Unseen Terror: Day 26

a.k.a. The Substitute

A Danish sixth grade class gets a new substitute teacher after their usual one comes down with a case of salmonella. The new teacher, Ulla Harms, quickly establishes herself as a bona fide bitch, speaking rather condescendingly to the kids and coming across as very mean. She also shows signs of what could be constituted as telepathy. Curious and just plain fed up with her, the kids band together to dig up some dirt on Ms. Harms, but her unemphatic behavior could be a sign of stranger, almost alien-like tendencies...

First off, I have to own up and say I got my Danish translations mixed up. This film is actually known as Vikaren, not de Subst...that other word I don't feel like typing again. Second off, I can now say I've seen two films from Ghost House Underground that I've legitimately enjoyed, the other being the criminally underrated Dance of the Dead. I bought this one years ago along with DOTD and honestly just forgot to watch it. I regret that it took me so long to do so. If you put The Faculty, Invaders from Mars, and The Goonies in a blender, you'd get this film.

The cast is very strong, with Paprika Steen playing the title character to near perfection. She's creepy, evil, and even a tad bit amusing at times, which is pretty much what I think anyone would want out of a character like this. Her scene where she first introduces herself to the class is just great, full of amusing, but definitely hurtful dialogue (all directed at the kids). Speaking of the kids, all of the child actors are fine too, though some are obviously given more time to shine than others. They don't try to establish most of these kids as best friends, and to me it felt more like an uneasy, begrudging alliance that solely existed just to find out what the deal with their new "teacher" was. And it worked because of that.

Most of the adults here don't really get the same treatment as their younger co-stars, at least in terms of being well developed or interesting, but the film isn't really about them anyway. Without trying to give away spoilers, I also found it a bit absurd that one of the kids seemed to know how to drive not just a car at one point in the film, but also a bus. But then again, who the hell knows what really goes on in Denmark anyway. My last complaint really would have to be that despite not heavily needing either, the film does prefer using CGI over practical effects and it kind of lessens the enjoyment, but not by much.

Vikaren, a.k.a The Substitute, is still a very fun sci-fi horror film worth checking out though. I don't believe this one is available for streaming, so search out a cheap copy of the DVD if you're interested, or wait to see if something like FEARnet will air it soon.

Tomorrow, I'm doing another double feature, and as luck would have it, THANKSKILLING and SHARK ATTACK 2 are BOTH creature features!