Rock Reads: Swedish Sensationsfilms: A Clandestine History of Sex, Thrillers and Kicker Cinema by Daniel Ekeroth
Reviewed by Kevin Wierzbicki
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Daniel Ekeroth knows a thing or two about metal; he's the author of the highly-informative tome Swedish Death Metal and a veteran of such bands as Tyrant, Insision, Dellamorte and Onkel Kankel. But Ekeroth hasn't spent every single minute thrashing away to a death metal roar; he's also an expert on the uniquely Swedish genre of B-movies called "sensationsfilms." Produced mostly in the 1960s and '70s, sensationsfilms were made not only to entertain the easily amused, but to test the limits of the Swedish film board's censorship committee. That means that amongst the punks, aliens and drunken Vikings wallowing in cinematic sleaze you could always count on someone getting naked (usually the latest blond "it" girl) and copious amounts of on-screen drug use. In other words, just what lovers of vintage campy movies are looking for. Here Ekeroth dishes the dirt on over two hundred sensationsfilms, providing a one-page synopsis of each film's plot, including for titles that feature known names like Stellan Skarsgard, Max von Sydow, Lee Hazelwood and David Carradine. This is one of those books that you may pick up just out of curiosity that will end up surprising you---between Ekeroth's humorous editorializing and the accompanying eye-candy graphics (movie posters, stills and promo photos) you'll be anxious to see a few sensationsfilms by the time you turn the last page. To that end, Ekeroth has included a list of twenty films to serve as a starting point.
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