Swedish Netflix film “The Conference”, which was released a few days ago, is a viciously violent but undeniably amusing at least. Although its setting is derived from many other similar genre films ranging from “Friday the 13th” (1980) to “Severance” (2006), the movie competently handles the story and characters with enough humor and suspense, and you may actually come to care a bit about who will survive in the end.

The movie opens with the arrival of a group of civil servants at a spot located in the middle of some remote rural region. Because their department recently permitted the construction of a big shopping mall in this region, they will do some preparation work in advance via their little conference, and they are also going to have a fun time together as being served by the small staff of their staying place.

However, some of them are not particularly eager to have a fun as we get to know more about them. In case of a young woman named Lina (Katia Winter), she recently returned to her job after recovering from some unspecified trouble at her workplace, and it is apparent that she would rather be alone instead of hanging around with her co-workers. Furthermore, she and several colleagues of hers do not feel that comfortable with how their department gave the permission for building the shopping mall despite lots of objection from local residents, who incidentally did not get much benefit or compensation for this huge change in their living environment.

Not so surprisingly, it turns out that one of those local residents is quite pissed about how the shopping mall is going to ruin their region. Although the identity of this figure is mostly hidden throughout the film, we can clearly sense the murderous intention of this figure right from his very first scene in the film, and the mood soon becomes quite disturbing as this figure subsequently begins to eliminate the staff members in grisly ways one by one.

In the meantime, the movie provides a series of absurdly humorous moments as Lina and her colleagues casually go through their conference schedule under their haughty but ineffectual supervisor. At one point, the supervisor eagerly presents a cheesy promotional video clip for the shopping mall, and many of other employees show understandable skepticism without much interest, but the supervisor does not listen to any of them at all as mostly occupied with the upcoming ceremony for the construction of the shopping mall.

And Nina becomes more suspicious about how Jonas (Adam Lundgren) got the job done during her absence. As looking more into a number of documents associated with the permission on the construction of the shopping mall, she comes to have more doubt, but the supervisor willingly looks away for avoiding any unnecessary trouble, and most of other employees do not have much problem with that.

Meanwhile, the mysterious killer continues his murderous plan. When this figure later comes across the head of a silly mascot representing the shopping mall, we can instantly see that this object will function in the same way as Jason Voorhees’ infamous hockey mask did in many of Friday the 13th sequels, and that brings more absurd creepiness to this figure. When this figure later appears in front of the company employees while wearing the head of that mascot, they think it is just a little prank at first, but then…

What follows next is often pretty gory to say the least, and director Patrik Eklund and his crew members have a lot of bloody fun with dispatching one main character after another along the story. In case of one particularly horrific moment involved with a motorboat engine, you will surely wince a lot, but you may also laugh a bit as appreciating how the movie cheerfully handles this extremely violent moment.

In addition, the screenplay by Thomas Moldestad, which is based on the novel of the same name by Mats Strandberg, pays some attention to character development. Many of its main characters are more or less than targets to be eliminated by the killer in the story, most of them have much more personality compared to those forgettable young victims in the Friday the 13th movies, and that is why some of those killing scenes in the film are dramatically effective. In case of the killer, the movie does not reveal that much about this figure even in the end, but this figure has a lot more understandable human motive than Jason Voorhees, and it goes without saying that some of the victims in the film actually deserve to be punished.

While Katia Winter comes to hold the center as the most sympathetic figure in the bunch, several other cast members of the film are also solid in their respective roles. Adam Lundgren makes a good contrast with Winter as the most unlikable member in the group, and you will surely have some dark laugh on how his character is punished much more than several other victims in the story.

In conclusion, “The Conference” mostly stays inside its genre territory, but it does provide enough fun and entertainment via its well-balanced mix of horror and comedy. As a matter of fact, I am even considering showing the film to my co-workers at our upcoming workshop during this weekend, and I am really interested in how they will respond to it.