Films by country: Norway

NORWEGIAN HORROR [1950-1990]

Like in most other countries, the Norwegian film industry sprung up in the early 1900s, with the first short (about fishing) produced in 1907, the first silent feature filmed in 1911 and the first sound feature made in 1931. What there wasn't much of until here recently was horror films. The first genre film didn't crop up until the late 50s but at least it was a good one: director Kåre Bergstrøm's wonderfully-shot and eerie De dødes tjern / "Lake of the Dead" (1958). While it was a success in its home country (and later subject of a 2019 remake), it wasn't distributed here in America nor in most other countries and failed to build up any kind of reputation over the years outside of Norway. Following that, I could find just one horror film from the 60s (Klokker i måneskinn, also from Bergstrøm), one horror film from the 70s (Et lite grøss?; listed on IMDb as a TV miniseries) and three horror films from the 80s, a TV movie, a vampire comedy (Noe helt annet / "Something Completely Different") and Apprentice to Murder, a Canadian / U.S. co-production starring Donald Sutherland that was filmed in Norway but shot in English.

In addition to the above was a late 80s video collection of four amateur, camcorder-shot gore films from someone named Jon Christian Møller, who is probably akin to a Nordic Todd Sheets. These have enticing titles like Cannibal Massacre and The Norwegian Drillbit Massacre and were self-distributed on the label "Videogore Inc." complete with xeroxed black-and-white cover art. While most certainly awful, these are possibly the very first Norwegian horror films made specifically for the video market and I certainly wouldn't mind them being leaked online so I could at least take a look.

Many later Norwegian films have had crossover commercial appeal here in America, like the Dead Snow (a revival of the Nazi zombie theme), Cold Prey and Dark Woods series'. Director André Øvredal is another recent success story. After receiving a lot of attention for his found footage mockumentary Trollhunter (2010), he came to America to make the well-received The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) and then the Guillermo del Toro-produced wide release Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2018).

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1950s

- Lake of the Dead (De dødes tjern) (1958; Kåre Bergstrøm) ▼

1960s

- Watches in Moonlight (Klokker i måneskinn) (1964; Kåre Bergstrøm)

1970s

- A Little Horror? (Et lite grøss?) (1974; Bob Williams, Kent Nilssen, Henning Mankell, Bernt Christian Middelthon) [TV miniseries?]

1980s

- Galgemannen (Gallows) (1983; Magne Bleness) [TV]

- Something Completely Different (Noe helt annet) (1985; Morten Kolstad) ▲

- Apprentice to Murder (1988; Ralph L. Thomas) [co-Canada, USA]

- Cannibal Massacre (Kannibal massakren) (1988; Jon Christian Møller) [SOV]

- I Hate You (Kill or Die) (Jeg Hater Dere (Drep Eller Do)) (1988; Jon Christian Møller) [SOV] [short]

- Norwegian Drillbit Massacre, The (Den Norske Drillbor Massakren) (1988; Jon Christian Møller) [SOV] [short]

- Oslo Terror (1988; Jon Christian Møller) [SOV]

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TOTAL:

10

NOTES:

- While Et lite grøss? is listed as a miniseries on IMDb, the fact it has four different directors and the "episodes" they directed hints that this was some kind of short-lived anthology TV show.

- The 1978 3-part TV miniseries Blindpassasjer ("Blind Passenger") is a potential entry. Based on what I've read, it's a whodunit set in space. Many viewers have commented they they found it scary.

- I'm leaving off the 1987 film Turnaround (dir: Ola Solum) for the time being. While it was marketed as a horror film, many viewers claim it's not. I'll decide whenever I watch it.

- Oddvar Bull Tuhus 1976 "thriller" Angst (aka: Anguish) involves a babysitter receiving strange phone calls. It may qualify.

- The 1972 film Et Forlatt Hjem / "An Abandoned Home" features a detective investigating the titular residence and is described as "chilling" on a Norwegian film site. Also a possibility.

- I've ruled out Bortreist på ubestemt tid / "Away Indefinitely" (1974) after skimming through it. While it involves a man killing his wife, putting her body in the freezer and then deciding on what to do with said body (he eventually opts to hide it in the concrete foundation of a house being built) it's mostly mild suspense / drama.

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Questions? Comments? Additions? Send me a note below.

Nordic Horror

NORDIC HORROR [1950-1990]

Instead of calling this category "Scandinavian countries," which to some would simply include Sweden, Denmark and Norway, I'm using the more generic term "Nordic" here, which will also include Finland, Iceland, Åland Islands, Faroe Islands, Svalbard and Jan Mayen and, because it's sometimes though not always included, Greenland (which is sometimes grouped with North America). That's my best option considering most other countries under the Nordic umbrella had next to no film industry, at least not until here recently, and don't really merit their own page. 

To my knowledge, no pre-1990 horror films were produced in four out of the nine countries in this grouping. Greenland's first horror film didn't come until 2011 with Malik Kleist's Qaqqat alanngui, while the first (and thus far only) feature-length horror film from the Faroe Islands appears to be the "dark psychological drama" Ludo (2014) directed by Katrin Ottarsdóttir. Åland Islands, which has a population of just 28,000, Svalbard, with just 2,500 residents, and Jan Mayen, with no permanent residents as its a volcanic island, all show no horror films on a search. Hell, the former shows no films period while the latter two are made up almost exclusively of documentaries made there by outside crews within the last 10 years. That leaves us with just the original Scandinavian trio plus Finland and Iceland, each of which will get their own write-up on their own page. None of these countries were uber prolific in the genre during the 40 year block of time we cover here though most are worth discussing for several benchmark films.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

Click on one of the flags below to learn more...

If I dig up other information about any of the countries without a page, I'll make sure to post it.

De dødes tjern (1958)

... aka: Lake of the Damned, The

... aka: Lake of the Dead

Directed by:

Kåre Bergstrøm

Norway hasn't produced many horror films over the years. A few cross-over hits, such as Dark Woods (2003), Next Door (2005), Dead Snow (2009), its 2014 sequel Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead and the Cold Prey (2006-2010) series have come out here semi-recently, but before that their genre output was nearly nonexistent. As a matter of fact, a Norwegian horror keyword search over on IMDb only brings back three titles made before 1990. Lake of the Dead (also released as The Lake of the Damned) is one of these. In fact, it's the earliest Norwegian horror film listed and may actually be the very first horror film produced in that country. While fairly well regarded on its home turf, the film isn't very well known here in the States at all, but it really should be. Lake is a very well-made, intelligently-written and stunningly photographed mystery that keeps you guessing and makes unnerving use of its picturesque outdoor locations. One hopes the 2012 DVD release from Sinister Cinema - the first time the film has been available with English subtitles to my knowledge - will finally get the film some much overdue attention.

After a brief prologue, mystery novelist Bernhard Borge (Henki Kolstad), his wife Sonja (Bjørg Engh), critic Gabriel Mørk (André Bjerke, who also wrote the novel this is based on), psychologist Kai Bugge (Erling Lindahl), painter Lillian Werner (Henny Moan) and Lillian's fiance Harald Gran (Georg Richter) all decide to take a train trip across country to visit Lillian's hermit brother Bjørn (Per Lillo-Stenberg) at his secluded woodsy cabin. When they arrive, Bjørn is nowhere to be found. Lillian, who seems to have an extrasensory link to her sibling, feels anxious and senses danger. Local legend has it that a hundred years earlier Tore Gråvik, a peg-legged madman with an incestuous bent, took an axe to his own sister and her lover before drowning himself in a nearby lake. The lake is now rumored to be cursed by Gråvik's spirit. Upon the discovery of Bjørn's diary, it's revealed that Bjørn was either being haunted by Gråvik's ghost or has simply lost his mind.

The characters speculate about what's actually going on and what became of Bjørn; some favoring the rational, others leaning toward the supernatural. As one character reads a passage from Bjørn's diary, another character envisions the events, which are chillingly done with some odd stop-motion work of a bird perched on the rooftop and a faint phantom rising from the lake and chasing Bjorn through the woods back to his cabin. Various complications arise in the story (Lillian is caught sleepwalking, a member of their group is eventually found murdered...), but it's best not to give away too much here because it's as much a story-driven piece as it is a visual one.

Excessive talk might turn off certain viewers, but the dialogue is well-written and the character interactions and relationships are interesting. From a visual standpoint, it's often breathtaking. The sense of complete isolation in the forest is effectively eerily and the lake itself, dotted with lily pads and often shot glimmering in the moonlight, begins to take on an ominous feeling after awhile. In some ways I was reminded of Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), which also contrasts the beauty in nature to more sinister goings-on. Unlike Picnic, though, we eventually do get an explanation to what's going on.

Director Bergstrom also made a second horror feature; the elusive anthology Klokker i måneskinn (1964), which has never been released in the U.S.

★★★1/2