While North American audiences are probably familiar with Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, not everyone knows that it was a lose remake of a Danish television series called simply The Kingdom (or, in Denmark, Riget), that was broadcast in four parts and directed by none other than Lars von Trier (he of Dancer In The Dark fame). It did quite well both at home and aboard where it developed a big cult following, but it left a lot of unanswered questions. As such, von Trier reassembled most of the original cast and crew members to produce four more episodes that essentially pick up where the first four episodes left off.

The second run of The Kingdom is split up into four episodes as follows: Part Five - Mors In Tabula, Part Six - Birds Of A Passage, Part Seven - Gargantua, and it all concludes with Part Eight - Pandemonium. Here's a general (and intentionally vague so as to avoid spoilers) look at what happens in the 291 minute running time that make up The Kingdom 2...

When the series begins, only a scant few days have passed since the events that occurred at the end of the first series took place. Sigrid Drusse (Kirsten Rolffes) is back in the hospital and once again, she starts feeling that there are spirits roaming the building and that those spirits want her help so that they can move on. While Drusse is trying to help, Stig Helmer (Enrst-Hugo Jaregard) is conspiring against everyone, and he hopes to use his newly discovered Haitian potion to turn one of his co-workers into a zombie. Meanwhile, Rigmor Mortensen (Ghita Norby) is gunning for Helmer, Dr. Moesgaard (Holger Juul Hanson) is losing his mind, Krogen (Soren Pilmark) and Judith (Birgitte Raaberg) are dealing with her pregnancy, and people are starting to die. Or are they?

If you enjoyed the quirky, mysterious and atmospheric first entry, it's a pretty safe bet that you'll enjoy the second batch of episodes just as much. Like its predecessor, The Kingdom 2 doesn't answer everything right off the bat, instead it builds and builds, teasing us with snippets of information along the way. Despite the fact that this second installment should have answered more questions than it posed, again like its predecessor it doesn't. By the time that the last episode finishes, there are still a whole lot of plot points that could have been further developed and a whole lot of bits that only sort of make sense, but that's half the fun of the series. Like Twin Peaks, a series to which The Kingdom is rightfully often compared to, it lets us interpret a few aspects of the series on our own. Von Trier has crafted a rich nightmarish world with this series, and were all the answers spoon fed to us, it simply wouldn't be as much fun to watch.

The Kingdom 2 isn't quite Dogma 95 material but von Trier did shoot it in a fairly minimalist style on 16mm film. As such, the image is a bit grainy and at times a little rough around the edges but this makes the shadowy corridors and strange lights of the hospital all the more eerie. Peppered with an interesting cast (including the immortal Udo Kier!), The Kingdom 2 is just as well acted as the first batch of episodes and the pacing, cliffhangers and strange cast of characters all mesh as effectively as they have prior. Ultimately the series is miles above most television productions. It looks fantastic and it's full of haunting and striking visuals and it makes good use of ethereal sounds. Technically impressive, well written, well acted, and unusually fascinating, this is one that fans of the bizarre will definitely want to seek out.

The DVD

Video:

The 1.33.1 fullframe image looks appropriately grainy and almost scuzzy in spots. There's some grit evident throughout and sometimes the lighting makes things look pretty pale, almost washed out in spots. This is obviously on purpose and while sometimes this type of stylistic choice falls flat, here it works quite nicely and it captures the tone and the mood of the series very well. There's some mild evidence of compression artifacts in a couple of spots, you'll be able to spot them in the black areas during some of the darker scenes, but thankfully it's not too horrible. Edge enhancement is kept firmly in check and line shimmering isn't ever anything more than a mild annoyance. Overall, The Kingdom 2 looks good on DVD though it hasn't been properly flagged for progressive scan playback and as such, some viewers will notice combing effects.