Title: Thale
Directed by: Aleksander Nordaas
Starring: Silje Reinåmo, Erlend Nervold, Jon Sigve Skard
Running time: 76 minutes, Not Rated
Special Features: Trailer, English & Norwegian language tracks
Leo and Elvis are employed at a crime scene cleaning company and are called out to a house in the forest where they encounter several horrors of gory brutality until they discover a seemingly feral woman alive in a milky bathtub located in a decrepit basement. Elvis finds recordings from a man who had abducted the woman he calls “Thale,” whom had conducted abusive experiments on the woman since she was a child. While Elvis and Leo wait for the police, Thale approaches both men separately and reveals images of her true origin as a Huldra, a Norwegian creature of legend. Both of the men soon encounter other dangerous people who want Thale and will kill to find her.
I am thankful that the studio included an English language track, because the majority of the film relies on imagery, but the voice actors performances weren’t to my liking. The story was on the slow side, the creature effects were intriguing, but still kind of low-budgety. The constant vomiting from Elvis (Erlend Nervold), while comedic, did get redundant. The dry, almost non-chalant performance from Leo (Jon Sigve Skard) made him my favorite character out of this weird random story. I am satisfied with how his storyline resolved.
The positive: The visually compelling DVD cover. The vibrant colors and the mysterious, yet coquettish Silje Reinåmo as Thale will definitely grab viewers. The poster will eventually find it’s way onto college dorm walls.
The negative: The story is slow and feels incomplete. Not enough information was given on Thale’s kind and the kind of her “sisters” in the forest. Since this film is to be shown to those who aren’t fluent in Scandinavian folklore, not everybody is going to know their back-story unless they’re a scholar or mythology nerd.
Reviewed by JM Willis
Total Rating: C
