KAJ's Axel Åhman to Star in Dark Comedy 'Body in the Closet'

Axel Åhman, member of Finland's hit comedy group KAJ, will star as a chainsaw-killed theatre worker who returns as a ghost in "Body in the Closet," a new series from Warner Bros. International Television Production Finland.

Åhman plays Staffan, an audience services employee at a big-city theatre. He's a country boy who knows the institution's history by heart and nurses a crush on Betty. His clumsy, tactless attempts to approach her end in accidental death by chainsaw — and Staffan then haunts Betty for the rest of the series.

"I found it funny to play a murder victim. I like it when characters meet an unexpected end, and when writers dare to go darker," Åhman told Variety.

"Comedy is at its funniest when it dances on the borderline of darkness," he added. "We don't see much dark comedy in the Nordics. When I got the chance to participate, I just had to tag along and see where it headed. It's also a nice challenge to play someone else's script. I have mainly played characters from my own writing."

Who's making it?

Elin Grönblom directs. She co-wrote the show with Josefin Sonck, who also plays the lead. The two built their name on "Bloodsuckers," and this project reunites the team. Producer Mia Oikarinen of Warner Bros. notes that Åhman is best known for KAJ but also works as a writer, screenwriter, comedian, musician and actor.

"His comic timing and background in writing make him a particularly strong fit for Staffan and for the series' darkly comic tone," Oikarinen said. "He was very happy that we thought of him for the role — and amused that we immediately pictured him as Staffan."

What kind of show is it, exactly?

Not a horror comedy, according to Sonck. "It's more about one person's increasingly desperate life situation, told through dark humor and supernatural elements," she said, noting that comedy and horror both rely on surprise and playing with the audience's expectations.

Grönblom frames the genre choice as escapism with a purpose. "Horror, or in this case, dark comedy with some killing, is also a welcome form of escapism. We like to see characters do things that we ourselves don't dare to do, and probably shouldn't," she said.

The serious core, she explained, is egocentrism and "the relationship between a narcissistic parent and child." The setting: a visually realistic world — the gray Helsinki autumn — with exaggerated characters and fast-paced action layered on top.

What does this change for Nordic comedy?

The show targets a gap Åhman names directly: dark comedy remains rare in the Nordics. The team also claims "strong international potential," banking on a universal theme. Sonck breaks the show into three elements: a timely theme, a suspenseful plot with twists and cliffhangers, and "funny, quirky characters who act out the things we all secretly think but would never admit."

The story follows the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, a community both creators belong to — but Grönblom insists the world is recognizable anywhere, especially the theatre milieu "with its prejudiced, grandiose characters."

"All our characters are driven by their own egos and needs, and often fail to see others around them. We laugh at the increasingly absurd situations these horrible people put each other through," Oikarinen said. "Sometimes we need to laugh at them to cope with what's happening around us, especially in this increasingly egocentric — and frankly quite frightening — world."

Production starts next autumn. Svenska YLE, the Swedish-language division of Finland's public broadcaster YLE, is already on board — the first confirmed broadcaster for a series its producers clearly intend to push well beyond the Nordic market.