Director: Kåre Bergstrøm
Writer(s): Bergstrøm, adapted from a novel by
André Bjerke
Starring:
André Bjerke, Bjørg Engh, Henki Kolstad, Per Lillo-Stenberg
A while back, I did some fairly extensive research into what
people think is the scariest movie of all time, simply because I wanted to find
one that would terrify me. Of course,
there are the usual suspects: Psycho and The Exorcist, but I wanted to dig
much deeper than that. I looked at many
older movies (such as The Uninvited, Dead of Night, etc.), and many foreign
ones (A Tale of Two Sisters, Shutter, etc.) and somehow in my travels,
combined both “foreign” and “old”, stumbling on a long-forgotten Norwegian
horror film from the 1950s.
Well, it’s not forgotten elsewhere: In Norway, De dødes tjern is revered
with the same amount of respect that we level at films such as Frankenstein
and Dracula…it is their all-time horror classic. This alone had me intrigued from the outset. Tracking it down, at least here in the U.S., took some
detective work, as it has never officially been released to DVD; once I
finally got my paws on it, I eagerly dug in.
The plot couldn’t be any simpler: Five friends go to an old cabin in the middle
of woods (gee, sound familiar?), where there is a legend of a screaming ghost
that haunts the shores of the lake. Of
course, there are some subplots that eventually work their way into the story
(one character’s brother is supposedly staying at the cabin, but won’t respond
to her calls), but just the basic synopsis got my skin crawling, and I thought
of all the ways that this could terrify me.
This was actually my second time watching it, and I felt the
same exact way as I did the first: It
fell quite a ways short of the (admittedly high) mark that I had set for
it. While the filmmakers clearly were
shooting for a creepy atmosphere more than straight-up shocks, they’re done in
by curious nighttime scenes that are so heavily saturated with light, they
literally resemble the daytime sequences.
That’s a shame, too, because there are a couple sequences (one involving
some pretty good stop-motion animation) that do an excellent job of ratcheting
up the tension. With some darker
photography, I feel like this really could have achieved the high level of
terror that it was going for.
Also taking me out of it (minor spoilers ahead) was the
final description of what really happened (something that seemed to be required
of all old movies, lest the audience should actually be required to follow
along). The entire movie is based around
these supernatural theories, and to have a “real world” explanation was kind of
disappointing. Without saying too much,
I will say the final shot is ambiguous, and hints that there might have been
supernatural elements at play after all, but having everything wrapped up so
cleanly, complete with a tiny little bow just seems counterproductive. When will filmmakers learn that the fewer
questions you answer, the more unsettling your film will be?
While the end result was nowhere near my expectations, this
is still a film that deserves a far wider amount of respect than it has
received. I’m shocked at the kinds of
movies that revel in the spotlight (Sharknado, anyone?), while others, far
more deserving of attention, simply disappear.
Despite its flaws, it’s a beautifully shot film with loads of potential,
and it should be a prime suspect for an American DVD release, if for no other
reason than its cultural significance abroad. (although Americans can generally
care less about the culture of others…)
While I won’t be mentioning it in the same breath as I would mention my
favorite films, there’s certainly a lot here to like; it’s certainly a shame
that its destiny seems not to inspire a new generation of filmmakers, but to
disappear from the public’s memory entirely.
RECAP (MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD): This is Norway’s equivalent to our Psycho
and Frankenstein; a film that has terrified their culture for six
decades. Some effectively chilling
moments are done in by overly-lit night scenes that offer no scares or
intensity. Final scene also a letdown,
as it takes it away from its supernatural roots and offers a “real-world”
explanation of what happened, that seems even more farfetched than if it would have
just been a ghost. Despite its flaws, there is plenty here to like, and it’s a
shame that it remains unreleased (and virtually unheard-of), here in the United States,
where it at least deserves a DVD release.
NOTE: This can be a very hard to track down: Thankfully, the entire film is available on
Youtube, complete with clear English subtitles.
Be sure to check it out now, before it’s too late!
RATING: 5.5/10
FULL MOVIE (W/ ENGLISH SUBS):
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