Thale (2012), adding another small victory for Scandinavian fantasy/horror fans

MY CALL:  This movie was pretty “neat” but ultimately lacked the impressive storytelling (of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale), character development (of Let The Right One In) or creature-based intrigue (of Troll Hunter) of other genre-fan-acclaimed Scandinavian favorites.  If you like any of these other movies then you’ll probably find Thale‘s allure to be irresistible.  Just set your expectations appropriately for more of a good idea presented as a single-serving; almost an extended one-act augmented by flavorful flashbacks.  IF YOU LIKE THIS THEN WATCH:  Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010), Let The Right One In (2008; remade as Let Me in (2010) stateside) and Troll Hunter (2010) are three more Scandinavian approaches to folklore taken seriously in modern settings.  Way out of left field, but Deadgirl (2008) has an oddly similar and impressive female role.  PRODUCT NOTE:  I bought the DVD/BluRay combo and the English dubbing was not very good, smacking of the wooden English voiceovers of Anime.

Leo (Jon Sigve Skard) and Elvis (Erlend Nervold) run “No Shit Cleaning Service.”  They are basically a dead body clean-up crew and Leo is much more strong-stomached than his queasy partner.  On one of their jobs disposing of a dead man they come across an underground dwelling that looks like a mix of a science lab and a bomb shelter complete with weird recordings as if made by a researcher on his stenograph.  While exploring this “lab” they find a strange, mute, naked woman (Silje Reinåmo; Bak lukkede dører) hiding in a bathtub.

The recordings reveal that she is “Thale”, that she has been down there for decades without food, and that there are others like her and that they want her–or something from her.  Thale possesses preternatural strength and the gift of ESP/Telepathy, which she uses to communicate to Elvis why she was being kept down in that bunker.

As Leo and Elvis try to figure out exactly who (or even what) Thale is, their stay in the bunker becomes a fight for survival against “something or someone.”  Meanwhile, we gradually learn more about Thale, her origin and those who seek her.

Much to my surprise, Silje Reinåmo spends a lot of this movie at least partially naked, portraying the serious and challenging role of a creature that doesn’t speak but is filled with fear and curiosity.  She communicates a powerful range of emotions with her physical demeanor, facial expressions, and especially her eyes.  She does a fantastic job with her almost alien expressions and movements that resemble a feral, animalistic early adolescence.  This role reminds me of Jenny Spain‘s starring role in Deadgirl (2008), during which Spain faced even more challenging and limiting restrictions.

Another shock was decent creature effects.  It was all CGI, but done well (except for the action, when the quality degenerated).  This struck me as a lower mid-budget film, so I forgave that.

This movie was pretty “neat” but ultimately lacked the impressive storytelling (of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale), character development (of Let The Right One In) or creature-based intrigue (of Troll Hunter) of other genre fan-acclaimed Scandinavian favorites.  If you like any of these other movies then you’ll probably find Thale‘s allure to be irresistible.  Just set your expectations appropriately for more of a good idea presented as a single-serving; almost an extended one-act augmented by flavorful flashbacks.

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Silje Reinåmo as Thale, our resident Huldra.

A look at the mythology behind Thale… This section was written before I saw the movie and, thus, contains no direct spoilers. According to an online source the title Thale is pronounced as “tail” (but with a “th” in the movie) and, in Norwegian, means “of noble disposition,” in this case referring to the different species that the huldra represents. Clever. The story from the folklore is called “Huldra.” A hulder/huldra is a woman with a cow tail who lives in the woods.  Hulders wait to encounter woodsmen, seduce them with their terrestrial siren song, and presumably kill them as the woodsmen never return to their village.  I wonder how deep into the movie our boys will figure this out…or will it even be a factor in the movie?

Nope.  He didn’t figure it out yet.

There are variations on the mythology.  In some stories the huldra lures men into the forest for sexual encounters, rewarding the satisfactory men and killing the poor performers. In other stories they kidnap men or lure them to the underworld.  Other accounts involve stealing newborns and replacing them with their own ugly “huldra-born” children, forced marriages with humans, hybrid offspring, and even happily ever afters with Christian men.  There are even different physical forms, or species or races (?), of huldras.

After my online research and before seeing this movie, I was expecting a more “horrific” angle of this mythology than even the trailer suggested; perhaps a beautiful creature with a dangerous appetite.  Some of the images and clips floating around the internet of a (??perhaps “transformed”?? ) huldra almost remind me of Species.