A scary and overall great movie. Lovely fact that Bergman directed the last scenes himself.

A tense, decently acted story. Perhaps a bit over the top here and there. Clearly a precursor to Bergman exercising his demons through film.

This film starts off excellent - painting a compelling portrayal of souls torn between their social roles and personal life -, but wanders out in a somewhat commonplace and carefree second half. Exquisitely expressive cinematography and mise-en-scène(the framing and use of shadows are particularly remarkable) and an earnest script make way for some moments of graceful movie magic. Sjöberg display insight, avidness and sincerity, but sadly doesn't go all the through with his keen observations.

Pretty good. Might as well have been an early Bergman - you can tell Bergman wrote it, and Sjöberg's directing is more than able. It's no Browning Version though. Young Mai Zetterling is tremendously cute in what I believe is her debut.

Ingmar wrote this movie, but Alf Sjöberg directed it. His use of shadows and dramatic angles give the proceedings quite a noir-ish feel. Bergman is obviously exorcising some of his schoolboy demons here, but it's more than just a "school sucks" piece. There's some tense drama here, and it's all done very well. I was pleasantly surprised.