Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library on Kid #1’s TV.
For those who are movie snobs, certain genres lie at the shallow end of the swimming pool. Comedies, especially rom-coms, are a good example of this. Another is horror. Horror movies don’t get a lot of respect from the clove cigarette crowd, with a few exceptions. Show them a classic American low-budget grindhouse film like The Last House on the Left and they are likely to turn up their nose. However, if you present essentially the same story in black-and-white and have it directed by Ingmar Bergman, and we’re talking about a Criterion Collection mainstay, The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan).
This is not a film that goes long on plot, but it doesn’t have to. It’s about the drama and terrible nature of the events that happen in its 90-minute running time. Young Karin (Birgitta Pettersson) is sent by her parents Märeta (Birgitta Valberg) and Töre (Max von Sydow) to take candles to the local church. Karin is pampered, in contrast to her half-sister Ingeri (Gunnel Lindblom).
Ingeri, who is pregnant out of wedlock and who secretly worships Odin and the old Norse gods—a serious issue for Medieval Sweden in both cases—is sent along with Karin, who she rather openly dislikes. Along the way, Ingeri becomes frightened as they near a mill. Karin, wanting to get the candles to the church, tells her to stay there and she heads out on her own.
This proves to be a bad choice, as Karin soon encounters three herdsmen (Axel Düberg, Tor Isedal, and Ove Porath) who claim to be brothers. Karin, innocent and trusting soul that she is, shares her meal with them. Things soon turn ugly and the two older men rape and kill her, an event witnessed by Ingeri, who has been following. The men steal Karin’s clothing as the only items of real value she has and leave, and naturally end up at the house of Märeta and Töre, begging the hospitality of the very people whose daughter they have just defiled and murdered.
If you are familiar with The Last House on the Left, you recognize this story, because aside from some of the details, it’s literally the same story, and much of what follows is the same as well. Märeta figures out what has happened when the herdsman offer her Karin’s clothing as a gift for allowing them to stay, and Töre soon takes what revenge he can.
I’m always a little surprised when a Bergman film is as accessible as it turns out to be. That was the case with The Seventh Seal and it’s definitely the case with The Virgin Spring. At his best, Bergman is able to take terrible moral situations or deep philosophical questions and make them relatable to the average person. The Virgin Spring asks questions about our own moral culpability, about revenge, and about forgiveness, but does so in a way that anyone can access the question and find their own answers. While being a philosophy grad student wouldn’t hurt going into this film, it’s hardly necessary.
That said, there are a few points I need to make that are going to spoil the last few minutes of this as well as Wes Craven’s film from a dozen years later. If you aren’t familiar with either film and don’t want them spoiled, this is your cue to stop reading. If you are familiar with them or don’t care about the spoilers, read on.
For as much as Bergman classes the place up and for as much as Wes Craven was making a film on the cheap and for a much baser audience, there are a number of aspects about Craven’s film that I think are more important. This could be the fact that I saw it first, or that it’s in English, or that Wes Craven is my favorite horror director, but I think I can make a case for it, and it’s all about the last couple of minutes of both films.
In The Virgin Spring, Märeta and Töre follow Ingeri to the body of Karin, which is naturally right where the herdsmen left it. Töre cries out to God about the death of his innocent daughter, raging against an omnipotent being who would allow such evil. He yells that he cannot understand why such a thing would happen, yet still begs for forgiveness of his revenge. When Karin’s body is lifted from the ground, a new spring of water emerges from where her head lay, and Töre vows to build a church on this spot. The world is still incomprehensible, but it moves on, a miracle of sorts coming from a terrible tragedy.
In The Last House on the Left, Mari’s parents discover her body and kill the three people who have murdered their child, and the film ends just as the sheriff shows up. There is no blessing, no miracle. There is only violence and the revenge of violence, and the girl is still dead. Revenge is served, but no one is enlightened. Violence begets violence and solves nothing.
Ultimately, I think the message of Craven’s film is better, even if Bergman made the better film.
Why to watch The Virgin Spring: Classic horror that inspired classic horror.
Why not to watch: It’s a very ugly story.