Draug

I LOVE Nordic films that deal with actual lore. Doesn't matter whether it's Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic...I enjoy them all. Especially when they're in the native language. I won't offer a synopsis, as the summary tells you what you need to know.

The positive:

• some really beautiful scenery, as nearly the entire film takes place in some pretty remote, wooded areas
• interesting story. Certainly nothing prophetic, but falls in line with historical dealings
• some interesting sound fx and scoring (see negatives)
• film quality and sound were pretty darn good considering

The negatives:

• the acting is only "okay." There are several parts when it is questionable at best, which affects believability, flow of the film, and overall character personae.
• the special effects are not good. While there is not a ton of blood, CGI is used for the majority of larger wounds or battle pieces, and it's just not good.
• one of the believability issues I overlooked the least was the costuming. Every single person wore clothes that not only had NO DIRT or stains, but appeared brand new. Even the travelers. It goes without saying that living the 11th century, especially in areas that were not yet developed in to cities, was extremely dirty. These people walked around with brand new looking colorful clothes & leather, brushed hair, visible makeup, and perfectly white teeth. This problem is not unique to the film, but really stuck out, and for some reason really bothered me.
• overall production of the film. As mentioned, there is some stunning scenery, but the direction and acting was inconsistent and lacked a cohesive flow. Use of filters was actually a bit overused for my taste. It's standard fare for many Nordic or Scandanavian films to be shot using dark or bleak filters, and often times really adds to the ambience of the project. This is also true with the Draug, but at times it felt overused and saturated.
• the music and sound Fx were not consistent. At times it was not bad, but at other times it was flat-out annoying. It's actually difficult to refer to the accompaniment as a "score," as there is no thematic music, but only a series of sounds assembled in a way that has musical qualities. Otherwise, it's just a mishmash of orchestrated sounds in order to provide tension. It's not until the very end that actual melody is heard. I'm fine with no musical score, but sometimes it got plain annoying.
• there is very little violence, no real gore of any kind, and limited intense scenes. If it wasn't one thematic element being present (that of "zombies") I wouldn't call this a horror movie at all.
• the ending

I dunno...I wanted to like this sooooooo bad, but it just didn't happen. Like I said initially, it's not a terrible film, but it lacks significantly in nearly every aspect. I probably would NOT recommend watching it unless you are a) Swedish & in to dark movies (both in color and thematic material), and b) dying to watch a Swedish movie.

I'll admit that I'm not sharpest knife in the cutlery draw but, then again, I'm not exactly stupid either. That being said, I was lost when the end to this film eventually came into view. I think it was the last 20-30 minutes where I started to realise that I had very little idea of what exactly was going on. I'm still wondering now.

The locations are suitably bleak and moody and the acting was good. The film was a mystery tour, I enjoyed the journey, but I have no idea where it was we ended up.

The Good: The plot is fairly straightforward and makes for good horror/mystery.

Sets and surroundings are very good. The use of Swedish summer wilderness saves a lot of money and provides a suitable mood.

FX are servicable, but only barely so.

The Bad: Suffers from a lot of problems with pacing The use of filters to simulate night time/darkness is a bit overdone.

The actors tend to overact, as is often the case with Swedish actors in my experience.

A little bit more exposition would have made things easier to follow.

Summary: All in all it is, as is so often the case with low-budget productions, a film of unused potential.

Still, the effort was valiant and the choice of topics was comparatively inventive.

Expect no masterpiece because this is not it. Nonetheless, if you're into (late) viking era stuff and horror and norse mythlogy, it can provide you with some entertainment.

Anything that can be tagged with a Vikings label, will be tagged as a Vikings inspired movie. The tv show had a lot to do with that. But this is more mystical, rather than anything else. You have a group of people, who have the strangest encounter ... and one that is not from this world.

Not that the group does recognize that danger. Rather denies it partially to say the least. But for a low budget movie, the effects are good, the costumes are fine and the acting is good too. This may not be enough to make you happy, but for anyone who loves a movie with a few flaws that tries to go above and beyond with some mythical and mystical notions ... this will be enough

As a huge fan of Scandanavian lore, I really enjoyed this film.