Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Kingdom (1994)

Originally created for Danish television, Morten Arnfred and Lars von Trier's supernatural thriller The Kingdom chronicles the bizarre occurrences at the title hospital, the largest and most respected hospital in the country. While the series deals with such real-life complications as murder investigations and malpractice suits, a more villainous force may be unleashing itself upon the hospital staff. After a patient (Kirsten Rolffes) sees the ghost of a young girl, many of the staff members find themselves involved in frightening and bizarre situations like an ambulance that appears every evening but then instantly vanishes. Eventually, a female doctor (Birgitte Raaberg) becomes pregnant, but the accelerated development of her fetus could be a sign that the evil forces have found a way to enter more permanently into the world. This film consists of the first four episodes, or the entire first season, of the television series. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 272 mins
The Kingdom (1994)

The Blockbuster series is of two disks with two episodes on each disk with some special features. Have no idea why I picked this one, but it was pretty boring. The one funny part was the attempted abortion that was being performed in the neurosurgery rooms. They had visitors going through the hospital when all kinds of strange things were happening including a patient and some staff holing up a broken out section of the wall in the basement, sex in the sleep studies room, and the abortion.

They tried some drugs on the "foetus" and it did not kill it. The nurse said she had to kill it before it was born because that is the difference between abortions and murder. Ultimately, a man's head came out of her birth canal...pretty funny, I suppose.

The one part I liked was the guy at the end giving a summation of the episode in a way too cheerful demeanor. I watched the first two episodes on the first disk but just skimmed over the next disk, except for the ending with the attempted abortion.

No comments: