Viking Wolf

What could be lurking in the dense forest or in old shafts?

As a child you have a thriving imagination when it comes to monsters, as an adult you have often seen the real monster.

But that's not what this is about, it's about classic stuff woven into the icy mythology of the Vikings.

What initially creates an eerie, cold atmosphere later turns out to be a rather bland filmed story with sometimes strange moments.

A big problem here are the effects, often the scenes are completely ridiculously exaggerated.

Almost an embarrassing battle record.

Unfortunately, the short scary moments cannot carry a whole film.

A real shame.

I had to create an IMDB account just to write this review.

Like a few other people the harsh reviews on this are just weird. Is it a game changer in the genre? No. Is it decent and watchable, for me, absolutely. Liv Mjönes gives another solid performance as the new to the town police officer. It clips along at a decent pace. Are there flaws, sure. It could have spent a bit more time building tension or back story. Thankfully the CGI was better than expected. Would be set up well for a second movie.

I would definitely watch it again, especially with family members who are easily scared & miss out on these type of movies.

This is one big pot of nonsense stew. The script doesn't have a single original idea, everything is borrowed, both from superior movies and equally stupid ones. It's like an amateurish mashup of every werewolf movie you've ever seen. Ginger Snaps in particular says hello throughout, there are echoes of When Animals Dreams, which is actually a decent Scandinavian coming of age cum werewolf movie. A chaste and sanitized ghost of American Werewolf in London is somewhere in there, too.

There's a bit of teenage family drama thrown in, there's young love, both of which don't take the story anywhere.

The dialogue is very bad, the production bland, the overall look is that of a minor TV movie. There are multiple goofs and continuity issues.

Worst of all, the movie is a bore.

A low budget but tightly done Norwegian horror movie about an ancient Werewolf that survives until the 21st Century and wrecks havoc on a small town. This is not necessarily anything new or unusual in the genre of Werewolf movies, but maybe that is part of the charm. It has all the basic tropes of the Werewolf legends. I won't list them for fear of spoilers, but this is not the movie to watch for a new take on werewolves. More likely, it is an homage to the source material on them. The cast is good. The Direction is decent. It is a solid horror movie. The special effects are the weakest part. It is foreign language with English Subtitles.

As this Norwegian film opens we are told how, almost a thousand years ago, Viking raiders heading south to Normandy. In a monastery they find a fearsome wolf like 'hell hound'. They take it with them as they return... none of the Vikings survive and the creature swims ashore. In the present day teenage girl Thale, and her family, have just moved to the remote Norwegian town where her mother, Liv, has joined the local police. One evening Thale sneaks out of her house to attend a beach party. Another girl is attacked and dragged off by a creature, Thale is scratched. Liv leads the investigation and soon finds what appears to be a wolf's claw. When the body is found it appears to have been attacked by a large, savage animal. An eccentric hunter turns up claiming the creature is in fact a werewolf!

I thought this was a decent enough addition to the werewolf genre. The prologue made it clear that this was going to be a werewolf film from the opening scene. Part of me would have preferred that information to come out a bit later but it didn't matter too much as it wasn't long before we knew what had attacked the girl. Apart from explaining how werewolves originally came to be in Scandinavia it didn't try to add anything to the established lore. The plot borrows from other films; most obviously 'An American Werewolf in London' but also from less obvious sources... I'm sure the hunter was inspired by Quint from 'Jaws'. The effects are decent enough and the acting was solid. The big question about any horror film is 'Is it scary?' unfortunately for the most part it isn't. While we see a bit of the aftermath of attacks the makers seemed a bit squeamish about showing the gory attacks. Overall a decent enough addition to the genre that fans of werewolf movies are likely to enjoy. Even if they don't rate it amongst the best they are unlikely to consider it one of the worst.

These comments are based on watching the film in Norwegian with English subtitles.