I like the stop-motion films of Jan Svankmajer. However, I am quick to admit that his work is NOT for everyone and can be VERY creepy. Much of this is because he is a surrealist and much of it is because, I think, he likes scaring his audience. I'd say that "Rakvickarna" is definitely from one of his creepier periods in film making.
There are three characters in this film--a live guinea pig, a Punch puppet and a Harlequin puppet. During most of the film, the Punch and Harlequin puppets fight (much like from a Punch and Judy show)--but the fighting gets much more morbid. At several points, the puppets act very lethally and dry to entomb the other puppet--all during which the guinea pig just keeps eating. In addition, seemingly random old-time pictures are rapidly projected. The look of everything is as if some 19th century objects were left in an attic to rot and this is the sort of stuff they do for fun. It's totally bizarre but well done--with puppetry mixed with stop-motion mixed with a real life animal. Odd.
