Sadly Over-hyped

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Watched it earlier on fear net, at first i knew it was something eerie but i seemed to like it as the movie went on, it was starting to get strange about this teacher, and this kid who's afraid of heights and this teacher lady was telling him to climb the rope in a nasty way, and i thought why could someone bitch around 6th graders? And as the movie started to come to an end started to like to see what happens in the end and what the fate would be of these kids plus the boy's father. so they go on this stupid field trip and these kids are trying to tell their mamas and dads they don't want to go because their teacher is a friggin monster. But i won't spoil the whole ending but i have to say you have to watch to see what happens. This is a must see for horror movie lovers.

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.

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.

Sometimes,the cultural context of a movie results very interesting and it adds points to the film itself,independently of its intrinsic quality.As examples,I can mention The Art of Devil 2,a very good horror film which does not only work because of its good moments of tension and the fact that it is unpredictable,but also because of the creepy atmosphere of Thai marshes;or These Girls,a cold and mediocre romantic comedy which wins some points for its portrait of the working-class Canadian culture.Now,I can add to that list The Substitute,an excellent combination of horror and sci-fi which is very interesting for many things,specially for portraying a culture with the exact twist of urban sophistication and rural innocence.The modest premise from this film is perfectly well developed by director and co-screenwriter Ole Bornedal,whose previous movie,I Am Dina,had been very bad for its extremely boring screenplay and the pathetic performance from the main actress.Now,Bornedal has enormously redeemed himself on both fields because,as a co-screenwriter,he built an ingenious and dynamic screenplay full of black humor and,as a director,he could get a brilliant performance from the main actress,Paprika Steen,who completely becomes on her character and never seems to be acting.Also,Bornedal drove the film at a perfect rhythm and got some excellent moments of tension,whilethe movie resulted completely unpredictable to me because there were so many ingenious twists that it was impossible to predict what could happen next.Besides,the main concept behind the movie is audacious and provocative.The only fail I found on this movie was that the brief special effects did not fit with the tone and style of the movie.But,that's a minor fail.The Substitute is a brilliant movie which I recommend with a lot of enthusiasm.I clearly took a very nice surprise with this movie.