I LOVE Nordic films that deal with actual lore. Doesn't matter whether it's Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic...I enjoy them all. Especially when they're in the native language. I won't offer a synopsis, as the summary tells you what you need to know.
The positive:
- some really beautiful scenery, as nearly the entire film takes place in some pretty remote, wooded areas
- interesting story. Certainly nothing prophetic, but falls in line with historical dealings
- some interesting sound fx and scoring (see negatives)
- film quality and sound were pretty darn good considering
The negatives:
- the acting is only "okay." There are several parts when it is questionable at best, which affects believability, flow of the film, and overall character personae.
- the special effects are not good. While there is not a ton of blood, CGI is used for the majority of larger wounds or battle pieces, and it's just not good.
- one of the believability issues I overlooked the least was the costuming. Every single person wore clothes that not only had NO DIRT or stains, but appeared brand new. Even the travelers. It goes without saying that living the 11th century, especially in areas that were not yet developed in to cities, was extremely dirty. These people walked around with brand new looking colorful clothes & leather, brushed hair, visible makeup, and perfectly white teeth. This problem is not unique to the film, but really stuck out, and for some reason really bothered me.
- overall production of the film. As mentioned, there is some stunning scenery, but the direction and acting was inconsistent and lacked a cohesive flow. Use of filters was actually a bit overused for my taste. It's standard fare for many Nordic or Scandanavian films to be shot using dark or bleak filters, and often times really adds to the ambience of the project. This is also true with the Draug, but at times it felt overused and saturated.
- the music and sound Fx were not consistent. At times it was not bad, but at other times it was flat-out annoying. It's actually difficult to refer to the accompaniment as a "score," as there is no thematic music, but only a series of sounds assembled in a way that has musical qualities. Otherwise, it's just a mishmash of orchestrated sounds in order to provide tension. It's not until the very end that actual melody is heard. I'm fine with no musical score, but sometimes it got plain annoying.
- there is very little violence, no real gore of any kind, and limited intense scenes. If it wasn't one thematic element being present (that of "zombies") I wouldn't call this a horror movie at all.
- the ending
I dunno...I wanted to like this sooooooo bad, but it just didn't happen. Like I said initially, it's not a terrible film, but it lacks significantly in nearly every aspect. I probably would NOT recommend watching it unless you are a) Swedish & in to dark movies (both in color and thematic material), and b) dying to watch a Swedish movie.
