Director: Nini Bull Robsahm
Year: 2020
Country: Norway
Alternate Titles: De dødes tjern
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Returning to her childhood home, a woman visiting her old townspeople brings some friends along to a lakeside cabin to pay respects to her deceased twin brother, but when they start to experience weird happenings in the cabin are forced to confront a deadly menace living in the area to get away alive.
Review:
On the whole, this was a decent enough genre effort. One of the big attributes here is the constant mention of mythology and local legends to help build a fine atmosphere about the location. Filled with stories and group retellings about the various incidents that have taken place in and around the lake, from the stories of the infidelity committed and the resulting murders to the mass drownings of sick kids during viral outbreaks without any vaccine or medicine available, it all manages to bring about a fine underlying tone to the area. When mixed alongside the tranquility and peaceful, lush surroundings, this makes for a rather enjoyable effort here.
As well, the film also has a lot to like with the well-done slow emergence of the true dread involved. The innocuous beginnings of her seeing the strange marks on her friends, the hallucinations of strange figures from her past or dreaming of the spectral encounters with her walking out to the lake all manage to bring about a fine atmosphere and build-up to an enjoyable finale. Featuring the revelation about the true culprit behind the strange disappearances, this leads into the rather chilling chases around the house which feature the different encounters throughout the rooms and hidden passageways before the final encounter out by the lake which covers some sleazy subject matter quite nicely. These are where the film has some quality aspects to it.
There are some flaws to be had here. One of the main sour points here is the rather unimpressive attitude most tend to take regarding the events that play out. Strange events are brought up frequently that aren’t right or natural, only for her to ignore it and pretend to be fine or just never be brought up again in the film, making them seem inconsequential and meaningless. The fact that she’s clearly not dealing with the situation, sleepwalking, hallucinating and at times completely freaking out while their proper response is to laugh or outright dismiss it to do their own thing which not only downplays a lot of the suspenseful setups but making it rather difficult to follow the characters along throughout the film due to this issue.
The other real downside to this one is the stilted and bland pacing which is the result of so many useless cliches and subplots. The idea of what transpires with the lack of interest for her behavior is a start here, but the whole scene of them getting high after having a day filled with misadventures and weirdness seems incredibly unrealistic. Considering what happens in the finale regarding all the false red herrings that are completely done away with due to worrying how to blindside that by throwing references to other genre films of the past simply to throw off the viewer which doesn’t make any sense at all. This comes completely out of the blue and makes for a disjointed and rushed finale with no connection to anything that’s already happened. These are what hold this one down the most.
Overview: **/5
While the premise here had the potential for some great stuff here, the rather disappointing and somewhat overbearing flaws do hold this one back quite a bit. Give this a look if you’re curious about the subject matter or about the status of the country’s genre output, while those wanting something more cohesive or are turned off by the flaws featured here should heed caution.
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