THE KINGDOM
Directed by: Lars von Trier.
Produced by: Sven Abrahamsen, Philippe Bober, Peter Aalbæk Jensen, Ole Reim & Ib Tardini.
Written by: Tómas Gislason, Lars von Trier & Niels Vørsel.
Director of Photography: Eric Kress.
Edited by: Molly Marlene Stensgård & Jacob Thuesen.
Music by: Joachim Holbek.
Released by: Koch/Lorber.
Language: Danish with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Denmark. 272 min. Not Rated.
With: Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Kirsten Rolffes, Holger Juul Hansen, Søren Pilmark, Ghita Nørby, Jens Okking & Udo Kier.
DVD Features: Behind-the-scenes footage. Selected commentary by Lars von Trier, editor Molly Marlene Stensgård & writer Niels Vørsel. Von Trier epilogues. Trailers.

While the back of the DVD refers to The Kingdom as "a thinking man's ER," a more accurate comparison would probably be a David Lynch nightmare after watching a General Hospital marathon on SoapNet. The first four-episode season of Lars von Trier's 1994 Danish horror series finally comes to DVD on a Region 1 format after a long wait for American and Canadian fans, but the disappointing quality of the DVD leaves much to be desired.

The series itself is often hailed as one of von Trier's most accessible achievements. The first season follows several doctors in Copenhagen's Kingdom Hospital (run by a secretive Masonic-like cult) who encounter bizarre supernatural circumstances. Trite plot devices and camera tricks that render the horror genre so formulaic highlight here the beliefs and behaviors of the large cast. While one character chases after spirits, others refuse to look into the many paranormal occurrences, such as a driverless ambulance or a patient's seeing an apparition during an operation. The series does sustain a certain level of creepiness, but it never succeeds in causing any true scares, perhaps intentionally and perhaps not.

Running the hospital with a firm grip, Helmer, the autocratic and megalomaniac Swedish doctor (Ernst-Hugo Järegård), ostracizes the other doctors for valuing compassion over scientific glory - a contention that the staff wrestles with in their individual ways. His rival, the younger Krogshøj (Søren Pilmark), keeps a record of the hospital's unreported malpractice deaths, and by forcing doctors to do good deeds when necessary, his use of blackmail offsets the hospital's imbalance of science over nature (he's just noble like that). Like the cartoonish display of supernatural forces, the office politics are a paint-by-numbers allegory of Danish capitalism. Even the name of the hospital, Kingdom, alludes to the show's central joke - there really is something rotten in the state of Denmark, and it's not just the ghosts.

Utilizing the whole genre gamut from exorcisms to Satanic pregnancies helps to implicate the audience's complicated desires in watching ghosts and gore - or at least that's what von Trier says in his helpful and hilarious explanatory commentaries at the end of each episode (with a smart suit and his hair slicked back, he's like an eerily energetic Vincent Price).

The merits of thrilling horror aside, this is a dense offering that manages to treat its subject matter with humor (especially in the last episode) and outright absurdity in an earnestness that the director seems to have forgotten in recent years. Unfortunately, the DVD lacks the excellence of its content. The major problem is a production glitch that freezes the disc halfway through the third episode, making several scenes impossible to watch. The extra footage is worthwhile, as with any von Trier release, but minimal. It's the beautiful interactive menu on the DVD which maintains the creepy atmosphere of the series that almost redeems the shoddy production of the discs - almost. Zachary Jones
January 13, 2006