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Swedish boutique genre specialist Mylla Films, brainchild of “Midsommar” producer Patrik Andersson and Nordic indie distribution heavyweight Jakob Abrahamsson (CEO of NonStop Entertainment), has turned into a magnet
for Nordic genre talent since its splashy launch in Cannes in 2022.
“People with tremendous CVs and filmographies are reaching out to us,” Abrahamsson told Variety on the eve of the Helsinki Film Festival industry confab Finnish Film Affair, where Mylla Films’ project “Trespassers” (“Inkräktare”) will be pitched to potential co-financiers.
The latest Swedish star name added to Mylla Films’ roster is musician Tobias Forge, frontman of Grammy-winning theatrical metal act Ghost — the first hard rock band to top album charts in four years with “Skeletá” in 2025. Forge will make his directorial debut with the music video segment of U.S.-fully financed “V/H/S/ Mixtape,” latest instalment in the horror anthology franchise, which will world premiere at L.A.’s Beyond Fest on Sept. 30, ahead of its Shudder launch on Oct. 9.
The five minutes and a half clip, starring Gustav Hammarsten (“Brüno,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”) and Nour el-Refai (“Jordskott,” “The Bonus Family”), is “an old school story-driven death metal music video,” said the versatile Andersson, himself a seasoned musician.
“We were contacted in June and managed to turn around Tobias’ segment in three months. It’s been extremely fun and frankly astonishing!” said Abrahamsson, who will release “V/H/S/ Mixtape” in the Nordics via NonStop Entertainment.
Another of Mylla Films’ recent recruits is Henrik Svensson, production designer of Ari Aster’s “Midsommar” and Kristoffer Borgli’s “Sick of Myself,” now making his directorial debut with the low budget “The End.”
“The End,” which is fully-financed by private equity coin and stars prolific Swedish author Mattias Ribbing, is described by Andersson as “an avant-garde experimental audiovisual film featuring literally killing soundtracks,” with stunts designed by “Kung Fury’s” Eos Karlsson. “We’ve tried to do a Jodorowsky film in Sweden, which has been lots of fun. We can’t wait to showcase it,” said Andersson, who’s eying a genre festival launchpad in the spring 2027.
While “The End” and Forge’s “V/H/S/ Mixtape” segment are prime examples of Mylla’s core objective, which is “to fertilize the soil of genre filmmaking in the Nordics,” the innovative and lower cost turnaround jobs have also been a response to the tough film financing conditions that have forced Mylla’s founders to slightly readjust their initial plans.
While “Bloodsuckers,” Mylla’s first fiction feature length is set to hit screens early 2027 via NonStop Entertaiment, with Charades handling sales, higher-end projects such as Michael Marcimain’s gothic western “Devastation” have been slower to take off. “We were super ambitious when we set off, but projects need to make sense [financially]; everything takes time today, therefore we’re a bit more agile in terms of scope,” acknowledged Abrahamsson.
“We have a [theatrical] market in Sweden that no one is really relying on at the moment, and it’s super hard to get people to accept the risk analysis of your projects,” added Andersson. “That said, we have clear visions and although we’re very much part of the Swedish system, we know how to navigate the international market.”
Trespassers Watch Out
When “Trespassers” is pitched for the first time on Thursday at Finnish Film Affair, Mylla Films will be seeking to woo partners looking for a quality jump scare anchored in Nordic folk.
First on board the €3 million ($3.4 million) project is Scandi distribution group Scanbox. “They are very enthusiastic about it and stepped on board early on and have been helping us develop the script,” said Andersson.
“Trespassers” is Johannes Persson’s sophomore feature film, following horror movie “Feed” – which bagged an audience prize at Sweden’s national Guldbagge film awards in 2023. It is co-penned with Melina Maraki, the writer behind SVT’s hit show “Summer of 1985.”
“One night, I was looking out the window of an old, run-down house. A group dragged a man into the yard, stripped him, bound his legs, and hoisted him upside down. As one of them raised an ax ready to cleave him in two, I awoke. That morning, I began writing in both directions, from before and after the nightmare. That’s how ‘Trespassers’ was born,” Persson told Variety.
“The story turns on four young people from a failed anti-establishment movement, who travel to the vast wilderness of Northern Sweden to reconnect with nature. But after a river rafting accident leaves them stranded, they discover they are not alone — and not welcome — on land controlled by a group that has isolated itself for centuries with its own terrifying beliefs,” reads the synopsis.
“’Deliverance’ is a close inspiration, with big city guys trying to connect with nature and — wrongly —expecting it to be welcoming and good. This premise is what attracted us to ‘Trespassers,’” said Abrahamsson.
Persson, who boasts an impressive track record as casting director of more than 30 Swedish productions such as “A Man Called Ove,” “Borg vs McEnroe,” the Netflix series “Snabba Cash” and “The Conference,” is already assembling an A-list cast.
Shooting is set to start late summer 2027.
At this week’s Finnish Film Affair and workshop Nordic Genre Lab, Mylla Films’ partners said they “look forward to having international eyes on the set-up, premise, characters and pacing of this piece of dynamite.”
