Rovdyr (2008)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Camilla	Henriette Bruusgaard	½
Jørgen	Jørn Bjørn Fuller Gee
Roger	Lasse Valdal
Mia	Nini Bull Robsahm	½
Jenta	Kristina Leganger Aaserud
Renate	Janne Beate Bønes
Kvinnen	Jorunn Kjellsby

Review

This Norwegian classicist slasher is technically ambitious and accomplished but thematically flat and ignorant. First-time feature director Patrik Syversen has a exclusively nostalgic impetus as we re-acquaint ourselves with all the well-known elements of 1970s horror: the Volkswagen bus, young girls with tight summer shorts, local lowbrow hillbillies and dense forests. We even get a Citroën DS Pallas, just for good measure. That the premise and plot need little introduction is fair enough, but that Syversen induces and accepts no questions makes it hard for him to make his one-note film interesting on anything but a completely superficial level. A couple of spine-wrenching scenes early on suggests the kind of ruthless, ugly horror which would have made Rovdyr a harrowing experience - even in all its unoriginality. However, as Syversen gets his gameplan stuck in the forest with repetitive incidents and characters, and without explanations or dialogue, the effect becomes purely academic.