The Sixth Secret

Quite a clever comedy with some genuine chills. Keeps you guessing til the end and then wraps up nicely. Love the 1930s decor and the dark low key atmosphere. The flashbacks are hilarious.

The Sixth Secret - the horror comedy by Estonian filmmaker Mart Sander - was a rather surprising cinematic experience. Horror movies haven't been that country's strong suit (at least to my knowledge), and that alone makes it worth a watch. It's even more interesting to realize that the film is a parody of old Hollywood films - but not in a negative sense. Rather, it's a nod to a certain type of filmmaking that is no longer in vogue but deserves a comeback. By placing the emphasis on the dialog (which must be followed closely, as it contains several details that play a significant role later on) and keeping the action in the background, it demands audience immersion and assumes that the viewer is familiar with the vintage atmosphere and its associated boundaries. The film offers a pleasantly intriguing and witty narrative, piling on various elements of crime and horror films of yesteryear. The ensemble cast is very international, and it can be difficult to understand their English at times, as one needs to quickly adjust to their accents. Nevertheless, the story is humorous and handsomely filmed.

This film seems to divide people in two groups. Some find it very amusing and witty, a sort of modernist revamping of Agatha Christie clichés. Others fail to enjoy it at all.

True, the movie appears somewhat theatrical and stilted, but that's the artistic choice of the creators, because it's above all a parody of vintage horror genre (there were a lot of seance and clairvoyant themed films in the 1940s). Some people might find the acting irritating because it's rather over the top, but the ensemble forms a coherent whole. There are a lot of accents but I guess that too is something that Old Hollywood had, importing all those European stars.

It's a tad too talkative and eager to explain all the plot twists (and there are many), but at least I didn't walk away thinking 'this was utterly improbable'. Moody camera work and darkly suggestive music help to create the atmosphere. A couple of fun jump scares.

I saw the premiere at the festival in Estonia, where this film took the audience by storm and received the Audience Award. It's surely a fun film, reminiscent of vintage horror-comedies of the 1940s, only the horror is more horrifying and the comedy is more sexy. It's a very complicated story of revenge and inheritance and murders and ghosts, but now as I think of it some days later, it also has a very strong message that what you do, just might come back to haunt you.

Oh my. My wife turned on this movie, and it first I was happy to see what I expected to be another movie very much like "Clue," of which I am a big fan. Very soon it became clear that this movie was at a different level. A much lower level. If I paid five dollars to see that at my local amateur theater, I would've been satisfied. But watching this, even at home for free, was painful. I'm not sure why anyone thought this collection of actors, dialogue, and plot had any chance at all of being a decent movie. The actors all seem sincere, and tried very hard, but the acting just doesn't come up to a professional level.