Five Norwegians head for a cabin in the wilderness for a few days of teambuilding. But strange things start happening — especially down by the water where they find an abandoned tent. Is there someone else?
Dark Woods - Die Tote am See, DARK WOODS - Alptraum in der Wildnis, Dark Woods - La foresta misteriosa, Die Tote am See, Bosque tenebroso, Floresta das Sombras, Vildmark, 黑暗的森林, Тёмный лес, Karanlık Orman
France Cannes Film Festival 
Germany Hamburg Fantasy Filmfest 
Sweden Fantastisk Filmfestival Lund 
Denmark Fantastisk Filmfestival Copenhagen 
UK Leeds International Film Festival 
Singapore Nordic Film Festival 
Czechia Febio Film Festival 
Belgium Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival 
Netherlands Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival 
Italy Salerno Film Festival Germany16 
Norway15 Netherlands16 Belgium Czechia Denmark France Germany Italy Netherlands Norway Singapore Sweden UK 
Does Taron Egerton have a Norwegian dad? Gunnar looks a lot like him. Anyway, this is a solid, if not a little wonky, trapped-in-the woods horror film, but I don’t get why no one was very worried about the murders/deaths or other scary happenings. I also didn’t understand what the ending was supposed to indicate.
A decent horror mystery from Norway that unsettles and keeps you guessing until the very end. Perhaps it's because of the DVD quality but it's so crazy how much genuine dread and terror you can get out of this film. Relying heavily on its environment, it chokes you with its super eerie atmosphere. The threat is kept hidden for almost its entire runtime. You're not sure whether its supernatural or not because everything feels vague and that vagueness make this film thick with intrigue and uneasiness, which also evokes the frustrating and powerless feel you typically feel in nightmares. A solid film overall but I think it would be hard to watch it again though as it's super slow.
Det skumleste folk kunne tenke seg i 2003 var menn i kjole
City people aren't welcome in these woods.
Villmark doesn’t waste time getting you out there either. A small TV crew heads into the wilderness to “bond” before producing a survival reality show—no food,
no phones, no cigarettes. Just a decaying cabin, thick forest in every direction, and a leader who insists they push through no matter what.
It starts as forced team-building, awkward dynamics, people who barely know each other trying to play along. Then the cracks show. Control turns into stubbornness.
And when they stumble onto something they absolutely shouldn’t have, the whole setup shifts from exercise to trap.
“We found something... in the water.”
What really makes this work is how it builds dread out of almost nothing.…
Obscure backwood horror from Norway, although i couldnt understood what's happening throughout the film. Lol.
Hoop-Tober #28
When it comes to Norwegian movies, we usually say "its good, for a norwegian movie". Because there are so few movies made here that ever holds up to "international standards" for movies. The acting is mostly pretty bad, the movies dont look particularly good, the stories are seldom worthwhile. Norwegian movies generally arent good.
And this one is good, for a Norwegian movie.
Kristoffer Joner is one of the few actors we have, and he is one of the few few that i like. Even though he mostly does the same role in most of his movies, he works well on screen. The other cast isnt really worth commenting on.
What makes this worth watching, is the eerieness,…
Great atmospheric movie about four young adults being forced by their boss to do a team building camping trip, while all they want to do is fuck each other and go home.
I really liked the characters, although I felt like some backstory was missing (maybe it got lost in translation though - I did feel like sometimes the characters talked a little too much for a small line of subtitles)
Lasse looking like a wet, crying cat all the time 💔 give this man a cigarette, please
I have to be honest, watched this movie mainly because I wanted more context for Dark woods II, since Renate Reinsve is in it (the things I do for love lol), though it seems their only connection is the title and setting as well, but I'll know for sure later.
Anyways I actually enjoyed this, you know, nostalgic early 2000s horror vibes. The sense of dread and paranoia are present right from the start; and its slow pace, gloomy atmosphere, astonishing and overwhelming norwegian woods, and the sombre cinematography help setting the tone for the rest of the movie, when the creepy stuff starts unraveling.
Sometimes we need a horror flick to forget about everything else for a while, and this little one did the trick. Also I haven't seen many nordic horror movies but the ones I've seen are really good!
"There's something else out there."
I really hope I'm able to track down some other Norwegian slasher/horror movies because I always end up super impressed with the ones I see. This was no exception.
Going into this I expected a fun little woodsy slasher movie but this ended up being something rather hard to define. For most of the runtime all of the characters are alive navigating tense conversations and eerie surroundings. It isn't until the last 20 mins where someone actually dies and they are even killed off screen which is something I usually can't stand. But here it makes sense and I don't mind it. Some of that stems from my appreciation for the characters. I found myself…
"Never go up to that pond."
Alright backwoods horror thriller. It's atmospheric, tense, mysterious and entertaining.. and then this rather disappointing ending happened. Overall it's ok but could've been better.
A Little Backwoods Horror I'd recommend.
It's not found footage but it sure feels like one, with a really long first act, a bunch of faffing about in the woods a short little climax and then an awkward exposition dump before the credits. There's not really much here to latch onto and the atmospherics didn't engage me much either but I can kinda see some nice ideas in those last minutes, I just wish they'd paced them out better. Accordion jump scare though…
Hoop-Tober Film #28
Since I myself is Norwegian, It made sense for me to have at least one Norwegian film on my list. I haven't watched many of the Norwegian horror films, but haven't heard too much good about them.
This one was mediocre. It sort of looked like shit, but I guess it wasn't such a huge budget to it. The actors are well known faces in Norway, but some of them just didn't work out at all, the thing that works in this film is the mystery. Who is doing the killing? But it was just all around not that much fun, and it's not scary at all.
