Hjemsøkt

Loved the pace and simplicity of this film. The lead actor is a hauntingly beautiful woman that seems to slip effortlessly between enchanting prettiness to psychologically disturbed. If you like your horror films filled with blood and gore this is not for you. If you like thoughtful, slow build, psychological skin tingling then look no further than this icy treat.

The positive reviews for this one are from people that barely review anything, so you get the picture... Hjemsøkt (or Haunted for the English title) is a slow paced movie that contains no horror at all besides a handful very predictable jump scares. And those jump scares were not even interesting for this genre. I was hoping for something much better but the whole plot failed to entertain me. I guess the acting could have been worse. For a low budget movie, because that's what this is, the acting was okay. The soundtrack, or more the absence of that, wasn't good, with a lot of silent passages that inevitably would lead to a sudden high sound so you would jump scare. I was just waiting for it, as it was that obvious that it was coming, so no effect at all was the result. The story itself is a bit confusing, not really interesting, borderline boring. I wouldn't waste your time on this Norwegian movie, there are much better movies coming from this country.

Synnøve Macody Lund plays the main character, and she does a great job. She has a natural way of acting that I like. I hate that acting- acting that a lot of older generation actors do. I'm gonna sound like a douche-bag saying this, but it doesn't hurt that Macody Lund is very pretty, you see her face a lot, and that's okay. Although what really matters of course, is that she does a good job with the acting. And she does!

Anywho! She inherits an old house, and she goes there to sell it. And uhm, scary stuff happens, OK?

Hjemsøkt looks very good, which is no big surprise, considering the director is a photographer. At least he has done some photography work before. He knows that he's doing when it comes to that stuff. The sound design is also well done. Slightly loud sounds at times, but still very good.

The first half or so of the movie contains a lot of fake scares. Knocking on a door, a door closing, that kind of thing. It just about gets a little annoying, before it more or less stops. It's pretty well paced, and didn't really become boring at all. Also helps that it's fairly short. About an hour, twenty minutes.

Hjemsøkt is not a bad movie. But it's not the big haunted house movie of the year, either. The story is alright, although I didn't find it extremely exciting.

With a little more genuine scares, and maybe some more effects and makeup, would help a lot with making this more great than just OK. I liked it, but don't expect a new Insidious or Conjuring.

No, this movie didnt work for me.

I guess the director thought of Grace Kelly, because the lead actress is just as cold as she ever could be.

Almost everyone in this movie has an unfriendly apperance, typical of people living in the nordic countries in the northen parts.

None of the actors were likeable. The dialoge was stiff as well as the actors.

The story was weird as well. The scenery was ok, I think that the director ought to continue with photography, rather than making movies.

Great story and beautifully presented with an exceptional lead character.