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Those looking for a typical slasher film need look elsewhere. This is a horror/thriller that takes it time to catch you off guard.

Kai (Kristoffer Joner) inherits a house after his mother's death. It is pretty decrepit. Perfect for a horror film. In it he finds a lot more than he bargained for. Me? I would have been outta there in 5 minutes! KK (Joner) is dealing with memories and replays from a past that holds secrets. Secrets about the abuse he suffered as a child, and secrets about things he did.

It takes place not only in the house, but also in the woods, which really adds atmosphere.

It is nice to see horror films that pace themselves and use startling effects and heavy atmosphere to thrill you instead of over-the-top Hollywood effects. Horror is becoming the domain of the Europeans, while Hollywood engages in torture porn.

I expected to like this movie since I liked the movie "Villmark" by the same director, but sadly no. The main actor, the filming, the music and sound was good, but: The script was a mess, with people behaving and speaking illogicaly (not just horror-movie-illogicaly like "let's-go-into-the-dark-woods-to-look-for-our-missing-friends-despite-the-serial-killer-illogical), but unnatural in the contexts of the scene the characters are in the movie. The main character does things several times during the movie that in the real world would have gotten him arrested, but he is never arrested, his action seems at times to have no reason since they are rarely explained in the movie making the viewer have to guess time after time, the clues about what have happened and what is happening jumps back and forth between mystery/horror/occult/crime making the movie more confusing and messy than scary/thrilling. And people in this movie are EXTREMELY good at finding Kai Koss, even in the middle of the dark woods, while they at the same time seem to be unable to find the tip of their own nosees during daylight...

Skjult is an above average horror movie. The cinematography is just excellent especially for a horror movie. There are enough scares throughout to keep you firmly in your seat.

But is does follow the standard plot of a horror movie. A mystery, a lot of scares and then a big reveal in the end. But the pacing is quite good throughout. And the big reveal doesn't feels anticlimactic like it does in so many horror movies.

Technically the movie is very slick. Everybody has done a good job in acting but nothing really special. Overall a very satisfying horror movie.

Another horror/suspense Norwegian movie. Pretty much the opening sequence shows you events that make you think you have this movie all figured out, and believe me, you will be wrong. Skjult starts slowly and patiently evolving onto a dark, minimalist, very climatic film, which takes you in a descending ride to the characters' pasts and nightmares. And it all gets darker and wronger with every minute, and it's all bad, the story, the main character, his mother, his past and his present. Thumbs up to a very nice entertaining surprise. Finally when it has to resolve, (where many horror movies tend to slip), it resolves being consequent and sustaining the same atmosphere that has been developed throughout the entire film to wrap up a strong offer from northern Europe.

The movie begins pretty strong and has a strong visual sense throughout. Problem is, that the plot cannot hold the movie together as tight as it thinks it can (or should for that matter). The actors are good in a thriller of this kind. Still struggling to find the fine line of portraying their dilemmas is not really something that will work for most people.

Apart from that, if you have seen a few movies you won't be really surprised where the movie is heading. And other movies have gone that way better before. Still a decent effort if not a really good movie, at least with a nice scenery and cinematography in general