"If Thriller: A Cruel Picture offends you, good! It was designed to salt the wound. Every time I watch a movie with Christina Lindberg, I get so much out of it because it goes beyond the exploitative elements and takes you somewhere else through her performances."
- Annie Choi, Bleeding Skull
In May, Variety reported from the Cannes Film Festival that independent Swedish film distributor Klubb Super 8 had declared 2025 "The Year of Christina Lindberg", releasing collector's edition Blu-rays of Maid in Sweden, Anita, Swedish Nymphet, Sex & Fury, and the cult actor's most notorious title, Thriller: A Cruel Picture. The occasion, in collaboration with Vinegar Syndrome and OCN, has resulted in new artwork, bonus features, merchandise, Q&As, and an upcoming director's cut of Jane Magnusson & Ika Johannesson's acclaimed 2015 documentary, Christina Lindberg: The Original Eyepatch Wearing Butt Kicking Movie Babe, all designed to position the iconic actress, model, and journalist (who turned seventy-five this month) back in the cinematic spotlight.
While spending months unsuccessfully pursuing an interview with Christina Lindberg for Movieland Video earlier this year, I found myself in multiple conversations with Klubb Super 8 co-founder, Rickard Gramfors. As he told me about his travels around the world with Lindberg from 2006 - 2025, their yet-to-be announced Blu-ray titles, and his own struggles pursuing elusive interview subjects, I realized the most interesting story to tell was that of his company's history and longtime partnership with Patrick von Sychowski, with whom he formed the global streaming service for exploitation and genre cinema, Cultpix (now in collaboration with Something Weird). From these conversations also came my discovering of Gramfors' wonderful audio commentaries, Q&As with Lindberg, and his beautiful 400-page coffee table book, Do You Believe in Swedish Sin?, featuring Christina on the cover. Below is our celebration of this wickedly unique label's history and their commentary on this, the year of Sweden's Grindhouse Queen! Also contributing to the conversation are two key collaborators: Lisa Petrucci of Something Weird and Klubb Super 8 editor/designer Kalle Lagerroos.
And now, the interview that has no limits of evil!
What was the first film you all truly fell in love with?
Rickard Gramfors: My first memories of going to the cinema was with my dad. We lived in a Stockholm suburb where there were two cinemas close by. Both of them screened reruns of classics like the Marx Brothers, Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies, and old swashbucklers like The Crimson Pirate (1952) and Captain Blood (1935). This was in the late 60s when there was only one black-and-white government television channel rarely screening features, so my first films were some amazing classics that had a great impact on me!
Patrick von Sychowski: Swedish Television screened Marco Ferreri's La Grande Bouffe (1973) about a group of friends who decide to eat themselves to death before I even hit my teens. It was rated 15 in Swedish cinemas while most other countries rated it 18, X, or even rejected in the UK. There it was in all its decadent glory on Swedish television - it had humor, death, nudity, and it opened my eyes to just how outrageously brilliant cinema could be.
Kalle Lagerroos: When I was ten I saw the poster and lobby cards for John Carpenter's The Fog outside the local movie theatre. I was so completely sold and tried to enter, only to be stopped at the door as the movie had a 15+ rating. I saw it on VHS a couple of years later and thought it was okay, but the memory of the poster, logo, and lobby cards had a profound impact on me.
Lisa Petrucci: As a little kid I was crazy about the Disney theatrical cartoons like Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and The Jungle Book (1967). I adored the imported (and dubbed) Pippi Longstocking films. But by the time I was eight years old, my taste in movies changed a lot after seeing Night of the Living Dead (1968) at the drive-in theater. My clueless mother put me in the back seat of the car thinking I would just go to sleep, but I watched the movie and was traumatized. Some other inappropriate films I was exposed to were The Undertaker and His Pals (1966) and The Corpse Grinders (1971). That probably set the course of my film fanaticism. I watched Creature Double Feature religiously every weekend on television and loved monster movies!
What influenced the decision to make a career for yourself in entertainment?
RG: I was always into movies and was an early adopter of VHS in the early eighties. At the same time, I did film studies at the university right after high school because I felt is was easy and enjoyable, but with no aim at an actual career.
PVS: My parents both encouraged me and my siblings to go to the cinema often and, as something of an introvert, I always liked it there. Fortunately, I was rejected from film school because at best I would have been a mediocre television director. Instead, I got the chance to chart the amazing journey of cinema, as well as distributing old films.
KL: A lifelong consumption of horror, sleaze, exploitation, and arthouse took its toll on me. I have only worked professionally with design for a couple of years, I was in the videogame business in marketing first for thirty years.
LP: My father, Sam Petrucci, was a well-known commercial artist in Boston. He did freelance work for Hasbro and did a lot of illustrations and package designs for them. He's probably best known for being on the creative team that invented G.I. Joe! I admired him and always wanted to be an artist. I spent a lot of my childhood in his office watching him paint. Some of my earliest drawings were of cartoon characters like Snoopy and Josie and the Pussycats. I guess I've always wanted to be an artist, even though my father tried to discourage me from that career as a teenager.
What was your first job in the industry?
RG: I did mandatory service right after my studies, but not the military one. I was a conscientious objector for a year at the Museum of History where I did research of ancient grave mounds and churches in a bunch of archives. I found a job ad in the major newspaper (there were ads like that back in the day!) where the Swedish Film Institute was looking for an assistant at the film archive. With my film studies and archive experience, I landed a job in 1984 at twenty-three years old, that's where it all began! In a couple of years I advanced to curator at the Cinematheque, then later head of the international department and CEO of the Film Institute publishing company.
KL: Professionally, it was poster artwork for a local genre film festival, Wickmanveckan, arranged by the lovely masterminds behind Klubb Super 8 and Cultpix. I also worked on promo trailers, animations, and images for social media. Prior to that assignment, I had only worked with video editing for a commercial studio doing ads for makeup, furniture, and food.
LP: After graduating from Bradford College in 1986, I worked in a number of contemporary art galleries. My first job was as a curator/cultural programmer at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. I put together art exhibitions, booked bands, and did film screenings. When I started out, Neo-Expressionism was all the rage but as the years went on, contemporary art became more "conceptual" and, frankly, boring to me. I was always more interested in representational and pop art, so by 1992 I started my art career as a painter (mostly because I wasn't seeing the kind of art that lit me up in most galleries and museums).
I was inspired after seeing Robert Williams and the other lowbrow artists' work at Psychedelic Solution in New York City. Also revisiting art history and midcentury modern illustration trends. It made me realize that I had something to say visually from a fiercely feminine perspective. I remember before moving to the West Coast saying to myself, "I want a career that combines my love of popular culture, art, and cult films." I had no idea that would come to be, but it sure did!
Tell me about your role at Klubb Super 8, Kalle...
KL: After my thirty-year stint with the videogame industry I wanted to do something completely different, so I got an education as an image specialist. During this period I reached out to Rickard and asked if I could do an interview with him as a school project. He agreed, and the ball was rolling!
I'm involved with the creation of the Blu-ray covers and editing trailers for their releases. I'm very proud of the first two covers for the legendary Thriller: A Cruel Picture and Anita: Swedish Nymphet, both Christina Lindberg classics.
How did your time at Oxford prepare you for a career in this field?
PVS: At university I became the arts editor for the student newspaper (I was the only one who had a VHS player), so I got the chance to write film reviews as well as profile our local independent cinema. I was also part of the film society and worked as co-producer on student shorts. The trick is just to get involved and get doing.
I ultimately found work with a business magazine, Screen Digest, and eventually begged my boss to let me write an in-depth profile about the nascent field of electronic projection. A month after it was published, George Lucas announced that the first of the new Star Wars would be screened digitally in New York and Los Angeles, and that he would shoot the next installment with digital cameras. After that, I was the digital one-eyed in the kingdom of the blind.
What were the early days of Klubb Super 8 like?
RG: We did elaborate film club nights once a month with features on 35mm from the Film Institute archive, DJs, a bar, and live bands!
PVS: Klubb Super 8 was always about "sounds fun, let's try it!" There was never a game plan. It evolved from projecting super 8 films at parties to collecting prints, to buying the rights to films and issuing them on VHS, to having a global streaming service today for classic cult films. Our philosophy has always been that as long as we are having fun and not losing money, we keep doing it. That said, both Rickard and I have a solid background of business and contract rights, so the 'fun' is underpinned by solid paperwork and never frivolous.
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How did the two of you meet?
PVS: Rickard and I met at several industry events because he was a digital projection pioneer in Sweden with the live MET Opera screenings. We hit it off and when I had a windfall I offered to invest some money in the Klubb Super 8 distribution label that he co-founded some time earlier.
How did you get connected with Something Weird?
RG: In 1988, a friend of ours hooked us up with Mike Vraney and Lisa Petrucci and in 1998 and 1999 we organized two major film festivals, touring in Scandinavia! The first one was in a few Swedish cities, the second one was in both Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. David F. Friedman also joined in, to much merriment for the audience. Mike and Lisa brought tons of original posters, garlands, sex-ed brochures, and other cool stuff. We added a theatre group who did live shows in the lobby and auditorium with different themes like vampires, cannibals, missionaries, and luchadores! In good ole exploitation style, Friedman had a raffle where you could win a "real corpse" (i.e. a dead chicken). He also did a sex-ed pitch as Dr. Elliot Forbes!
Lisa, you truly are the genre archive's archeologist superhero!
LP: Ha! Well everyone has Mike Vraney to thank for finding all those "lost" films. I was just along for the ride. But I will say that together we were a force to be reckoned with. I had minored in film history, so I brought my own perspective to Something Weird when we got together. I've always enjoyed digging deep and researching these films and being a sounding board for Mike's ideas and vision. I often said we were a perfect team and were able to accomplish so much together. He was my biggest cheerleader when it came to my art career, understanding that I could balance both careers and help raise two kids.
What is it about collecting that is so inspiring?
LP: Collecting is definitely an addiction. You get a dopamine rush when you find or discover something special you were looking for (or never knew existed). Then it becomes a treasure hunt and you want to accumulate as many cool collectibles as you can. Prior to the internet, we would have to find stuff out in the wild, which made the search even more thrilling. Once the internet and eBay existed, it became a feeding frenzy and made you realize how many other rabid collectors were out there! I started out collecting dolls and toys from the 1960s, vintage men's magazines, cult movie and monster memorabilia, big eye art prints, tiki and Hawaiiana, and other ephemera. My collections have definitely influenced and found their way into my art.
Which films caused you to fall eternally down the underground cinema rabbit hole?
LP: Besides seeing way too many inappropriate movies as a kid, I started renting VHS tapes in the early eighties. Some of the first ones that propelled my interest in exploitation cinema were John Waters' films like Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974), but also Basket Case (1982), Spider Baby (1967), Forbidden Zone (1980), Russ Meyer's films like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and so many of those early obscure home video big box releases. I'd rent anything that wasn't mainstream. When I moved to New York City in the late 1980s, I was at Kim's Video daily. I even worked at Michael Weldon's Psychotronic store for awhile!
Which publications were you writing for while living in New York?
LP: When I became discouraged with the contemporary art world, I decided to start writing about subjects that I was personally interested in like exploitation films, popular culture, and lowbrow art. Some of the first publications my articles appeared in were Tease, Access, Gauntlet, and SIN Magazines. I wanted to write about cultural genres from a female perspective that had been mostly male-centric up until then. I was a unicorn when I started writing about sexploitation cinema. Things have certainly changed since those days! There isn't such a gender gap anymore, as it was over thirty years ago. That's a good thing.
I imagine bonding with Mike over your love of the same movies must have been pure magic...
LP: I met Mike in person at the Chiller Theatre Expo in New Jersey in April of 1993. I had planned on interviewing him and David F. Friedman for an article I was writing about sexploitation cinema. When I walked up to the Something Weird booth, he asked me what some of my favorite Something Weird videos were and I said I adored Doris Wishman and Michael and Roberta Findlay. I could see the hearts flying out of the top of his head. It was love at first sight (for Mike). Me, not so much at first since he came with a lot of baggage! (laughs) The rest is history. Meeting Mike that fateful day forever changed the course of my life!
Tell me about Klubb Super 8's transition from film club to home video label.
RG: When the Something Weird team was in Stockholm, we helped them get in touch with the producer of the unique Swedish sci-fi movie Terror in the Midnight Sun (1959). When we learned about Something Weird and their massive output of VHS releases, we thought we would give it a go. We were in touch with the producer, Inge Ivarson, who had made the sex-ed films in the Language of Love series, as well as a number of sexploitation and XXX movies in the 60s and 70s, and I struck a deal with him. Our first VHS releases were Terror in the Midnight Sun, The Language of Love (1968), and Anita, Swedish Nymphet (1973).
This evolved into more VHS releases and more deals. During the process, the producers we got to know were very old, so we started buying the films outright for eternity. Later on, we started releasing them on DVD and now on Blu-ray. At the same time, we had regular day jobs, so this was more of a hobby. So far, we've released almost a hundred film titles (if you count all the formats).
PVS: We have always held the belief that there is an audience out there for the kind of films that we love, particularly those that the critics and film historians would rather forget. We see this at film screenings and festivals, but going from VHS to streaming has widened the audience for us. The important point is that we never talk about 'customers' or 'buyers' because these fellow fans are all members of our gang and share the indie spirit that fuels us.
What is the origin of your relationship with Rickard and Patrick?
LP: Rickard had invited Mike and I to Sweden for a Something Weird film festival in 1998. We had a blast! Rickard and Mike were definitely two peas in a pod and had a lot in common. I think Mike saw a little of himself in Rickard and encouraged him to go for it. The first film festival was such a success that Klubb Super 8 invited us back the following year with David F. Friedman as a special guest. That was when Rickard surprised us with The Pick-Up (1968). Dave was so excited the film had been found and we got to watch it in a theater with him for the first time since it was released. It was an amazing experience for all of us who were there. Over the years, Klubb Super 8 has become a mirror-image of Something Weird. When I went to visit their headquarters last year, I chuckled to myself that I felt right at home amongst the piles of movie memorabilia and boxes of DVD and Blu-ray inventory!
How has your relationship with them evolved over the years?
LP: Both Mike and I stayed in touch with Rickard and the Klubb Super 8 guys. Graphic designer Andreas Frisk even designed my first art website! After Mike sadly passed away in January of 2014 (after a long battle with lung cancer), Rickard got in touch with me about adding some Something Weird films to his latest endeavor, Cultpix. We've been tight ever since. I consider them family.
Patrick, tell me about the platform you co-founded, Celluloid Junkie.
PVS: Celluloid Junkie was for news and analysis about the cinema industry, which I co-founded with a U.S. colleague when we were both freelance (i.e unemployed), as blogging back then was a way to stay visible. It grew over the years and I was proud to have launched initiatives through it such as Cinema of the Month, Top 50 Women in Global Cinema, and CJ Cinema Summit that gave the industry a gathering point when cinemas were closed during COVID. I walked away from it two years ago and am no longer involved.
What are five of your all-time favorite films?
RG: This is a question that requires a complex answer: there are so many genres, and so many good films in each! I could do a top five list for every one, but I'll give it a go in no particular order: Eraserhead (1977), Duck Soup (1933), Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973), Aliens (1986), and Blinkande Lyktor (2000).
PVS: Léon (1994), Sexmisja (1974), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973), and Private Teacher (1983).
KL: The Thing (1982), The Beyond (1981), The Doll (1962), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), and Ghost Dog (1999).
In the mid-1990s, you purchased a warehouse filled with treasures...
RG: At the annual film collectors' convention in Copenhagen, a guy had a table with a ton of old Danish exploitation movie posters for spaghetti Westerns, American sexploitation films, Italian horror movies, and martial arts films. They bought it from the eighty-year-old film distributor Henry Andersen, who had run Scan-American Films. We got in touch and he wanted to sell everything to us, as his relatives would just throw it all away after his death. It took us two lorry drives from Stockholm to Copenhagen to pick up the forty-five 35mm prints, lots of 16mm prints, and approximately 6,000 posters! It wasn't very expensive, and we had learned from the best. Mike Vraney had a proverb: "Don't cherry pick, grab it all!" We followed that sentiment!
How do you go about acquiring the rights to release the films once you have the physical copy?
RG: There is no relationship between our physical film collection and our negotiations for film rights. We might only have three-to-four films on 35mm which we also have the rights for. We have two companies: Klubb Super 8, only releasing Swedish vintage exploitation movies, and Cultpix, the global streaming platform releasing vintage exploitation movies from all over the world.
In terms of Klubb Super 8, we got to know old producers over the years and bought film rights. I was already in the industry and got to know people. In terms of Cultpix, Klubb Super 8 owns approximately sixty Swedish films. We also represent the production company Nordisk Tonefilm with another sixty films. When we started out almost five years ago, Lisa was very positive and helpful, as were our friends at Synapse Films who had bought some of our Swedish films for home video distribution in North America. Something Weird works with the American Genre Film Archive, so they were also on board. Then we started going to the MIFC market in Lyon, France with a focus on vintage films. It was there that we got to know national film archives and could negotiate for restored classics from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Great Britain, Denmark, and Taiwan! As time has gone by, some companies have approached us since we've earned a positive reputation in the industry.
PVS: If the producer of a particular film is alive, we contact them (this was the case with Inge Ivarson), or if not, their children or direct descendants. The important thing is to always get a chain-of-title proving that the rights belong to that person. Then there is the issue with territories and platforms, but for older films they were typically only sold off for limited theatrical release in particular markets, so home media and streaming rights did not even exist back then. Once the rights are secured, we arrange a scan of the best quality copy of the print we can find. This often involves major detective work, as the original camera negative might be lost and we sometimes even work off of 16mm dupes.
In some cases, the Swedish Film Institute has a negative or 35mm screening print and they have even scanned and restored films that we have the rights to - probably because they have run out of Ingmar Bergman or Bo Widerberg movies to restore! These days for streaming, we typically deal with libraries and rights holders of catalogues, but we sometimes have to go hunting for the best source material, which could be a DVD that was only released in Germany, a VHS that is the only surviving version, or even a digital file on a pirate site, which we steal back.
What has been your biggest challenge in this business over the years?
RG: Our biggest hurdle is American bigotry! Cultpix's aim is to be completely independent and that we will not censor our content. This means that apart from showing horror, sci-fi, action, drama, comedies, documentaries, blaxploitation, nazisploitation, and martial arts we also have vintage XXX movies. Approximately 8% of our output is erotic film. This has given us a big headache, as U.S. credit card companies don't like old movies with naked people hugging, neither does Klarna or PayPal, so this has been a tough battle. Even companies specializing in "risk companies" won't work with us, as they cannot understand the difference between our regular genre movies and our XXX movies. Of course, we have to be very careful with what posters and photos we publish on social media to promote our films, as the female nipple seems to be a bigger threat to the social media companies than fascism, violence, terrorism, drugs, and animal cruelty, which all seems to be fine - but not the naked human form! We feel this threat to artistic freedom and freedom of speech comes from both the Christian right wing organizations and companies, as well as the liberal woke side.
How do you balance all of the positions you have held over the years, from editor-in-chief at Total Film Magazine and Chaplin, CEO of V2H, to being an author, producer, and curator?
RG: I have always managed to both work in "fine culture" and "ugly culture" (as it might be called in Sweden) or arthouse and exploitation cinema - I have no problem combining the two. I've always had a big work capacity, and the number of films released through Klubb Super 8 over time means just a few titles per year. My employers never really understood my subversive hobbies and never really bothered to investigate, so that was fine. In some instances, I could even benefit from my day jobs and work together with my bosses for some projects. Now I have officially "retired", which means I work full time with Klubb Super 8 and Cultpix and can really revel in exploitation cinema!
Do you remember when you first became aware of Christina Lindberg?
RG: I believe it was a television show where a journalist had dug up clips from forgotten Swedish exploitation films like Anita, Swedish Nymphet and the Solveig Anderson film, Eva (1969). We later had the chance to distribute Anita on VHS, and when we released it on DVD I got to interview her for the bonus featurette.
PVS: Christina Lindberg is one of those film legends who always seems to have existed and you become aware of through cultural osmosis, even if you have never seen her films. She was a pin-up, international cult film star, and then did a Garbo of switching to be editor of a magazine about the aviation industry before making a return to the film scene where the likes of Quentin Tarantino was praising her and being influenced by her. I am fairly sure I saw one of her centerfolds before I saw her in a film role.
KL: Growing up in Sweden in the 1970s it was inevitable, she was the biggest centerfold star.
What do you think it is about her that resonated with the exploitation community and made her a cinematic icon?
RG: That's a great question! Many critics and haters say she's not really an actress, that she got her film parts because of her face and body, as she was Sweden's most famous and popular centerfold at the time. I believe two things: the camera just loves her, both in photos and in films - she just has a glow about her. She used her own personality and experiences in her roles, which sets her naturalistic acting method apart from her co-stars who were mostly schooled theatre actors used to addressing the third balcony in the house, so Christina's characters often come across as more believable than her counterparts. And of course the support from mega directors like Quentin Tarantino and Sean Baker has been part of her contemporary stardom!
PVS: Christina embodies a rare combination of innocence and danger, which is why she has endured as a cult figure. She could play the ingénue, wide-eyed and vulnerable, but with a simmering strength just beneath the surface. In Thriller: A Cruel Picture she literally loses an eye but becomes all the stronger for it, a metaphor that resonates in the age of exploitation cinema as much as it does in today's conversations about female empowerment. She also had that unique Nordic quality of beauty that was both approachable and enigmatic, making her instantly stand out in any role or photoshoot - add that to her own intelligence and refusal to be typecast, and she transcended mere pin-up status to become a genuine icon.
KL: She has a very special on-screen presence and star quality. Her performance in Thriller especially is truly astounding. She is also very friendly and warm when meeting fans at conventions and events.
How did you arrive at recently releasing Thriller: A Cruel Picture?
RG: I had been trying to negotiate directly with the director/producer Bo Arne Vibenius for more than twenty years for the film, but him being a mood-swinging megalomaniac, it never happened. One day he was asking $1 million, the next he was fine with a more regular deal, but it was lots of back and forth. We were truly delighted when we heard that Vinegar Syndrome had bought the rights. The next thing that happened was that Joe Rubin called and asked me to do the featurette for the U.S. release, as he knew I worked together with Christina Lindberg. I did a number of interviews and created the documentary. After that, it was of course natural to talk about the Scandinavian rights for the film. I also worked with Vinegar Syndrome on their release of Blood Tracks (1985), recording the commentary and conducting the interview with actor Frederick Offrein and also helped set up an interview with a very famous Ingmar Bergman star for another release. After this, we started talking about a partner label with OCN and decided to release a bunch of titles together through 2026 (for starters).
PVS: Vinegar Syndrome did a fantastic job with the 4K restoration, but our relationship with Thriller predates that. Rickard and I had been involved with the rights discussions and earlier editions, so when VS wanted to bring it to the UHD generation, it was natural for us to collaborate. Rather than see it as competition, we saw it as complimentary: they handle the North American market, we handle Scandinavia with added material unique for this market, and together we ensure that the film is preserved, accessible, and celebrated worldwide. The goal is not to hoard, but to share these films and, in this case, partnering made perfect sense.
Walk me through the restoration process for Lindberg's films specifically.
RG: There have been a number of different rights holders for the films, some that we have known for a long time. We ourselves own Anita, Swedish Nymphet (1973), Exposed (1971), Wide Open (1974), and Young Playthings (1972). In terms of restoration, it's very simple: the Swedish Film Institute has received a lot of government money to restore Swedish film classics. Every year we get to wish for a restoration of one of our titles!
PVS: It's detective work mixed with diplomacy. First, we establish who actually owns the rights - which is often not obvious decades later. Sometimes it's the original producer, sometimes their estate, sometimes a company that folded into another entity. Once we've established rights we begin the hunt for materials: camera negatives, interpositives, 35mm prints, or even well-preserved VHS masters if that is all that survives. In Sweden, the Film Institute has been invaluable, though they understandably prioritize Bergman over grindhouse.
As for the technical side, it's always a balance between staying true to the original look and making the film watchable for modern audiences. We don't want to polish away the grindhouse grit, but we do want to eliminate scratches, warping, or faded color where possible.
Since 2006, you have been traveling the world with Christina. How did that begin?
RG: It started with us interviewing Christina for the DVD release of Anita, Swedish Nymphet. In 2005, I went to Los Angeles with my job and, among other things, we had a sightseeing tour of the Egyptian Theater. I got along well with the boss, Chris D. (an old L.A. punk rocker) and got in touch afterwards about doing a "Swedish Sin" weekend at the cinema with Christina as the guest star. We got some funds to go, but not all that we needed. I had the contact to Quentin Tarantino's personal assistant and got in touch asking if he would sponsor the trip. The next day, she responded: "Quentin is so excited! Where shall we send the check?"
We had a great time in L.A. and afterwards Christina said she'd happily join me in any convention or festival I could get her invited to. So far, we've done thirty trips all over the world including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Slovenia, and Japan. We are good friends and travel well together. Everywhere we go, she's greeted by fans and is always super friendly, taking her time talking to each and every one of them. Everyone is always very respectful and, of course, we've had some amazing meetings - the coolest one maybe was having dinner together with Roger Corman and his wife at the Fantaspoa Film Festival in Brazil.
What is your favorite Christina Lindberg film?
PVS: It has to be Thriller: A Cruel Picture. Not only because it is her most famous role, but because it's a film that still shocks and surprises half a century later. Its blend of arthouse pacing with grindhouse excess is unlike anything else.
RG: I think that Thriller: A Cruel Picture is of course the most iconic one. It's completely unique for a Swedish film and was initially banned in the country. That gives it a special place in my heart. I also really enjoy Anita, Swedish Nymphet where Christina wasn't supposed to wear makeup (as requested by the director Torgny Wickman) but still manages to look stunning and very natural.
KL: Thriller: A Cruel Picture, there is no other film like it. It has a unique style and vibe, very gritty.
LP: Being a fan of female "revenge" films, I adore Thriller: A Cruel Picture! Christina Lindberg is a national treasure!
What is your favorite part of your career, and is there any fear about the future of physical media?
PVS: The best part is the detective work and then the moment of resurrection. To take a film that hasn't been seen in decades, dust it off (sometimes literally), and then watch audiences rediscover it is pure magic. It's like reanimating cinematic Frankenstein monsters: It's alive!
As for physical media, it's not dying, it's... mutating. Yes, fewer people are buying discs than in the heyday of DVD, but the ones who do are more dedicated than ever. Labels like Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, and Arrow Video are thriving because they cater to collectors who want extras, booklets, commentaries, and beautiful packaging. Streaming is wonderful for reach and discovery, but physical media is where permanence lies. A disc on a shelf is harder to erase than a digital file on a server.
RG: I won't take sides on the war between streaming and physical media, as I believe that watching films is the main thing, no matter the medium. I also run both a physical film label and a streaming platform. What I really love most about finding rare, forgotten films and making them available is the fact that we find so many more films all the time. We will never, ever run out of films! And then of course doing the research, writing copy, finding poster art and photos - it's all very gratifying and feels like some kind of detective work!
We see that physical media is on the rise and we are especially fond of all the hard-working boutique labels of the world making the films available in the best possible fashion, along with special features contextualizing them! Being a collector myself, I completely understand collectors wanting to own their films. As we know, films on streaming platforms can sometimes be completely removed. The idea of Cultpix is to grow the library and not delete or remove them, unless the deal expires. We are planning to release one film per month on Blu-ray for the upcoming year.
What was your experience launching Cultpix, and then ultimately bringing the Something Weird library to streaming?
PVS: Cultpix was born out of necessity and passion. Rickard and I saw that these films were disappearing from circulation. DVDs were out of print, streaming platforms weren't interested in licensing them, and piracy was often the only way younger fans could find them. We built Cultpix as a home for these orphan films.
The key was not just to make it another faceless streaming service, but to create a community. Weekly film drops, newsletters, theme weeks, podcasts, watch-alongs - all of it builds that sense of belonging. What has surprised me most is the international nature of our audience: we have members in Brazil, Japan, Canada, and Turkey all chatting about obscure Swedish exploitation or forgotten Italian comedies. It proves that cult cinema is a universal language.
RG: During the pandemic I was on furlough from my day job working with event cinema (live broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, National Theatre in London, the Bolshoi, and also film classics), sometimes working as little as 20% (but getting an 80% salary - hey, this is Sweden!) When we saw DVD sales going down, Patrick and I started toying around with the idea of creating a streaming platform but going wider than only Swedish films for a Swedish audience, so we created Cultpix with global films for a global audience and were amazed that the URL was actually available! We started out with four-hundred titles and have steadily built both the number of partnerships and titles. We now work with more than fifty rights holders and have uploaded more than two-thousand films.
About two years ago we started discussing the Something Weird Channel with Lisa. She has been working extremely hard with the company since Mike passed away ten years ago, and a cooperation seemed like a natural development. We are releasing almost one-thousand SWV titles over time, all with the great colorful artwork, at a speed of approximately forty per month. The Something Weird fans have reacted very favorably to the new channel, for which we are very proud and grateful.
LP: After seeing how well the Something Weird content was doing on Cultpix, we discussed the possibility of doing a stand-alone Something Weird Channel. I knew that I would eventually be ending the in-house DVD-R manufacturing and downloads at some point, but still wanted a place for folks to have access to most of the Something Weird library. Rickard and Patrick proposed that Cultpix host the Something Weird Channel and would take care of the logistics. I just had to provide the content. It was a perfect solution and a win/win for all involved! Something Weird is also streaming on Night Flight Plus, but Cultpix is my primary streaming channel and has the majority of classic SWV titles and compilation series.
You have also partnered with several physical media distributors...
LP: After Mike passed away, I had to decide what would become of Something Weird. Mike didn't intend for it to continue after his death, but that wasn't taking into consideration my future plans. I knew that I couldn't (and didn't want to) continue doing things the way we had since so much had changed in the home video market since Something Weird started, so I started talking to some other video companies and film archives about collaborating. It wasn't done willy-nilly, film collections were curated and placed with those I thought would appreciate and honor the collections. It was important to me to place the films with like-minded and enthusiastic colleagues who "got it" for this next chapter of Something Weird. I really enjoy working on the partner restorations and Blu-rays, it's fun for me to see their particular perspectives on this vintage material. There's so many talented and knowledgeable genre film folks out there nowadays and I'm grateful to have them involved with these re-releases. Together we're making these the best possible Blu-ray releases they can be and keeping the legacy of Something Weird going for a new generation of film fans.
If you were going to recommend one blind watch from your entire catalogue, which film would it be?
KL: The Doll (1962), a Swedish noir thriller from the early 1960s about a man who falls in love with a mannequin he has stolen from his workplace department store, and of course things go south. A very haunting, melancholic, and beautiful movie.
RG: That's a tough one! I'd say that the brand new Blu-ray release of Arne Mattsson's Vaxdockan / The Doll (1962) is something out of the ordinary! A Swedish horror/drama about a nightwatchman who brings home a mannequin from his work and believes it's alive. Amazing, moody film in black and white with some great performances from Swedish actors Per Oscarsson and Gio Petré! Out in December both in Europe from Klubb Super 8 and in North America from OCN.
PVS: I'd go with The Lustful Vicar (1970), a Swedish erotic comedy about a priest who orders the burning of a witch. She curses him and, many generations later, his relative wakes up with a chronic erection just when he's supposed to visit the archbishop! It's as if Sweden made a Carry On film, but the women are better looking.
What are five Something Weird movies that you recommend everyone reading this see as soon as possible?
LP: Teenage Gang Debs (1966), She Mob (1968), The Touch of Her Flesh (1967), Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965), Olga's House of Shame (1964), and any black and white roughie from the sixties (that's my favorite genre!)
Rickard, where did you get the the inspiration for your book, Do You Believe in Swedish Sin?
RG: The pandemic was the starting point - cinemas were closed in Sweden, and I had time to spare. I had been collecting films and posters for about twenty years. There was no purpose to the poster collection until I realized a book was hidden in there somewhere. I had a lot of knowledge about the films and had heard the inside stories of people like Christina Lindberg, Bo Arne Vibenius, Mats Helge, Torgny Wickman, Inge Ivarson, Gustav Wiklund, and Tony Forsberg.
Klubb Super 8 got lucky during the pandemic and sold stock footage for a major corporation's ad campaign (as they couldn't use actors on account of COVID). The revenue from that deal financed the printing of the book, as well as the development and launch of Cultpix around the same time. So, oddly enough, to us, the pandemic was a blessing in disguise!
What do you love most about what you do, and is there a release in particular that you are most proud of?
LP: At this point, researching, writing about these films and the history of Something Weird, and designing packaging for upcoming Blu-ray releases has been a source of joy. I hadn't had time to do that in ages since I was running the day-to-day mail order operations at SW for the past decade since Mike died. Downsizing that part of the business gives me more time for creative endeavors again. Most recently, I oversaw the AGFA + Something Weird Blu-ray of Teenage Gang Debs. It's hands down one of my favorite movies of all time and the new restoration from the only existing 35mm print (to my knowledge) looks beautiful. I was able to write an extensive essay on the history of the film and how it fits in a world between exploitation and sexploitation cinema. It also meant a lot that AGFA + Something Weird restored and released The Undertaker and His Pals (1966) on Blu-ray for the Blood-A-Rama Triple Frightmare II along with Love Goddess of Blood Island (1964) and Follow that Skirt (1965), given that was one of the first "weird" movies I was exposed to. So it's like coming full circle.
Something Weird forever!
