Draug

The historical authenticity they gave this film was great and lent a hand in shaping the horror. The actors were well chosen and I enjoyed their characters. The special effects were not AAA but it got the point across and was done in such a way you would have to really scrutinize scenes to notice. So watch this film and enjoy a good time period horror movie.

It is the story of an area in 11th century Sweden which had been converted to christianity and where some local folks had been too hard on some of the pagan remnants. When a missionary disappears in this forested area, a village deputy gets a "posse" together to go onto the forest to retrieve him and his companions. The searchers are attacked by bandits at the edge of the forest and then, as they get further in, they are attacked by something else. These are the Draug.

As a historical movie it is very accurate; nothing anachronistic to distract in the dialogue, costuming, or sets. The acting was very good and the scenery was exceptional. Both used to advantage in telling a spooky story based on Norse mythical creatures. We loved it

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.

Although I got the impression the budget may have been tight, the makers of this film got everything out of it. The atmosphere of the forest was dark and the sense of foreboding it lent went along way towards making the movies low budget work well. The acting was good and the fact I knew none of them seemed to make it better. I was happy to stumble upon this film and would recommend it as a good watch if you like horror/supernatural films.

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