Marerittet

No pun intended - this is quite the interesting horror movie. The suspense works from start to finish. Yes we do get quite a few cliche stuff ... but we do have a horror movie here, so that is to be expected. The actors are really good too ... it starts off with the usual shocker (horror movies have to do that, to keep us engaged I reckon) ... and it does have a nice build up.

I reckon you might have wanted to seek out better professional help ... and maybe not stay at a place that is as horrible ... but then again, we would not have a movie ... so suspense of disbelief is quite necessary. Good effects overall ... and well told ... it's not only Freddy (Kruger) who is able to give you nightmares ...

... and dream of better horror films, perhaps?

Believe me, I honestly don't like writing harsh and negative things about a film like "Marerittet". I want to encourage ambitious and intelligent new horror stories, especially when they come from one of my favorite countries in the world, but unfortunately "Nightmare" is mostly dull, unremarkable, implausible, and featuring far too many phony jump-scares than tolerable.

The Brussels' Film Festival, where I saw the film, describes "Marerittet" as mixture between "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Rosemary's Baby". That's fairly accurate plot-wise, but obviously not in terms of quality or impact. Terrible events from the lead girl's dreams manifest themselves when she wakes up, and there are demonic babies that desperately want to be born, but "Marerittet" undoubtedly won't ever be considered as genre classic like the other two. Notably the first full hour is too slow-paced and too clichéd. The final act touches upon some taboo subjects (like abortion and insights in the concept of lucid dreaming) and contains a handful of strong moments, but the overall result remains unsatisfying. The strong performance of Eili Harboe does make me want to seek out the acclaimed fantasy/thriller "Thelma", in which she plays the titular role.

I think it was really cool to link sleep paralysis, and sleep disorders with the Norwegian myth of the Mare. Having Mona and her friend go to lecture on them was a great way to explain them to a none Norwegian audience. I liked the creature design.

I thought the way Mona slipped into sleep without always realising made it pretty creepy. And there were some nice creepy moments in the film, the problems with the neighbours was pretty cool as well. The story was decent enough.

The acting was pretty good, and the pacing wasn't perfect but it was a really good attempt. I found it really enjoyable, and I do really like supernatural horror.

I don't know where to start, usually don't write negative reviews, but seeing the rating of this movie (which is quite high for a horror movie) I felt somebody needs to speak up. Boring movie, the plot could be interesting, but alas. And it paints an inproper picture of what a norwegian woman would expect in a doctor's appointment if she wants to take an abortion (here comes the sorry attempt for PC since most political parties in Norway are against abortion, but Norway stil wants to play the «democratic» card, while they're just having heavily socialist politics). All in all a bad, boring movie.

I really don't understand all the negative reviews of this film? Because it really isn't that bad at all.

There are obviously many many clichés and none of the horror is really original, it does get kinda campy and formulaic quite often, and it really isn't all that scary (in my opinion), but there's a solid cast with convincing acting and good enough writing to keep you engaged if you have a basic attention span, which it seems like a lot of people who saw this movie don't.

It's nice to see some folk horror with a cool modernized twist and the lore, while it's been used many times before, works in this film's favor. If you're into the sub-genre of dream horror, this is totally a film you should watch.