Welcome to the party, Iceland! With so many films making slasher and zombie films over the last few decades, it's a wonder that it took the guys so long. When Greece has beaten you to the party (see 2005's Evil), something is wrong. Hell, the Dutch did it with The Sinful Dwarf long ago! So what is their big push into the market? It's...a Texas Chainsaw Massacre rip-off. As a bonus, it features the most famous guy from that film. What, you couldn't get Tobe Hooper to Produce it while you were at it?!? Essentially, a group of tourists end up in a bad situation and get attacked by some crazed, Icelandic whalers. It's a multi-ethnic cast, which could either be a good thing or a very bad thing. On one hand, it could show that they're being inclusive (ironic, given their sister country- Greenland!). On the other hand, they could just fill the movie with cliche stereotypes that offend everyone. Which one is it? Hide you Greenpeace signs as we try to dodge the...
The plot involves a group of tourists going on a whale watching tour. Before that, however, we get a cameo by an Icelandic rock band in a club. I don't know who they are, but I just thought that I should mention it. They go on the boat, but only after some drama about whether or not one of the women can get on the boat in time. SPOILER Alert: she does. Their Captain is Gunnar Hansen, a man so important that he gets above-the-title billing on the poster. His role involves...um, wearing a sweater. I'm sure that this gets better eventually...
The group consists of a group of random characters and racial/gender stereotypes. We've got a bickering Japanese couple, their subservient assistant, a trio of assertive, German women, our two Final Girls, a black dude and a French-ish guy. As a bonus, there are two workers on the boat. One of them decides to rape one of the Final Girls because...um, he likes empowerment, I guess. Unfortunately, an accident occurs and the Captain is indisposed. Say good-bye to the 'lead actor'- thirty minutes in! They get picked up by some people after a lot of random cutaways to people complaining about whaling restrictions and Greenpeace. This can't end badly can it? Oh wait...
Yeah, these people want you to die. It's all because you...um, exist and aren't whalers. How dare you!
Gee, he's swimming away. I wonder what's going to happen here...
After a lot of padding, wandering around and characters acting like assholes, just about everybody dies. I hope you don't like happy endings...or coherence. As a bonus, Orca shows up to...well, do nothing really. You give me a character who gets burned alive, but survives the rest of the movie...yet the whale is shot in a scene so dark that I can't tell what's going on? You'll probably not guess which of the main characters survives either. Here's a hint- she's a terrible person! The End.
It took you this long to make...this movie? The plot of the film is alright, but the pacing is a bit random. Screenplay 101 says that you set up the events of the plot in the first fifteen minutes. This film decides to take an entire half hour to do this. It is nearly an hour before they even get to the boat for the main sequence/draw of the film! It was clearly so important to have scenes like the girl being raped, the quasi-French guy being a moron and the German women being offended by the Japanese husband. The thing is that most of this is build-up that has no impact on the final product. The only one that actually matters is the Japanese husband and wife sub-plot & that just sort of ends abruptly. The appeal of this movie is the gore and the killing. In that regard, it is pretty strong. Mind you, you do wait a while to see any of it. It's a shame that this movie wasn't paced better or more consistent. As it is, I'm hesitant to recommend this to everyone. I know a lot of you will forgive the problems that I had with it (or chalk it up to 'setting up atmosphere'), so you may still like it. As it is, it's the only Icelandic slasher film that I'm aware of. That should count for something.
Next up, the French take their turn with their own TCM rip-off. It's like The Descent...but in reverse. Stay tuned...
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