European Films

In the excellent Norwegian scare fest Villmark (Dark Woods) from director Pål Øie, TV-producer Gunnar (Bjørn Floberg) has decided to take his four recruits -- soon to be responsible for a new reality-TV show -- on a survival trip deep inthe Norwegian woods to create a team atmosphere before the real work starts. All addictive stuff must be left behind: no cell-phones, no cigarettes. Lasse (Kristoffer Joner) is not so sure he can leave these two vital elements behind him for four days, as he is worried about his mother whom he calls every day and even more about what a four-day absence of the calming cigarettes might do to him. Per (Marko Iversen Kanic) would like to keep his phone also, but is discovered by Gunnar, and does, in the end, not really care. He is a carefree lad and will make the best of it. Completing the team are Sarah (Sampda Sharma) a girly girl with an appetite for sex, and Swedish tough girl Elin (Eva Röse) who has worked with Gunnar for several years already.

 

They leave their jeep behind where they cannot continue by car anymore and strap on their backpacks. There is still a long walk through the woods and wild rivers that separates them from their destination: a cabin near a lake that usedto be an ammunition depot in WWII, but has been transformed by Gunnar’s grandfather into a more comfortable cabin. Sure, there is no running water, but there is electricity from a generator for the outside lights and oil-lamps for the inside. The generator, though, as often happens in this type of film, is rickety at best.

There will be no other comforts than those provided by the cabin; they will have to keep themselves busy during the day finding berries and mushrooms, shooting game and fishing for food. Lasse and Per decide to see whether they can catch some fish in the nearby lake and stumble upon a small tent. Lasse seems content: this place is not as godforsaken as it seemed. There is no-one in the tent’s vicinity, however, and if the date on a milk-carton is to be believed, there has been no-one here for over a month. Inside the tent they find a book about the German Luftwaffe as well as (hurray!) a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. Gunnar discovers their discovery and seems worried. He tells the group that his grandfather forbade him to ever go swimming in the lake, because after a German warplane was shot down above it and sank, the lake became "evil". The group sort of laughs it off as lore of another age and still laughing, they go to bed.

 

On the second day, more strange things start to happen, things that people first blame on each other until Per and Lasse discover the corpse of a naked woman in the lake. Lasse obviously freaks out and demands of Gunnar they return immediately. He does not seem to want to change plans and says he will inform the police after they have finished their four day trip. The woman is already dead anyway. They should just not tell the girls in order not to scare them, and wait until they return.

 

From this point on, the film takes up ever more speed and spirals completely out of control as the events take over the lives of the group at the cabin. They cannot contact anyone from where they are. Several characters try to reach the car to go and get help but do not succeed. What evil is lurking in the lake and in the forests surrounding them? Villmark, which has been translated as Dark Woods in English, is a very effective genre-film. It takes its time to acquaint us with the characters and succeeds in giving each one a distinct personality in a couple of broad brush-strokes. Once all hell breaks loose this film does not forget about its characters, though. The characters still interact and talk about their fears and expectations in what are pauses between one assault and the next. The pacing of this film is excellent and the story as credible as they come for this type of film.

All the five main actors do an excellent job of portraying their characters. These are people you and I could know and relate to. This is what makes Villmark so much better than many others in the thriller/horror genre. What they go through is an extraordinary experience ordinary people we can relate to go through, and that makes everything so much scarier.

 

Browse: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr, amazon.de, dvdGO.es, internetbookshop.it, nl.bol.com, allposters.com.