Teenager Thale Berg has moved from Oslo to the small town of Nybo so that her mother Liv can take a position as deputy police chief. Thale sneaks out of the house to go partying with the cute guy Jonas. As Jonas is talking to another girl Elin, Thale is witness as both of them are abruptly attacked and their bodies dragged away. Thale is left wounded but all she can say afterwards is that it was some kind of animal. Liv is visited by Lars Brodin who tells her that what they are hunting is a werewolf and leaves her with some silver bullets. The police department set up a hunt for the wolf only to be attacked and the police chief killed. It is only Liv shooting the wolf with one of the silver bullets that kills it. With the creature dead, the menace is thought to be over but not long after there are other wolf attacks around town. Liv comes to the realisation that Thale was wounded in the attack and is now turning into a werewolf.
Viking Wolf was the fourth feature film for Stig Svendsen who first appeared with The Radio Pirates (2007) and then went to the US to make the horror film Elevator (2012), before returning to Norway for Kings Bay (2017). Co-writer Espen Aukan also wrote the Netflix hit of Troll (2022), which came out two months later the same year.
The werewolf film has a long screen history going back over a century to the silent era. I have a detailed essay on the genre here at Werewolf Films. The 1990s onwards have seen efforts made towards finding new variations and locales to tell such stories – everything from in a Western setting in Mad at the Moon (1992), a retirement home in Late Phases (2014) to among Roman centurions in Wolf (2019).
You have to admit that the title Viking Wolf makes for a great hook. On the other hand, following a prologue in the first couple of minutes, this is largely a cheat. Take away the Viking part of the title and the rest is a fairly ordinary werewolf film. The werewolf’s historical origin is of no significance to the film and it could be African, Japanese or Native American for all the difference it makes to the plot.
The werewolf in the streets
There is nothing particularly original about the plot with either the wolf attacking the town, nor the teenage girl undergoing a transformation. It is a familiar story to the werewolf genre of a small contemporary town under attack by a wolf and a teenage girl fearing that she is transforming. In the latter respect, Viking Wolf has similarities to the previous Norwegian/Danish co-production When Animals Dream (2014). In the latter sections, the film seems to channel something of Ginger Snaps (2000), albeit a more cleaned up version with a less troubled character.
Stig Svendsen does an okay job sketching out the small town atmosphere. The initial attack at the party and particularly the scenes where Liv Mjønes ventures inside the wolf’s lair work well. The only failing is when we actually get to see the full wolf for the first time, it looks a rather mangy creation.
