Main cast: Erlend Rødal Vikhagen (Erik), Benjamin Helstad (Otto), Harald Thompson Rosenstrøm (Georg), Mette Spjelkavik Enoksen (Monika), and Ingrid Jørgensen Dragland (Erik’s Mother)
Director: Atle Knudsen
The guy on the poster is hot, isn’t he? That’s Erik, the protagonist of Three Sick Brothers. He’s been recently released from a psychiatric ward, and he now opts to live in his own apartment. All seems find when his mother is with him, fussing over him and telling him that she’s stocked up the fridge and other things, but once she leaves, that’s when Erik’s brothers Otto and Georg show up… and trouble begins.
His two brothers brush aside Erik’s protests that he’s been told to avoid putting himself in stressful situations, and basically drag him to their late father’s cabin for an evening of reckless debauchery that turns dark and violent quickly, with the poor hitchhiker Monika that they pick up turning into the unwitting party game of Erik’s two clearly demented brothers.
While watching this one, my first impression is that Erlend Rødal Vikhagen is so pretty on the eyes. Wait, Harald Rosenstrøm is so pretty too. I don’t know whom I’d pick if I were to be forced at gunpoint to take one home. Can I just take the both of them?
My second impression is that I am really starting to like Bloodride, because Three Sick Brothers is an episode that resonates beautifully with me. At first Erik comes off a gentle, socially awkward, but harmless guy bullied by his cruel, clearly deranged brothers, but of course, nothing is as it seems at first. When everything is revealed, Erik becomes both a very sympathetic and very terrifying character, and the whole episode is a pretty disturbing look into the psyche of an emotionally damaged and mentally broken man.
Sure, there are some pretty blatant clues about the twist, upon watching the episode again, and yes, I admit to watching this one a few times because dang, Mr Vikhagen has a very attractive smile. Ahem. Nonetheless, this is one very well-acted, paced, and put-together episode that actually gets under my skin and makes me ache for the protagonist. Not many horror anthology shows do that these days, so I’m giving this one lots of love because of this.
One thing, though—the final scene. It really ruins all the gut wrenching impact the show has made up to that point, and for what? A gimmicky “gotcha” ending that serves no purpose, sigh. Sure, I get to see Mr Vikhagen smile again, but if I wanted to see that, I could have just watched the episode again. That scene really damages this episode significantly, although not enough to make me give this one the four-oogie rating it definitely deserves.
