A Rena Branca

I recently watched the Finnish film 🇫🇮 The White Reindeer (1952) on Shudder. The storyline follows a woman living in an isolated village on the snowy plains of Finland who, after a mystical encounter involving a reindeer, is cursed with a vampiric affliction and begins a haunting killing spree.

The film is directed by Erik Blomberg (Kihlaus) and stars Mirjami Kuosmanen (Puck), Åke Lindman (The Unknown Soldier), and Aarne Tarkas (The Wild North).

I really enjoyed this movie for what it was-and what the filmmakers were able to accomplish with the resources they had. At its core, it's a folkloric tale, and the snow-covered landscape and mountainous backdrop give it an eerie, mysterious atmosphere. The film does a great job portraying the way of life and attitudes toward nature in this remote community, setting up the story's strange events with authenticity and depth.

The acting, costumes, and settings all feel impressively genuine, drawing you into the film's unique world. The cultural depiction was compelling, and there's even a wild reindeer-wrestling scene that was a standout.

The story itself is a refreshingly unique take on the vampire mythos-unlike anything I've seen before. I especially loved the dramatic, haunting score. While the horror elements are mostly conveyed through cutaways, they work well against the stark black-and-white visuals. The ending isn't quite as dramatic as the build-up, but it still lands well.

In conclusion, The White Reindeer is a well-crafted Finnish folk-horror film that tells its story effectively within the context of its era. I'd give it a 6-6.5/10 and recommend it-with the right expectations-for fans of atmospheric, culturally rooted horror.

Mirjami Kuosmanen (Pirita) is a witch who marries reindeer-herder Kalervo Nissila (Aslak) in a Sami community in Lapland. Nissila is often absent and Kuosmanen gets lonely. After visiting a shaman, she goes through a ritual that will make her more attractive to her husband as well as to every other herdsman. However, she is already a witch and the combination of these events allows her to shapeshift into a white reindeer every night, where she lures men to follow her. Not a good move for any herdsmen who take up the chase....

This film has an interesting setting in the bleak snow forest in Finland amongst an indigenous community. We get a cool genre of film following the story of a vampire shapeshifting witch who wants love but is also deadly. Kuosmanen is good in the lead role and has the perfect look for the witch, especially when she is being evil.

If you come across a white reindeer, do not follow it!

In fact, there are loads of bad white things. If you come across white chocolate, do not eat it as it contains zero chocolate. The Ku Klux Clan dressed in white and Essex girls wear white stilletos.

Be careful what you wish for is the moral of this captivating 1952 fantasy horror (a rare genre movie from Finland), and perhaps the world's only example of Sami gothic cinema. A newly-married young woman, Pirita (Mirjami Kuosmanen), desperate for affection, visits a shaman who offers a potion that makes her an irresistible object of desire, but there is a terrible cost. Pirita becomes a bloodthirsty shapeshifter who lures men out into the barren wilderness where she kills them. It was the directorial debut of Finnish cinematographer Erik Blomberg, and was filmed amongst the starkly beautiful fells of Finnish Lapland. Blomberg combines an almost documentary filming style with avant-garde experimentation to produce a dreamy art-house horror film without compare, and it remains one of world cinema's criminally under-seen masterpieces. The film was entered in competition at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival and earned the Jean Cocteau-led jury special award for Best Fairy Tale Film. After its limited release five years later in the United States, it was one of five films to win the 1956 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film.

I recently got a chance to see this on the big screen and it is definitely a special film. Filmed in Lapland, nearly everyone moves about in this film on skis or reindeer-drawn toboggan. The lonely snow-covered landscapes lightly dotted with trees, humans, and curving herds of reindeer look beautiful in black and white. The film capitalizes on the mythic and mystic nature of the landscape and the land--The Land of the Midnight Sun. What a perfect setting for a film about love, loneliness, fears of abandonment, and, of course, vampires. The horror is a subtle one and even now barely verges on the campy (thanks to the uniqueness of its setting). The strange shots of the sun hovering on the horizon and of reindeer stampeding across the snow only enhance this bizarre tale. The main actress is quite stunning and plays the balance of her role well. A definite treat for fans of foreign or horror films.

This film is quite unique in Finnish movie history. And it also has been filmed during a period when old Lapland and some real Lapp culture could be found from Northern Finland. Not that everything is authentic, but anyway this film combines nostalgia with fantasy and even horror and treats the Lapp culture with at least some respect. And landscapes are definitely worth seeing! Hmmm... the only film I know where a human being gets transferred into reindeer! One should be careful where to look at!