The Abyss aka Avgrunden

Avgrunden promotional image

AKA: Avgrunden

Streaming on: Netflix

Language: English (Swedish is the original language)

CC: English (Spanish & Swedish also CC available)

Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller

Content warnings: Natural disaster

Alright y'all we're exploring another off of the current Netflix "Top 10 Movies in the US" and this time it's a Swedish film called Avgrunden or "The Abyss" in English. While this film is NOT a documentary or biopic it is about a real mining town in Sweden that on May 18, 2020 had an earthquake of approximate 4.8 on the Richter scale was triggered in the footwall of the mine. The earthquake was not natural but induced by the mining activity. So there's a whole other rabbit hole you an go explore about Swedish mines and the over 100 tremors a year that happen because of mining activity. Decide for yourselves. As a reminder my reviews are written in a "real time" style that progresses with the film.

I would like to begin this review by acknowledging how terrifying it would be to be peeing into a crack in the ground and have it start shaking. Yup. That's in the first 2 minutes. I opted to watch this one in English for this review but I'd like to go back and watch it in Swedish with the English subtitles instead. The languages are different enough in mouth shapes and translation it can be distracting watching the dubbed version. It is pretty fascinating to see what I so commonly think of as an American trope - "Disaster Flick". Not gonna lie I still have a bizarre soft spot for "Dante's Peak" from 1997. This definitely has echos of that - family drama, new relationships for the parents, research into the environment, a town struggling to stay afloat, and of course a pretty epic disaster looming on the horizon.

I am absolutely here for the queer daughter. The relationship between Mica and her partner Aila is nice to see in a small mining town. The film is an action thriller drama so I'm not really expecting to see a whole lot of relationship development in general. I'm also appreciative of the emphasis on the mountain and the mine in general being female. The idea that SHE is a force of nature. That SHE can be either benevolent or violent in seemingly equal measures. A half hour into the movie and we are solidly in the mine and being presented with some very harsh realities around the safety of not only the mine but of the town as a whole. Bum bum bum OH SNAP there's a big ole seemingly endless chasm that may or may not have been around for 40 years and it heads towards town from the mine! And sure enough we then almost loose a child to a sinkhole of sorts that starts in a sandbox. That clip may have been brief but that fear is a lingering one. As one might have seen coming our director of safety is trapped in a collapsed mine with her maybe about to become ex-husband, a young man, and another established mine worker... all while the entire city is in jeopardy that no one knows about! What will they do? Also Tage how do you work in the mines for decades and have extreme claustrophobia? How does that work? I clearly have questions. "He passed out. But I got it though." Uh huh. Let's go with that. Frigga is so much like her mountain it's not even funny.

Shout out to Dabir for truly handling the whole situation - from the town about to collapse, showing up with the intention to propose to Frigga only to find out she hasn't signed her divorce papers despite having them for 6 months, and needing to befriend the teenage kids of Frigga. That's a lot to tackle. Imagine suddenly being ordered to evacuate because your town is about to become a giant sink hole. If you've seen the aforementioned Dante's Peak the town evacuation definitely feels like that scene. Right down to driving the truck up on the sidewalk to get past the clogged streets. Why do we keep touching the ground super close to newly growing cracks? Seriously you'd imagine living in a mining town you'd have a better sense of not hanging out near cracks or hole in the ground. Watching streets crumble into themselves is up there in terms of very real terror as an adult. Teenage me didn't used to get that sort of pit of fear watching things like this. Turns out that can change. The scene in the streets of Kiruna does a pretty solid job of showing a glimpse of what terror, panic, and what it can look like when fight, flight, and freeze are all occurring simultaneously in a group of people. The fractured family dynamics in this one also add to the heightened sense of tension in this thriller. I will admit I probably "should" have seen Frigga's injury coming but the timing and what it was caught me by surprise a smidge. I did one of those deep inhales. I hope this entire family seeks out some therapy after this. There's a whole lot of emotion in this particular disaster film including the death of a main character as a knowing act of sacrifice. All of that said I almost feel like the ending sneaks up on you and leaves a whole range of questions unanswered. The final landscape shots are really stunning, especially as someone who hasn't been to Sweden. I went in prepared for a disaster flick full of action and tension. The Abyss mostly success rate in delivering on that comes in lower than average at about 60% for me. It just feels like there was simultaneously not enough story to be story driven and not enough action to be action driven and I'm earnestly not sure I'd give it the genre label of a Thriller. If you go watch it I'd love to know your take in the comments below!

No beloved quote on this one.