🧠 Plot Summary
The Conference (original title: Konferensen) opens with a bus transporting a group of city employees going to a remote lodge for a teambuilding retreat. Amongst them is Lina (Katia Winter), who is returning from a leave of absence due to a breakdown stemming from a controversial infrastructure project and her toxic workplace.
The office staff features a variety of common office personas; the out of touch with reality manager, the sleazy coworker, the overly ambitious team lead, and passive aggressive coworkers. All of them have underlying tensions. The goal of the retreat is team building, but rise existing conflict, particularly regarding shady actions from a construction deal collaboration.
Initially the office setting is marked by subtle violence and passive aggressive behavior, but violence escalates sharpened to a deadly cadence by a masked figure who picks off participants one-by-one. At one point it seems the deaths are detached from one another, but they turn out to be linked to covers up, personal betrayal, and corruption tied to the project that ruined Lina’s reputation.
As the group makes attempts to work together, Lina confronts the killer and works to patch her trauma. The film reaches its climax in a cathartic gory reveal where a sledgehammer is literally, used to silence the brutal consequences of unrestrained accountability.
🎭 Characters & Performances
👩 Lina (Katia Winter)
Winter begins with a quiet but intense presence. As the sole voice of reasoning and the emotional center, Lina matures from a traumatized outsider to a resilient survivor. Her performance adds depth and humanity to the story’s absurdity.
👥 Ensemble Cast
The film’s supporting cast — a collection of remarkably funny yet cringe-worthy and grotesque office caricatures — is what makes the film work. Their performance enhances the satire and the manner of their deaths (often ironic or fitting) fortifies the film’s moral sense of vengeance.
🎥 Themes & Emotional Undertones
💼 Corporate Satire
The film’s primary focus is a scathing critique on corporate culture buzzwords and hollow token phrases such as “team-building,” encapsulating how workplaces dehumanize people while pretending to care.
💀 Accountability and Revenge
The actions of the murderous perpetrator cannot be described as random violence. Rather, it is violence perpetrated for revenge aimed at violence that is, itself, a metaphor for justice not obtained.
🧠 Mental Health and Workplace Trauma
Lina’s story illustrates organizational gaslighting toward individuals — particularly women — who voice concerns as their worries are labeled irrational. The healing journey she embarks on is a reckoning rather than a healing process.
🔧 Cinematic Style
Under the direction of Patrik Eklund, the film blends Scandinavian minimalism with horror excess:
The film features wide, still shots, which are juxtaposed to sudden, gruesome acts of violence.
The killer unnervingly dons a cartoon mask which both smiles and unnerves at the same time.
Classic slasher Aesthetics are present throughout the film, especially with the brutal, and intensely creative kills.
🎼 Sound & Atmosphere
The enhanced sound system also provides entertaining and quie rotating scores which Gleam comedy and horror narrative.
Shifting sound calmness such as cheery music over scenes of slaughter then silence builds the tension which harnesses potent dark humor.
🌟 Reception
🎯 Critique Response:
Rotten Tomatoes gave a staggering 85 percent to the film.
Critics praising the horror and humor balance, along with inventive kills and sharp satire has lead the film to be called The Office meets Friday the 13th.
📺 Streaming
Receiving rampant attention from international horror lovers Seeking a fun and ruthless watch, the film became greatly popular After being released on Netflix.
✅ Final Verdict
Toxic workplace culture often needs harsh measures ,these words stood out in the mind of the creators proving their point Through The Conference (2023) -part social horror, part Office dark Comedy, the film is meticulously crafted, proves satirical takes are the new hit, with notable kills and slaughters complemented with a centered performance.
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