Transvestijan tarinoita

A film school shortie, Transvestjan tarinoita pays homage to classic horror cinema in a parodic way – which was about the only way the genre could even be broached in Finland at the time. The two-level plot deals with a minister reading about a drunken monster slayer's attempt to rid a small Eastern European village of a (very unconvincing) monster, unaware that he is himself stalked by a vampire. It really serves only as scaffolding for a covey of lovingly created and spoofed Gothic set pieces in a suitably convincing period setting (itself a rarity in Finnish cinema). Horror is thus mild but the laughs tend to be subdued, too. Actually, the humour comes through best in subtle details that undermine the mock-heroic narration ("the fairest, unspoilt" maiden fighting a zit, vampire skulking to a window and stepping into a pile of horse dung).

Nicely photographed and acted, the film is still just a curiosity and as a horror parody comes second to television's Lepakkolinna. Director Sainio would later mine this same territory in feature length with the thriller Kuutamosonaatti and its more comically horror-like sequel Kadunlakaisijat.