The Runestone

The Runestone is one of those early 90's efforts that relied on lighting effects to disguise the dreadful creature. It's a really messy feature that gets by barely on its decent cast.

Telling the story of a man who makes a deal with a Runestone and becomes the Norse creature known as Fenrir which lore has it is a fierce wolf yet in this appears more yeti-like.

William Hickey and Peter Riegert put on their usual excellent performances and the latter some much needed comic relief. Remember that long blonde haired head henchman from the original Die-hard film? Well he hams it up here as well and is almost as bad as the creature itself.

Generally features of this type from this period I found entertaining but this is an absolute mess from start to the extremely poor finale.

The Good:

William Hickey

Peter Riegert

The Bad:

Poor plot

Fenrir looks pretty damn terrible

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Modern art is not subjective it's stupid and pretentious

Giant monsters can easily sneak into the backseat of your car while you're in it without you noticing

When will you Americans learn about the rest of the world ? What exactly is the "Norse" mythology ? You probably mean Norwegian mythology ? But that's not correct either ! What you really should talk about in this matter is Scandinavian mythology, and if you don't know what countries that Scandinavia consist of that's really a shame. But since I, am a nice guy I will tell you. Scandinavia consists of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland. And they all where (except Finland) what you in the rest of the world call "vikings" ! The fact that the "vikings" really didn't exist at all, at least not in the way that you probably think they did is another story all together

//Karl (from Sweden)

When I started watching this I thought it was going to be really boring and didn't pay much attention to what was going on. However, it seems that The Runestone is one of those films that improves as it goes on, because things seemed to pick up in the second half. The mystery surrounding the monster slowly sucks you in. The best scene is in the art museum, where a girl is doing some ironing (in a display box thingy) and people are watching her. Suddenly the monster bursts in and attacks her, and blood sprays across the windows. One of the people watching then says: "What's the artist trying to say?" to which another replies "Housework kills". The monster then bursts through the glass and attacks them too. This scene is priceless and definitely worth seeing the film for! There are a few other cool scenes after this which keep you watching. The acting is quite decent and better than most horror flicks.

Overall, The Runestone is worth a watch for horror fans who can tolerate a bit of cheese.

This one is a perfect example of 80's cinema squirming its way into 90's cinema. The story involves an architect whose unrequited love signs him a pact with the Norse demon Fenrir, who takes control of his body. Werewolfish Fenrir can only be destroyed by a Christopher Lambert-esque clock maker and a well-read teenage boy. David Newman's (Heathers, Frankenweenie) melodramatic score makes this movie stand up a notch above the rest. This one is a winner for fans of movies like Warlock and Bad Moon.

You know those movies with a cool idea and set up that should have been a lot better? This movie is one of them.

A mysterious runestone is discovered in Pennsylvania and taken to the city, where it turns out to have housed the Norse wolf Fenrir. Fenrir escapes and goes on a killing spree. It turns out that the ancient Viking explorers who arrived to America left Fenrir off inside the runestone (thanks, Nords!) and now that he's been unleashed, he's set to begin Ragnarok (aka, Nordic doomsday).

Again, it's a cool premise, and with an awesome soundtrack, decent acting, and capable directing, this film has promise. Unfortunately, the movie gets dumb, and it gets dumb quick. For one, I'd like to know how Fenrir intends to destroy the world when he seems to mostly just do random killing on the street (I've read a little on Ragnarok, and Fenrir's role is a LITTLE MORE involved than just going around killing thugs and homeless guys. Furthermore, it is established early that guns don't work on Fenrir. One character, a police detective, even figures this out from firsthand experience. Despite this, people seem to continually think that a bunch of guys armed with guns are able to fight Fenrir off. Nobody seems to stop and think, "Hey! Wait a minute! Guns don't work! Maybe we should look for SOMETHING ELSE to fight this beast with!" As a result, a lot of policemen needlessly die (and of course, nobody in the city or press ask why half the police force just went bye bye). It's a personal pet peeve of mine when characters don't seem to adjust accordingly, like any sane rational person would. Remember the "Prince of Space" episode of MST3K where Crow shouts to the characters, "YOUR WEAPONS HAVE NO AFFECT ON HIM!" That's how I felt near the end of this movie. I have to also admit that the monster design is a bit disappointing. No, I'm not bummed it wasn't CG. The monster suit itself is actually pretty impressive...however, I just feel like a powerful Nordic spirit would look a little different than a glorified werewolf.

There are also some unintentionally funny moments. For example, when the character of Martin attacks a girl, another character says, "Martin! What the h--- are you doing?!" to which Martin replies, "Martin is doing THIS!" and punches him. Then there's another scene where Fenrir puts on a police cap and kills a policeman while wearing it. Really?! The film lost all seriousness for me at that point. I seriously expected Abbot and Costello to appear on the scene after that.

Like I said before, the film had amazing potential. It started out really well for the first forty-five minutes or so, but then it starts to go downhill quick. There is plenty to commend this film for, but in the end it just doesn't work out.