2023, Richard Holm (Johan Falk film series) -- Netflix
In the last ten years, but for a few exceptions, I seem to be getting my Diaster Flick fix from the colder countries of Europe. There was The Tunnel from Norway, The Wave also from Norway, and not sure why I didn't write about The Quake (dude, 2018 explains it), which was a sequel to the former. I haven't seen The Burning Sea yet. Oh, I could watch the multitude of z-graders from Asylum and its like, but ... no. And that brings us to Sweden's entry into the genre, The Abyss.
Its not really a whole lot, is it? I mean, five in ten years does not a trend make. But its enough to seem like a thing.
Like all good disaster movies, it begins with a family amidst their own disaster. Frigga Vibenius (Tuva Novotny, Annihilation) is the safety coordinator for a mine site in north Sweden. Her husband, Tage (Peter Franzén, Vikings) is head of mine operations. They are separated and "new guy" Dabir (Kardo Razazzi, Peacemaker [not that one]) unexpectedly showing up in town doesn't help. Their daughter Mika (Felicia Truedsson, Young Royals) has her own drama with her girlfriend, and their son is staying out all night partying and playing FPS games.
Then the ground beneath Kiruna starts shaking, cracks opening up all over. Its well known that the mine has undercut the ground beneath the town (IRL as well as the movie; Kiruna is a real mining town with a very real problem) but what they didn't know was that there was also a massive fault line, and the mine has broken into it -- an immense release of pressure is imminent.
Boom. A giant sinkhole opens up in the downtown before Frigga can alert the townsfolk. TBH, this is small scale disaster. Its not like all of northern Sweden is swallowed up, just a few city blocks. But the tragedy is more personal, and no less tragic for it. Frigga and Tage are just trying to save their kids, and as many others as possible. There are losses.
Like small horror movies, small disaster movies give us real people going through a situation. The event is external to them, and anticipated (by us), so these movies have to allow us to spend some time with the characters before the external event happens. Its a different factor from the larger scale ones, usually American, where the true star of the movie is the event itself; the people are cardboard cutouts used as props to focus the event upon.
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