Art fags, prepare to spooge, because this movie is super old and Swedish, which means it's silent and has subtitles at the same time. I'll let you process that while I prepare to be unbelievably bored.

We start out with this chick who's dying of "galloping consumption", which I'm assuming is like the trots, only way faster. Before long though it turns into one of those "1001 Nights" deals with one guy telling a story about another guy telling a story... Seriously people, couldn't the first guy have just told the last story and like eliminated the middleman? Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated? Oh well, at least they have the decency to tint different parts different colors so you can keep track of it all, kind of like what I was trying to get my boy Billy Faulkner to do with The Sound and the Fury until his publisher told us to sober up and stop being so goddamned pretentious. Anyway, the main gist of this movie is that the Grim Reaper's intern is replaced every year by the last sorry bastard to get croaked on New Year's Eve, but the new guy isn't too keen on the gig which prompts the old guy to do a reverse It's a Wonderful Life on him to show him what a dick he really is (what a dick the new guy is I mean, although I suppose the old guy is kind of a dick too, just for pulling this shit). A couple parts at the very beginning are sort of creepy in that cheapjack, "we just invented movies last week" kind of a way, but other than that it's all pretty lame. Next time I watch a Swedish movie I'm gonna make extra sure it has the word "stewardesses" in the title.

Fun Fact: Apparently, the Swedish word for "homeless shelter" is "slumstation". Ha! That's great. Too bad it isn't "bumstation" though. That would be even more hilarious.