Lords of Chaos

"Lords of Chaos" (2018, Jonas Åkerlund, Insurgent Media, Scott Free Films, RSA Films, Eleven Arts, Vice Films, 20th Century Fox, Arrow Films) is the semi-fictionalised telling of the infamous events around the Norwegian Black Metal band, Mayhem.


The story is told from the perspective of band founder and central member, Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth (Rory Culkin) from his creation of the band to his murder in 1993. Throughout the film we are introduced to Øystein's feelings and philosophies on Black Metal. He feels superior and in command and soon has a small clique of similarly minded fans and other bands. He begins his own black metal label and opens a record shop called "Helvete" where metallers can socialise, drink and hear Euronymous' sporadic dark sermons and venomous rhetoric as part of the "Black Circle".


After exploiting the death of Mayhem's troubled lead singer, Dead (Jack Kilmer), for some new and darker street cred, Euronymous hires new band members including Varg Vikernes (Emory Cohen), who had changed his name from Kristian after a previous embarrassing run in with the band. Varg seemed like someone Euronymous can exploit, but it becomes evident that Varg is committed to his extremist beliefs and happy to carry out the kind of dark deeds which Euronymous had only bragged about. As the chaos escalates Euronymous finds he's lost control.


A grim premise based on true events, but with a fair amount of artistic licence. As a viewer the film was entertaining, gory, shocking and exciting. The events unfold at a pace that keeps you watching and the characters are hypnotically flawed. The portrayal of both Øystein and Varg are truly captivating to watch as these two essentially weak characters with a disproportionate sense of grandeur clumsily circle and bait each other throughout the film during their power struggle. The shocking scenes of death and self-harm are very gritty and the effects work extremely well.


As a metal fan the film made more headway out of the contemptible actions of the characters than it did about how the band were fundamental in creating a now well-established sub-genre (though, thankfully not all bands take themselves quite as seriously as this line-up of Mayhem did) and the tone was a little hard to read in places, but I feel that this was never the intent of the film and the horror and thriller aspects really delivered for me. I was entertained.

[Image: Insurgent Media, et al]

Hani

Hellfjord

"Hellfjord" (Tommy Wirkola, Zahid Ali, Stig Frode, Film Camp, 2011) is a Norwegian comedy series from the talented people behind "Dead Snow", which premièred in the UK at Glasgow Film Festival's Fright Fest in 2013.

The series has received such a good response from the screening, that it is rumoured to be coming to the UK soon! 

Funny, clever, rude, surreal, uncomfortable and violent, "Hellfjord" feels like "League of Gentlemen" meets "Hot Fuzz", but is oh so Norwegian and different.

Zahid Ali plays leading man, Salmander, a policeman in Oslo who is being fired by the force for publicly shooting his horse to death in an attempt to 'humanely' put it down. Repeatedly. Before using other means to kill the beast. Now, I'm a horse lover, and an ex-horse owner, and even I thought that scene was funny!

The force cannot fire Salmander straight away and instead send him to a remote, strange little fishing town called Hellfjord to work. There he meets the small and odd community, who's main trade is the fish factory, Hellfish, owned by Bosse Nova (Thomas Hanzon), a Swedish business man with a criminal past.

Salmander works alongside oddball policeman, Kobba (Stig Frode Henriksen), who is one of the most entertaining characters. Fantastically played by Henriksen and also visually comedic. 

Kobba's long suffering mail order bride, Riina (Pihla Viitala) also seems to help out in the policework. I love their eccentric and weird marriage! So funny.

With unwilling help from Kobba and also some very willing help from Johanne (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), the local and only journalist on the island, Salmander attempts to find out what strange happenings are going on in Hellfjord.

Really worth a try, this series will have you laughing out loud and flinching at points too. A range of strange characters are introduced, including dirty old women and terrible hitmen. 

Zahid Ali makes a great main character as the funny, shy and bemused Salmander. His flawed personality is both relatable and a great source of entertainment. Whether he is dancing outlandishly, saying the wrong thing or randomly touching things while sneaking about, he just brings in the laughs.

Very funny, very different, intriguing and there's a sea serpent, too! I recommend you give Hellfjord a try! It is by far my favourite new discovery, thanks to Fright Fest!

[Image: Film Camp]

 

Hani

Troll Hunter

"Troll Hunter" (2010, André Øvredal, Filmkameratene A/S, Film Fund FUZZ) is a Norwegian fantasy film with some horror elements. It is the story of some, now "missing", University students who are filming for a project. The film is comprised of their film footage.

They believe that they are on the trail of a bear poacher who is killing rampaging bears all over Norway. What they soon find is that they are on the trail of the one and only Troll Hunter who is hunting rampaging trolls all over Norway, killing them and then planting bear carcasses so as not to let the general public know that trolls exist.

I've been to Norway before. It's beautiful, I highly recommend a visit. I went up in a funicular to the Troll visitor centre. Trolls are a native story to the region, and are present in many Norwegian folk tales. At the visitor centre there is a giant stone Troll, fabled to be the remains of a real creature, who was caught in sunlight.

In this film only the eldest trolls will turn to stone when in sunlight....or faced with UV tanning lights, apparently. The younger ones explode! This leads to a lot of exploding troll scenes, which I'm appreciative of!

The film brings in a level of realism which, if you allow yourself to be sucked into it, can keep you in a state of suspended acceptance. They explain why trolls react and die in sunlight/UV light, they explain troll habits, they describe and show many race of troll, and advise on troll protection. They mark out territories and describe behaviour...

The teen film crew are made up of Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), who is the group leader and presenter of the video, Johanna (Johanna Mørck) who is the sound girl and wears some very snazzy hats and camera man Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen), and then later camera woman Malica (Urmila Berg-Domaas).

The film is completely displayed as 'found footage', but manages to be watchable and clear, unlike 'The Blair Witch Project'. The characters are very realistic and the banter between them is reminiscent of most Uni project groups I've worked in as a Design student.

They begin by interviewing legal bear hunters, who are up in arms about the dead bears, accusing the mysterious man, Hans (Otto Jespersen, who is a Norwegian comedian, I believe), of poaching. Then the team decide to begin following Hans and his grubby caravan full of smelly oddities. At first he is dismissive, angry and avoids the teens, but he eventually allows them to film him and join him on his hunt.

Hans explains that he is miserable, sick of his job and disenchanted with the whole thing. He has been asked to kill all trolls, no longer just ones which are out of control or out of their designated territory.

The film is creative and funny with some tense moments, improved beyond a doubt by the filming technique.

Trolls can smell Christianity, apparently. I muse that as Norway is a predominantly Christian country, the trolls were hunted mainly by Christians, maybe? And as a defense, have learned to smell them out. My friend and I had just begun discussing whether it was strictly Christianity, or a general belief in God (i.e., would a Muslim or Jewish person also be at risk from Troll attack) when the film handed us the answer! Oh ironic timing :) However, maybe trolls were just simply meant to be evil and so could smell 'good'? I'm not sure. In this version, the trolls just appear to be unusual but natural creatures, of no high level thoughts whatsoever.

"Troll Hunter" is both lighthearted, and a comment on wildlife conservation. The 'Troll Security Service' or TSS, is the secret department in charge of keeping trolls under control.

The action is good, there is little gore (except for explosive trolls) and most of the scary bits are strictly tension. The special effects are good, too. The trolls do look like realistic creatures, and blend into the landscape nicely. And they all have the distinctive comically large noses seen in old fairy tale books.

We watched "Troll Hunter" in Norwegian with subtitles, if you're a bit unadventurous I suppose it wouldn't take much away watching it dubbed over, but I like to see it in its native tongue.

Some twists are present in the plot, but my favourite one had you expecting a 'zombie' style bite-related disaster!

Not technically a horror, but jumpy when it needs to be and very awesome all round.

[Picture: Filmkameratene A/S]

Hani

The Thing (2011)

"The Thing" (2011, Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., Strike Entertainment) is the prequel to the 1982 original John Carpenter film also called "The Thing". Why they didn't just come up with a different name, I don't know!

As a film it's ok. The special effects are fantastic and they try very hard to make it feel like the early 80s. And it's convincing.

But it lacks the tension and plot of the original. The lead protagonist, Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), jumps almost instantly to the conclusion that the alien they've dug up is copying and becoming people. Despite having only some crude equipment, an odd corpse and 80s science to base this on... And the others don't take that long to believe her. Now, fair enough, their Norwegian buddy has just been eaten by something that they dug out of the ice (dead)! But, I expected more "You're just crazy, lady" before the big agreement bandwagon jump-on.

The film pretty much redoes the original; it begins differently and it ties in to the orginal in some ways, but on the whole it goes through all the motions of the original plot, but with less finesse. The effect thing/alien is very well achieved, and I liked how they explained the two-headed corpse from the original film. And who doesn't appreciate an insect-like killer hand every now and again?

I feel that it must have been an interesting script to work on, like making a film backwards from what we already know from the original and reconstructing the events leading up to it. But, unfortunately, as interesting as that process must have been, the outcome seems a bit hollow when viewed as an outsider.

The whole checking-for-tooth-fillings-thing-to-be-sure-that-you're-you is a bit cruddy, I'd say. I mean, I would say because I don't have any fillings (oh yeah! 24 years old and no fillings, I am truly that awesome!)! But the little point on body jewellery was a valid one. But, surely, she could have at least tried to converse with the only talkative and apparently 'sane' alien?! See what the hell it was up to? Ask if it just wanted an aspirin or something?

There was also a point where I thought they'd killed off the female protagonist before the end of the film, and I thought Wow, that was a brave move, I like it! and then she came back. Damn.

There's a lot of flamethrower action, too. Which is fine, but gets a little dull after a while.

By far, the point I was waiting on was how they ended it so that it was set up for the beginning of the original film. I think they achieved this well. I was waiting with baited breath, fearing that they had killed off all the possible useful characters for this scene (remembering that the two guys in the helicopter are Norwegian at the start of the original film, not American or English. Oh, and they're also men), and then voila! They saved it.

However, on the whole, it wasn't so groundbreaking that I'd rather watch this than the original masterpiece! But worth it for the special effects.

[Picture: Strike Entertainment]

Hani