Cool! The Kingdom (Riget) is on DVD!

[BTM]

I was surfing Netflix the other day to find that they've FINALLY released both seasons of The Kingdom on DVD.  Granted, that may have happened awhile back and I just didn't know about it, but anywayy...

Not sure how many of you have seen it, but, basically, The Kingdom is a Danish TV series about a large haunted hospital, and the various quirky staff and patients.  Yes, it is the series that Stephen King remade into Kingdom Hospital, but this is way more atmospheric and has several genuinely creepy moments.

Sadly, season two ends on a cliff hanger, and given that (last I heard) three of the cast members have passed away, it's doubtful the story will be finished (at least not in that medium.)  Still, the show itself I think is worth watching, so if you haven't seen it already, check it out!

[Doc Daneeka]

Sadly, season two ends on a cliff hanger, and given that (last I heard) three of the cast members have passed away, it's doubtful the story will be finished (at least not in that medium.)  Still, the show itself I think is worth watching, so if you haven't seen it already, check it out!

And that is the reason I can't find myself buying it , I don't think I'd be able to take watching a cliffhanger knowing I'd be stuck there forever. Man, I heard it was gonna get made once, I would love to get my hands on a translated script of season 3! (Then I'd get the other 2!)

[Torgo]

I've got The Kingdom on VHS where I believe that they edited all the episodes together into one gigantic movie.  Talk about creepy stuff.

[JJ80]

I remember this being genuinely bizarre and macabre. The fully grown new born baby was particularly memorable, as was the blindfolded ambulance driving 'Chicken' game. Didn't Lars Von Trier actually appear on screen to provide a prologue and epilogue for each episode.

[Scottie]

Didn't Lars Von Trier actually appear on screen to provide a prologue and epilogue for each episode.

I watched three of the episodes from The Kingdom and Von Trier gave epilogues for each episode. The show never really struck me as either scary or interesting. There was too much implied tension in the first three episodes and that turned me away from it. The two autistic adults washing the endless supply of dishes interpreting the building's intentions never engaged me and the constant wheeling around of an old woman by an overweight male hospital worker seeking ghosts was tedious. I'm a bigger believer in The Celebration and Dogville as good examples of Dogme95, though I was jarred very hard during the transition from the series' opening slow motion shots at the ancient washing place to the hard video of the hospital's opening, however the body of the show distanced me as it focused more on the relationship between the doctors and never quite got around to what it seemed to be hinting at from the very beginning, i.e. ghosts. Then again I did not finish the series.