Director: Stig Svendson
Year: 2023
Country: Norway
Alternate Titles: Vikingulven
Genre: Werewolf
Plot:
Moving with her parents to a new town, a town manages to survive a grisly encounter with a vicious creature that slowly starts to turn her into a similar such creature while her police officer mother investigates the crimes, and when she learns what's happened to her daughter races to save her.
Review:
There was quite a lot to like with this one. One of the strongest features here is the exceptionally well-crafted storyline that offers a fantastic localized viewpoint and immersion point. That mainly comes from the vantage point of the werewolves who are brought about here with the prologue offering a fine retelling of a legend involving how the werewolf arrived in Norway and how they became a part of the local folklore that goes along nicely with the family drama that takes place in the first half. Going through the mother/daughter rebellion angle gives this a great way to connect on an international angle alongside the usual investigation that goes on is a great way to go about this with all three storylines coming together frequently to provide a fun setup to this one.
On top of that, the film's featured werewolf scenes come together quite well. Foregoing attacks to instead feature the investigation into the first attack which happens only in the film, this one instead builds quite an effective subplot involving her gradual change into a werewolf through the newfound extra sensibilities and visions which carries quite a lot of weight here to tide this over due to the investigation finding the cause of the deaths taking place. The attacks here are short but quite fun and brutal, from the opening assault that clues them onto its presence, the encounter with the hunters in the woods, or the attack on the bus passengers which sets the stage for a high-energy finale in the town square that's quite effective and enjoyable. Overall, these factors manage to hold this one up.
The film does have some issues here. One of the biggest drawbacks to this one is the rather sluggish pacing that overlooks the creature's action for a large part of the film. There are two or three attack scenes as the rest of the running time is spent on either the investigation into the culprit of the attacks or the mother/daughter relationship which keeps this moving along but also causes a lack of action during the first part of the film. It also highlights an issue during the investigation analysis reveals the lupine characteristics so late in the film in understanding how the daughter has fallen victim to the curse as they're investigating the first attack that didn't involve her so that's a big leap of logic. Otherwise, there's not much to hold this one down.
Overview: ***.5/5
A highly enjoyable if still somewhat flawed Norwegian werewolf film, this one manages to come off with enough to like that it remains watchable even with a few minor issues keeping it from reaching the upper echelon of the genre. Give this a look if you're a fan of the genre or curious about the film's style while those turned off by those factors or the approach taken here should heed caution with the film.
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