Twitch regular Collin Armstrong has just sent in a review for Villmark, a Scandanavian thriller that shares a star with the stellar UNO. Check the Villmark trailer here, then read on.
Having worked on and off in broadcast TV for eight years now, I’ve learned firsthand that the now-rote notion of the “bastard producer” is grounded in cold, hard fact. Mind you, there are good and bad people in the field, just like any in life – what I’m getting at is that it takes a certain kind of person to produce (and produce well), and it seems that personality type is prone to… let’s try and be nice about it… precipitous emotions. At the center of Pål Øie’s pitched, spooky hi-def shocker VILLMARK (DARK WOODS) is a bastard producer for the books, Gunnar (Bjørn Floberg, of recent ScreenAnarchy fave UNO). Hauling a crew of top-flight young media professionals out to an old cabin (where he spent much of his unhappy youth) to prepare for a survivalist reality program, Gunnar pulls strings and plays games with near-sadistic panache until something else lurking in the woods begins one-upping his brutality.
Childhood buds Lasse and Per (Kristoffer Joner and Marko Iversen Kanic), former Gunnar flame Elin (Eva Röse), and fellow broadcaster Sara (Sampda Sharma) are teamed by Gunnar to help fashion “Real TV,” wherein contestants will be forced to survive in the wilderness with minimal assistance. Cellphones, cigarettes, and all but a night’s worth of food are left in the parking lot as the group descends into the woods. If the cabin, drafty and home to some, uh, very “regular” rats, seems inhospitable, Gunnar’s treatment of the group is downright hostile. He bullies, alienates, and humiliates them one by one in the name of teambuilding over the course of the next few days (to say nothing of loudly attempting to chop down a massive tree that’s annoyed him since childhood, in the dead of night). When Lasse and Per find an abandoned campsite, they return to the cabin with canned goods and smokes. Gunnar forces them to return the stolen items and this time they find the body of young woman floating in a nearby lake. Gunnar convinces Per to keep things quiet but can’t reign in Lasse, who disappears. Later that night Lasse returns but someone begins harassing the group with increasing aggression, finally turning violent and sending the characters toward a deadly confrontation at the spectral campsite.
VILLMARK possesses a nicely-rendered sense of dread, eschewing low-frequency jump scares in favor of languid takes layered with amplified ambient sound (wind, the rippling of tent fabric). The film looks gorgeous to boot, with hi-def lensing on-par with any of its growing number of peers.
The cast (which with all said and done only numbers 12) all offer decent performances. Floberg and Joner and the standouts, fitting one supposes when you consider they have two of the meatier parts. Floberg in particular really impressed, switching Gunnar’s passive aggressive nature on and off with ease. He’s had a long career in Norwegian film, dating back to the mid-70s. I’m very keen to see him UNO.
If there are debits against the film, they lie with its narrative – particularly with its resolution. Director Øie and writer Christopher Grøndahl seem to have in mind slight skewering on TV-type personalities over programming itself, which is actually refreshing. When it comes to advancing the “thriller” aspects of the plot, things continue to excel. Where the film breaks down is its end, which stands as perhaps too ambivalent. It suggests an almost-supernatural aspect that, heretofore, hadn’t existed. It’s a chilly coda to be sure, but too slight. It’s worth noting that on the DVD of the film I viewed (the Danish release, under the title VILDMARK) there was an alternate ending which actually offers more information and, at least in my mind, was more effective.
Speaking of Scanbox’s DVD release, it’s pretty much aces – great picture and sound, the afore-mentioned alternate ending, a music video, and two short films by the director. STOPP, a 10 minute piece Øie completed in 2001, is a beautifully composed and near-silent horror story very much worth checking out. The Scanbox release appears to be the only English-subbed version of the film available.
VILLMARK seems to have slipped under the radar of most fans, though it did come around what could be considered the tipping point for the growing interest in modern Scandinavian film (2003). It’s not the most substantial thriller out of the pipeline in recent years, but does almost all it sets out to in striking and efficient fashion and features a great performance from Floberg. Øie hasn’t released anything since, but with such an accomplished eye you’d have to believe we haven’t seen the last of him. His first feature ultimately stands as something of a lark, but in all a very enjoyable one.
Review by Collin Armstrong.