Year of Release: 2022
Director: Stig Svendsen
Starring: Liv Mjones, Elli Rhiannon Muller Osborne, Sjur Vatne Brean, Vidar Magnussen, Arthur Hakalahti, Marius Lien, Kasper Antonsen
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Watch it on Netflix
Synopsis and Review
Another release from Netflix, "Vikingulven/Viking Wolf" hails from Norway. The narrative of the film focuses on 17 year old Thale Berg, who recently moved to Nybo with her mother, a police officer, her younger deaf sister Jenny, and her stepfather Arthur. Thale doesn't gel much with people her own age at school, but is interested in Jonas, who invites her to a party with a few other high schoolers. During the party, which takes place in the woods near the bay, some of the kids get attacked, including the Mayor's daughter. Thale herself gets some injuries as a result of the attack of whatever creature that was. The body of the young girl is retrieved, and while being examined, there are suspicions a wolf may have been the cause for that attack. A specialist from the veterinary college is called upon to provide assistance, but before he arrives an unkown man appears at the police station and informs Liv (Thale's mom), that a werewolf is responsible for what has happened. He has been tracking the creature all throughout Scandinavia. Liv dismisses his warning, but keeps the silver bullet he has given her. When the autopsy confirms that indeed a large wolf may have been the cause for the death of the young girl, the mayor decides to send a hunting party to kill it. The expedition results in a series of casualties, including Liv that is hurt. In the meantime, Thale herself starts experiencing changes.
When tackling the werewolf genre one thing to keep in mind is always the angle you want to bring to the narrative, something that feels somewhat fresh from all the prior and more iconic views this type of material has had. On the positive side, there's of course the classics "An American Werewolf in London" from John Landis, and "The Company of Wolves" from Neil Jordan, and on the less successful side you have the troubled "Cursed" from Wes Craven, and more recently Joe Johnston's "The Wolfman". All this to say, the Werewolf mythology has been used and re-used across multiple film adaptations and versions. Stig Svendsen smartly shifts the narrative to Northern Europe, and positions it as a "curse" that has existed for centuries. However where the film starts to shift into more of a generic positioning is the present day context in which the characters operate and exist. Thale and Liv's relationship is not really expanded upon, and Thale for the most part comes across as the cliché angry and rebelious teenager, with all her defenses stacked up against the world, something she justifies by the fact that she has been taken away from everything she held familiar and loved. There's just not much coming from these characters, both lead and supporting, and as much as the environment in which they live (and that potentially threatens then), becomes an additional character in itself, it's simply not enough to make the narrative more arresting and compelling. Ultimately as the outcome and development of the narrative becomes more and more apparent, Stig Svendsen smartly plays with shadows to illustrate the movements of the terrifying creature, though it's simply not enough to energize this somewhat inert storyline. The cast tries their best to bring these characters to life, the same going for the production team, though Trond Tonder's cinematography is solid, the same going for Mike Berg's production design. While it's not a terrible feature, it's just an immediately forgettable one.
0 comments:
Post a Comment