Vivekmaru45 Having suffered the same bullying during my youth, I can identify myself with Erik's character. The if is based on Jan Guillou's semi-autobiographical novel with the same name.Erik is a man who has been treated as an outcast all his life. At home he is beaten by his step-father, who instead to showing love to his son, sadistically straps him at any small misdemeanor.The beatings that Erik endures, he lashes the feelings out in fights at school. It is during one such fight that he goes overboard and is expelled. In an attempt to provide her son with a fresh start he sorely needs, his mother sells of some of her possessions and sends Erik to a boarding school in Stjärnsberg.While in Stjärnsberg, Erick clashes with the seniors, who are of a ruthless domineering bullying sort. Erik refuses to be subdued by the seniors and it sparks off when he is given the task of cleaning some of the seniors shoes. From then onwards the bullying gets progressively violent till it is time for Erik to use his wits to escape from a second expulsion.What evil men do against their fellow brothers. Jesus said,"But whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well". But does this moral apply to this film? I am a pacifist by nature and I do not believe that people need to beat others up when they can coexist peacefully on this beautiful garden of Eden: the planet earth. The direction, photography, script and dialogue is top-notch. I loved Andreas Wilson acting as the fresh-faced youngster Erik. Also Henrik Lundström who plays the intellectual peace-loving Pierre Tanguy, who tries to make Erik keep a low profile and keep out of the seniors path. Mikael Håfström proves that he is a worthy director. I also loved his horror-film 1408 and if you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you do so.

Raul Faust One thing that I can state about Mikael Håfström is that he indeed likes to make spectator feel agonized, and this movie is another proof of it. In many scenes, like the cigarette one, I felt like punching director and writers for being so condescending with the problems Erik and Pierre were facing. I mean, why don't Erik just use his supposed strength to defend both of them? In one (final) point he does that, but whilst it doesn't happen, spectator feels like that. The story itself isn't that original; we've all seen a bunch of movies involving young men studying in unorthodox schools, even thought each one has its own peculiarities. For some moments, I saw no reason why the story was being told; it didn't feel that interesting for a 113 minutes picture. However, the ending almost make up for it. I could understand why Erik was so self-contained: he had to be that way in his home, probably in his whole life. Summing it up, I don't think that "Ondskan" is a masterpiece or a hidden gem, but it is a respectable work from a good Swedish director. "Funny Games" is a lot better, I assure you!

princebansal1982 This movie revolves around bullying. More specifically it seems to be a psychological study of power as those who are perpetrating the bullying have power over the victims.I have seen some excellent movies on the subject, particularly Klass, Bang Bang you're dead come to mind. But while both of them were really superbly executed, the victims took everything to extremes.I loved this film. It carries an big emotional punch but it still manages to resolve everything in a very clever way. Ondskan actually manages to avoid many of the clichés associated with this particular type of films.Everybody gave great performances, especially the lead Andreas Wilson.

Ali Catterall In 50s Stockholm, rebellious boarding schoolboy Erik (Wilson) learns for himself that whichever upper-class twit first came up with the phrase 'schooldays are the happiest days of your life' should be nailed to a blackboard and pelted with red-hot chalk rubbers. Humiliation and spirit-crushing pranks in the name of 'team spirit' are top of the syllabus, as twisted head prefect Silverheim (Skarsgard, son of Stellan) tries to break him, body and soul. As ever, 'evil' manifests itself through complicity and inaction, and with benignly corrupt headmasters, and ex-Nazis preaching eugenics in the classroom, it's easy to see where the rot set in. Overly familiar ('school-as-microcosm-for-big-bad-world') it may be - we've enrolled here many times before, notably with If... - but it's mitigated by a brutal, blazing performance from young lead Wilson. B plus.