Psalm 21 is an atypical brooding Swedish drama about childhood trauma and stoic conversations about god which flirts with the possessed demon film. It is a competent slice of euro-horror that shocks as much as it bores.

There are a lot of people in emotional pain in this film, but it is well acted and written enough to not feel exploitative amongst all the Exorcist genre tropes. The genre influence on Psalm 21 feels more like something to get the film sold more than anything else. It is implemented quite well into the actual story of the film and works on a symbolic basis and i'm left thinking why bother? If you're going to use this genre, have a little bit more conviction.

Though the genre tropes are the film's weakest points, in which they feel crowbarred in and are punctuated with cliched music cues and CGI designs, the heavy drama does not fair all that well either.

Psalm 21 is a very confused film. It does not know what it is trying to say and has many tone jarring scenes moments from a seduction scene to confessions motivated by potential axe murder to a final monologue that leaves the film on a much bewildering note. At least it was consistent.

In conclusion, Psalm 21 has some good moments, but they are cheapened by the film's overall lack of conviction. It pulls back and forth from Exorcist rip off to super serious family drama. It's atypical European genre fare; high lofty ambitions, wonky execution. Everyone will most likely feel confused coming out of this, but if you're looking for a very opaque and mostly unpredictable horror film, then Psalm 21 might be for you.

I was a bit afraid to watch another flick in the 'horror collection' series. But luckily this one did deliver the goods. The use of the camera was well done and they even washed the colours to add the creepiness toward this flick. Although the effects were CGI it didn't bother me at all because the used CGI to change faces just like they do in Asian flicks. This is also a perfect example that you can make a good horror without blood.

But this movie delivers even more. Due the fact that it concerns religion it also add something special towards religion. They included many questions about religion and some will say this is blasphemy but if you think about it you must agree. In Belgium they had serious problems with priests that misused children on a sexual base. And that's what this flick is about on some parts.

The acting was really good I must say. Especially the younger priest Henrik Horneus (Jonas Malmsjö) did a good job. It's funny that the director Fredrik Hiller chose to add male nudity in it when having sex with a young girl. And for being his first effort into direction he really knew his stuff, the way of editing delivered an extra touch to sometimes some arty shots. He even wrote this flick, but we all knew him as the Frisian Leader in Beowolf (2007).

This was really a nice surprise coming out of Sweden. I won't recommend it to gorehounds but if you can dig Asian horrors or horrors about religion then this is one for you and do listen to the preaching at the end, it will make you think...

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 4/5 Comedy 0/5

Why does this movie have such low rating? It's definitely worth a lot more. First this is a horror movie. If you expect Oscar winning dialog, well you are watching the wrong type of movie. If you expect every little detail to be correct or that they don't speak the correct dialect for that part of Sweden, don't watch it. All movies have mistakes let's not forget that. Now let's look at what we have here. It's quite a basic set up for a horror movie, no real surprises there. The acting is over all good to very good. The main actor is on the verge of overacting from time to time especially in the beginning but he pulls it together. The storyline isn't hard to follow, but you have to pay attention though. For a horror movie it's actually quite good. Compared to a lot of "horror" movies out there this is actually one of the better ones in the last few years. If you like the American style "everything is explained to you so a 5 year old can understand" this might be to tough for you. If you like the Asian style "the movie is over and nothing is explained and you have to guess and try to puzzle it together for hours", this might be to easy for you. This mixes both of those and finds a nice middelground of storytelling. There's so many really awful horror movies that has gotten way better rating so I'm surprised that this doesn't have at least 6/10. Intentionally I haven't summed up the plot or written any "spoilers". Others have already done that and I really want you to give this movie a fair chance without giving anything away.