Stockholm Night or The King of Kungsan / Stockholmsnatt (1987) dir. Staffan Hildebrand

Amid the proliferation of stereos and VCRs in the 1980s, Sweden’s youth culture was taken with The Karate Kid, horror movies, and hip-hop, ushering a new wave of counter-culture and youth rebellion. This also led to moral panic over videovåld (“video violence”), Sweden’s own version of the UK “Video Nasties,” which elevated movies by homegrown exploitation filmmakers like Mats Helge Olsson to must-see status. A notorious episode of social debate program Studio S established the pervasive belief that the VCR was responsible for cultivating a new league of violent degenerates. And just as they swept midwestern American mini-malls, taekwondo and kickboxing made the Swedish juvenile offenders’ feet their weapons of choice.