melvelvit-1
While excavating the bog on a baronial estate, workmen unearth the grave of a witch buried alive 300 years before. That night, a naked young woman is found unconscious in the grave and brought back to the baron's mansion where she proceeds to tear the village apart, inspiring unbridled lust in the men and hatred in the women...It's a morality tale to be sure (very much like Luis Buñuel's SUSANA in that respect) and the "Woman In The Window" twist ending is something we've all seen before countless times but in this case it reely works. The director makes the best of a low budget and some scenes are startling in their wintry beauty, making the nudity "chilling" to say the least.
punishmentpark
Elsewhere in a review on IMDb I read that this film was based on a play - not at all to my surprise. There are loads of dialogues which make it hard to follow at times, because I don't speak Finnish and there was a lot of (subtitle) reading to do. But the dialogues aren't the most important thing here; they become chaotic at times, as much as the characters seem to be talking in circles (mostly horny talk plus arguments for and against science and old wives' tales). Then there's the use of the old 'it was all a dream'-trick in the last part, which only really works because the magical horror part can (finally) get going from there.But what's most attractive about this oldie horror, is of course 'Finnish Bööberellå': Mirja Mane, who plays the 'witch'. The full frontal nudity (well, no groin area up close) is refreshing to see in such an old horror; it is appropriate and quite tasteful. I'd never heard of her before, but she may well have become a horror icon in Finland, and with more luck, in the world, but according to IMDb she only did five films, and she died at the tragic age of forty-four after a short period of (unknown) illness.So all in all, 'Noita palaa elämään' is mostly a more than decent Finnish answer to many of the usual American and English old horror movies, but with Mirja Mane as a considerable extra.A small 8 out of 10.
Matti Kaki
I was 14 yrs in 1967 when I saw this first time on TV and the movie was just terrifying and I was really frightened. All I remember was the foggy swamp, impassioned music and horrified people talking about some awful witch who was buried there.Mirjami Mane was so powerful and crazy that she run every men to craziness. The critics didn't see her wild playfulness but thought that her acting was just helpless. In my mind she acts exactly like a girl who is not used to live attached to the present day but has been some kind of loner living somewhere for maybe hundreds of years.She is just so crazy and wild that the people don't understand her and men just fell into the snares of this unexplained witch. There are more and more evidences that she really is a witch who was buried to the swamp three hundred years ago.Also cinematography and art decorations are marvelous and they both received "Jussi" trophy (Finnish counterpart for Oscar).
ilkkajaa
Made after the Second World War, this film, which would translate to English as 'The Witch returns to life', shows the lack of funding so common in the post-war era in Finland. But yet, to keep people's humor up, the film industry did everything to ease the living of the poor households. The 'horror' part of this film might seem to us now more or less amusing.The seemingly light subject of the film has underlying social issues: The Second World War had ended just barely seven years ago. The heavy war indemnities forced Finnish industry to boost up its productivity. The agricultural Finland was moving faster and faster towards city-life. Women's rights were still in the developing stage. Especially in the countryside and farms the women were the ones to take care of the household while the men were busy out in the fields to secure the year's crop. 'Unconventially' behaving female was prone to draw negative attention - especially if she was young and attractive. The villager's moods could have easily turned to witch hunt-like persecution.Mika Waltari (September 19, 1908 August 26, 1979) is one of the best known writers of Finland. His works have been translated to many languages all over the world. The most famous book is 'Sinuhe - the Egyptian', which made the Bestsellers list in many countries and is translated to 40 languages. 'The Egyptian' - a Hollywood movie was made according to 'Sinuhe' in 1954 (Director Michael Curtiz). The theater play 'Noita palaa elämään' (1947) is one of his 26 plays and was made for film in 1952 - the year Helsinki had the Summer Olympic Games. Altogether 33 books of Waltari have been filmed.
AD
