I imagined Norse lycanthropes plundering and raiding their way up and down the coast when I first saw the title Viking Wolf, or Vikingulven in its native Norwegian. Sadly, that's not what it's about, though the story does start with a prologue that, for some reason, is shot like a silent movie and depicts a raiding party led by Grim Gudbrand storming an abbey.
The monks forbid them from entering a locked room, thinking it to be full of treasure, only to break down the door and discover a snarling, red-eyed wolf cub inside. Of course, they take it with them, and by the time their longship arrives back at home, it is the only thing still alive there. The little hellhound jumps off the boat and vanishes into the forest.
The same woods that seventeen-year-old Thale (Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne, , Kosmos) has been invited to party in by her friend Jonas Brean, Delete Me, Three Wishes for Cinderella). The party comes to an end with Elin (, The Painting), the mayor's daughter, missing and Thale and Jonas hurt by some kind of animalBeyond the prologue, Viking Wolf's setup isn't given much thought by director Stig Svendsen (Elevator, King's Bay) and co-writer Espen Aukan (Troll, Baby Boom). Thale has recently relocated to Nybo and doesn't have many friends. Since her father passed away and her mother married Arthur (Vidar Magnussen, Post Mortem: No One Dies in , The Wendy Effect), her relationship with policewoman mother Liv ( , Eva and Adam) has been strained. She gets along well with her younger sister Jenny (Mia Fosshaug ), who uses sign language to communicate because she is deaf.
When more people start dying, Thale would make the ideal suspect if she had a history that raised suspicions. Oh, she has one, I see. With the arrival of William (Arthur Mortal, The King's Choice), a wolf expert, and Lars (, The Last Place on Earth, Psychedelica Blues), a self-declared werewolf expert, Viking Wolf stays on its well-worn path. Although a creature is killed, the killings and other crimes continue..With frequent shots of the Norwegian landscape, everything just sort of plods along. Everything is incredibly slow-moving and tedious. I was already becoming disinterested by the time the script began to directly parody An American Werewolf in London. The fact that the actual attacks are hidden from view makes the creature's assault on the police hunting party boring. The film deflates what should have been its major set pieces, leaving only a quick attack at the end to generate any excitement. To make matters worse, a later attack on a bus is abruptly cut away from.
The creature is also not very impressive, resembling a very big, very ugly, and very obviously CGI wolf. Finally, transformation effects are only seen briefly, for about 30 seconds, to complete the cycle of disappointment.Viking Wolf is a major letdown, especially given how excellent Aukan's script for Troll was. Although it's possible that the choice of how to handle the attack scenes was made after the script had already been written, the lack of character development is a different story. The building blocks for that twist are all laid out, but for the remainder of the movie, they are largely ignored. As a result, the movie's attempts at an emotional climax are unsuccessful because we have no interest in any of the characters and aren't persuaded of their relationship.
Viking Wolf had the potential to be entertaining, but it constantly undercuts itself by forgoing violence and thrills in favor of characterization and emotion that the plot ultimately falls short on delivering. A few of the movie's scenes are good, but they aren't worth watching the rest of it for.
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