Thale

If you have read anything about the film, including the title of this review, or have seen any trailer, then you already know what the story is about. The film is quiet, haunting and has a quality of foreboding which is quite alluring. It is hardly a horror movie and I could only place it in the fantasy genre.

The plot revolves around huldra, seductive creatures from Nordic folklore that seem to be very beautiful women, but are actually forest creatures. As such, the choice of Silje Reinåmo was very wise; she is very pretty. The film feels almost like a filmed play. After all, there are only four actors in total and a voice.

Even if the lead character is supposedly the one driving the story, the movie being seen from his perspective, the one that really made the film feel real and interesting was, in acting and role, his friend, interpreted by Jon Sigve Skard. A phlegmatic character, he underlines the weirdness of the situation by acting totally cool, creating the appropriate contrast.

Over all it was a nice film, although the entirety of it was pretty much about the same thing and something that was already obvious from the beginning. The feel and the fairytale root of the movie are what makes it worth watching. Some people might get bored by it or enjoy its atmosphere, as I did.

After seeing the first teaser of Thale I wasn't expecting very much of this Norwegian low budget film which is a mix of the genres crime, drama, gore and adventure. The more I got surprised by seeing the film at the cinema.

'Thale' is based on a mythical character in Norwegian folklore called 'Huldra'. A hulder is a beautiful young woman living in water in the dark woods, louring men into the water with them, getting attention with their heavenly singing. This folklore came from warning kids to stay away from waters, back in the ancient times. A hulder looks just like a woman, except you tell it's a hulder by her tail.

The film opens with some rather disgusting scenes, really preparing you on something the film isn't - gory. Two crime scene washers comes to a cottage out in the deep woods. It's a long time since I've seen such a start of a film involving blood, stiff body and puking. But the film soon changes more into a thriller when the two men find i cellar looking like a serial killers office. Then they discover Thale...

It's easy to see that this film is low budget, but there's much talent here. Silje Reinåmo (Thale) is very good, and the CGI is handled well. Norwegian folklore suits CGI great. With more work on the script, this could easily have been a classic like "TrollHunter".

Far from perfect, but I'll give a 6/10 for the talent and the difference. I'd like to see more on a larger budget and a more thorough script.

It is safe to assume that Elvis and Leo do a job that few people could stomach. They clean up crime scenes. After the bodies have been removed, they clean up the pools of blood and bits of human remains that litter the scene. It's not a pleasant job but somebody's got to do it. Decked out in masks and bright yellow hazmat suits, they go about their business, picking up the pieces of someone else's inhumanity against his fellow man.

From the first moment, it becomes clear that Leo (Jon Sigve Skard) is easily equipped to handle this. Elvis (Erlend Nervold), who vomits profusely into a nearby bucket, seems less so. From this unappetizing scene, we get the feeling that Thale will be a movie about what these guys do for a living. Indeed, following their day to day routine might have been fascinating, but admittedly hard to stomach. Yet, we soon find that we're wrong. Thale is an odd, mysterious and somewhat beguiling supernatural thriller from Norway that is built on mood and atmosphere and suspense made up of things that we learn along the way. It is a relief to find a movie this quiet and moody when so many thrillers fall back on the standard of jack-in-the-box terror.

In a series of creepy images banded with effectively melancholy music, the next scene reveals quick-cut elements that we only understand later. Leo and Elvis find that their next job is to clean up a crime scene that reminds us, uncomfortably, of Buffalo Bill's lair in The Silence of the Lambs. Waiting for a professional team to show up, Elvis begins to poke around. Something in the way this house is laid out seems to be more than meets the eye. Leo urges him not to go snooping around, but Elvis' natural curiosity gets the better of him. A small cold filthy room reveals jars of liquids, strings of dim lights and a bathtub filled with milky water invites investigation, though a more cautious individual might have not have proceeded any further.

From this point, I may discuss certain plot points. So if you want to see the movie cold, you may want to stop here.

What he discovers isn't all that unusual. Beneath the milky water is a naked girl who seems to have been there for some time. She is alive, but terrified. She doesn't speak, but an old tape recorder reveals that her name is Thale (Silje Reinåmo). What Elvis comes to understand is that she is more than a victim. This room is more than a torture chamber, and her reasons for being in this location reveal that she is possibly not suppose to exist. Neither, by the way, is whatever is skulking around outside.

It would be cruel to reveal what happens next, but safe to say it isn't what we expect. This isn't one of those movie with screaming victims and cheapo shocks. It is the kind of movie where the thrills come from what the characters discover for themselves. Elvis and Leo have stumbled upon something that is possibly bigger than both of them. Holed up in that room with Thale, something else manifests itself, something else that isn't suppose to exist.

What is even more interesting is what we learn about Elvis and Leo along the way. In just a few tiny passages of dialogue, Elvis and Leo become full-blooded people, not just pawns to be chased around by a boogeyman. It is curious to see a supernatural thriller like this that takes a few seconds to give its characters a bit of dimension. They aren't fully-realizes souls but they have lives that we can imagine exist apart from their predicament.

Having recently sat through the halfwit (not to mention boring) nonsense of Fede Alvarez's remake of Evil Dead, this movie comes as a breath of fresh air. While it isn't a perfect film, Thale exudes a measure of tension and grounds its story in reality before revealing the supernatural forces that are present. This is the kind of movie that builds slowly, giving us time to discover things. It has the patience to reveal the story as it unfolds rather than explain everything all at once and then march us to an inevitable conclusion. It may not be to every taste. It moves slowly and has long passages where we wait for something to happen, but given the sad state of most other films in this genre, we welcome the chance to discover things for ourselves.

***1/2 (of four)

If you enjoy dark fantasy or brooding and atmospheric horror films, then this supernatural tale will be well worth your time. Leo and Elvis may not be the most engaging characters, but they are believable, and you don't find yourself cheering for their demise as so often in horror flicks in which the protagonists are anything but worth your empathy and time. Thale steals the show--Silje Reinåmo owns her role as a mysterious woman held captive; she conveys more by not uttering a word than any of the other characters do--and I doubt that the English subtitles did the dialog much injustice. The mystery of how and why she has been hidden from society is revealed gradually and tantalizingly--fortunately, the bulk of the film concerns this development, and it is nothing but great storytelling. The beginning and end do drag on at times, as is the case with many films that would be excellent at 45-50 minutes but feel the need to plod on for 90 minutes or more. I'm looking forward to Aleksander Nordaas' next offering.

Who'd imagine there are so many word-plays with this? I actually could Thale. Seriously though and maybe in the vain of some of the strange humor that can be found in this: The story is more of a myth or something you could imagine being told as good night story (or rather at a campfire come to think of it).

It starts of normal and easy enough but veers into strange territory pretty fast. Which of course has to do with the short running time. It's a good thing the movie is not really long, trying to stretch a really good idea. There are some flaws after the initial realization of what's happening, but the overall mood of the film is consistent and it's surely not something you have witnessed in many movies. Kudos to the filmmakers.