confronts the class!), since Hollywood has already bought the rights for a 2011 remake loaded with special effects --and although we have to give them the chance to prove they can improve something already good, you will lose watching Paprika Steen doing the real thing in Danish. It is a pity Marco Beltrami's score has not been released on any format, it is very good, and his fans consider it one of his best.

After a small Danish school class receives a strange substitute as a teacher, the students quickly discover she's an alien researching humanity and when their cries to their parents go unheeded, try to stop her plan from coming to fruition.

This was actually a lot of fun and quite entertaining. One of the more enjoyable aspects here is the fact that this one features a rather simple premise that gains a lot of credibility because of how it goes about keeping that a secret from those that matter. How this one builds up her identity, with the fake name, the strange photograph where objects keep appearing based on the revelations made by the group and the strange mind-control properties and the connection to the chickens make for great fun, and when it gets to the confirmation sequence, it's unbelievably suspenseful and generates a great shock, as well as the science-fiction centered finale that ends this one with some fun times. There's some mild flaws here, mainly in the fact that the target of this one being centered on kids, and middle-school children even, there's going to be no deaths or even gore opportunities involved which is fine but definitely keeps this far more tamed than it should. The bigger one, though, is that this one gets revealed so early on that the amount of time taken to convince others and spread the warning to the disbelieving parents feels more like a plot device to keep the movie going rather than any sort of truthful realness had this happened in real-life, but this is still a rather fun effort.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence and children-in-jeopardy.