When Animals Dream

Wow. What a pleasant surprise. Carefully-paced, artfully composed with some beautiful cinematography and direction, and some strong acting. The fact that it's the director's feature film debut is highly impressive, and it actually reminds me of Let The Right One In in some aspects. It's definitely a horror film, but definitely a coming-of-age drama in other ways. Definitely recommend this little gem, and further proof that 2014 was actually a good year for horror (among others like Under The Skin, Coherence, The Babadook, Honeymoon). I hope people try to seek this one out because it's definitely worth the time to, especially among sure dire horrors these days.

WHEN ANIMALS DREAM is a deceptively quiet film. Very quiet. At least at first. Marie (Sonia Suhl) spends most of her free time tending to the needs of her mother (Sonja Richter), who is physically frozen from some unknown condition. Marie's father (Lars Mikkelsen) and the family doctor are extremely secretive about it all, especially when Marie begins showing odd symtoms of her own.

Marie's job is difficult and not at all glamorous. Making matters worse, her coworkers continue to haze her in vile ways. When Marie is finally told what is going on at home, her life begins to change drastically.

This is a totally different sort of werewolf movie. It's far more subtle than most, and the cold, grey somberness of it is palpable. Some have compared it to LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, and that's appropriate when it comes to atmosphere. It also has a bit of GINGER SNAPS going on, though this is not a satire by any stretch, like GS certainly is. It is a coming-of-age film, using horror to show the awkwardness, frustration, and pain involved.

If you're a strict horror fan, have no fear, there are some gruesome surprises to be found. Ms. Suhl plays Marie as a seemingly-shy girl with an edge. A sharp edge.

An effective twist on the genre, with a satisfying finale...

So, last night I just finished watching Spring. Wow does these 2 resemble a lot! Sadly, in a bad way...

Let's see: both of them involve a woman, going through changes, becoming something different, a monster if you like. Any originality here? Of course not, just making the most of a indeed small budget, but it will easily go unnoticed, cause let's face it, this is not what anyone is looking for when searching for a horror. It is another dull ride, maybe a tad bit better than Spring indeed, nevertheless, dull, heading to a romantic ending and that's that.

I won't recommend it "When animals dream", but if you're searching for something familiar, a movie about an isolated place, you could put an eye on "The dark" or ""Dorothy Mills". Both of them, far better!

Cheers!

In the vein of Let the Right One In and Raw, When Animals Dream presents a familiar horror trope through a low key delivery in an effort to re-frame a well known monster. It's artistic by way of minimalism, getting off to an especially dull start that almost dares you to get bored. If you're the "I turned it off in 15 minutes" type, I can save you 15 minutes and tell you to skip this altogether. If you have the patience to stay with it, things do come together and serve to justify the more mundane moments. It never adds up to horror proper, and even the dramatic elements come from understated characters intent on saying more with less. But it has an interesting way of weaving werewolf lore around a it's coming of age themes, and though many points are predictable for both genres, the blend of melancholy moodiness and cathartic violence is actually quite satisfying.

*********SPOILER SECTION********

I had mixed feelings on the ending, as riding off into the sunset with your true love was unusually positive for the otherwise dire tone. Not to mention why would that guy continue to love a girl who now seems to be half dog and just killed a literal boat load of people? On reflection, that is a pretty dark outcome though. Since the film flops between sympathizing and condemning the character, I feel like we ultimately land on she's a murderer, right? I mean, bullies suck, so we want them to get there's, but she is a bloody monster who's now loose in society. My only hope was for the guy to hug her and be like "I accept you, no matter what" then she just bites his head off anyway, 'cause you can't trust a wolf. Maybe that's just me though....

"When Animals Dream" is a pseudo Werewolf movie. The main character, Marie (Sonia Suhl) goes through some slow yet perturbing bodily changes and she doesn't know why. Her father wants to medicate her to prevent the inevitable but she'll have nothing of it.

This film starts of slow in a good way. It takes time to set the mood and introduce the setting and the characters. The problem is that it continued to be slow even after we were aware of the direction of the movie.

Although billed as a horror it was far more drama. They tried to make it too poetic; establishing mood with very little dialog and plenty of music, non-verbal communication and imagery. It maintained a somber mood much of the movie with only small glimpses of action.

What was clear was that Marie was the victim in this and the townsfolk were the ill-intentioned oppressors. That's how they painted it but that's not how I viewed it.

Marie is a small, docile, nubile young woman that still lives at home. She just wants to lead a normal life. Whatever happened to her, whatever she did as a result can hardly be blamed on her. Except that the world doesn't operate like that. People like safety and security even if from those without a heart to do wrong. Even though Marie was painted as and represented the underdog, she was nothing but.