Main cast: Elli Müller Osborne (Thale Berg), Liv Mjönes (Liv Berg), Arthur Hakalahti (William Nordvaag), Mia Fosshaug Laubacher (Jenny Berg), Vidar Magnussen (Arthur Berg), Sjur Vatne Brean (Jonas Larson), Øyvind Brandtzæg (Eilert Sundas), and Ståle Bjørnhaug (Lars Brodin)
Director: Stig Svendsen

Ooh, Viking Wolf? That’s the English title for Vikingulven, a Norwegian werewolf flick, and I am sure in the mood for hot bearded Vikings getting brutally eviscerated by a werewolf.

Alas, after the opening scene, the hot Vikings go away and what I get instead of a movie set in present day that doesn’t know whether it wants to be Norway’s answer to Ginger Snaps or a more conventional kick-ass heroine versus the hairy beast affair. 

The Bergs relocate to Nybo, a small town, because Liv, a cop, is assigned to this place. Her daughter, Thale, is the predictable surly and rebellious teen that blames Liv for the death of her father. Thale doesn’t get along with Arthur, her stepfather, and she’s only okay with her younger sister Jenny, who is deaf and hence earmarked for the “hapless victim in distress that will do something surprising to save everyone else at the climactic moment” role because if there is one thing this movie is not lacking in, it’s stereotypical characters. 

Seriously, everyone here is so much of an archetype that any horror fan that has been around can immediately and correctly place these characters’ roles in the overarching plot.  

Anyway, Thale is attacked by a wolf while partying with Jonas, the boy she has an crush on, and while Liv is trying to sort out who or what attacked these kids and killed one of them, our surly teenage girl starts getting the hairy paw episodes. 

Meanwhile, a werewolf hunter rolls into town, but will anyone believe him when he starts yammering about a werewolf loose in Nybo?

Okay, first things first. I appreciate that this movie tries, but perhaps because of budgetary reasons, there is no graphic werewolf transformation scene. This is likely for the best, as the werewolves in this movie look a little too much like budget CGI. 

There is no explicit gore either, again perhaps due to budget reasons. Once more, I don’t believe that this is necessarily a bad thing, as looking at the wolves, I doubt these people could afford decent CGI or practical effects for the gore even if they wanted to.

Now, as I’ve mentioned, the characters are all stereotypes and one can predict right down to whether these characters will live or die, what they do when they get a scene of their own, and how so-called experts will either be unprepared or do stupid things when their lives are on the line.

However, the movie cobbles together these stereotypical characters and familiar plot elements in a way that is still entertaining. The pacing is fine, and while I can’t care less for Thale, I do feel a twinge of sympathy for Liv, who is trying hard to keep her family together and just do a good job as a cop, only to experience non-stop tragedy after tragedy, the poor darling.

Still, the lack of surprises or even anything that feels fresh or memorable here means that this one is a pretty bland and even boring movie for a veteran of werewolf flicks. It’s not an entirely bad movie, yes, but it’s also full of characters and elements that had been done better in other werewolf movies. It should have tried a little harder to stand out from instead of just blending into the crowd.