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Rovdyr (2008)

Director:
Patrik Syversen
COUNTRY
Norway
GENRE
Horror
INTERNATIONAL TITLE
Backwoods
RUNNING TIME
78 minutes
Producer:
Torleif Hauge
Screenwriter:
Nini Bull Robsahm
Patrik Syversen


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Camilla Henriette Bruusgaard ½
Jørgen Jørn Bjørn Fuller Gee
Roger Lasse Valdal
Mia Nini Bull Robsahm ½
Jenta Kristina Leganger Aaserud
Renate Janne Beate Bønes
Kvinnen Jorunn Kjellsby

 

Review

This Norwegian classicist slasher is technically ambitious and accomplished but thematically flat and ignorant. First-time feature director Patrik Syversen has an exclusively nostalgic impetus as we re-acquaint ourselves with all the well-known elements of 1970s horror: the Volkswagen bus, young girls with tight summer shorts, local lowbrow hillbillies and dense forests. We even get a Citroën DS Pallas, just for good measure. That the premise and plot need little introduction is fair enough, but that Syversen induces and accepts no questions makes it hard for him to make his one-note film interesting on anything but a completely superficial level. A couple of spine-wrenching scenes early on suggests the kind of ruthless, ugly horror which would have made Rovdyr a harrowing experience - even in all its unoriginality. However, as Syversen gets his gameplan stuck in the forest with repetitive incidents and characters, and without explanations or dialogue, the effect becomes purely academic.

Copyright © 11.5.2008 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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