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.
