Werewolf stories may be one of my all-time favorite genres. The conflict between civilized man and inner beast has so many applications. From the original that tackled themes of the modern world versus our traditions and instincts, to Ginger Snaps, a brilliant film that puts a werewolf lens on the struggles of being a teen girl with teen girl hormones.  And you already know how I feel about Dog Soldiers.  Good werewolf stories are about more than cool creature transformations and gore. 

• Directed by: Stig Svendsen
• Written by: Espen Aukan. Stig Svendsen
• Starring: Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne. Liv Mjönes. Sjur Vatne Brean

The Story

Despite its title, this isn’t a historical horror movie. The origin of the wolf may be Viking, but the setting is very much modern-day Norway.   Our main characters are Thale and her police officer mother, Liv. There is a lot of tension in their relationship due to the death of Thale’s father and the family’s move to a small town.

The first half of the movie hits all the typical werewolf beats while interjecting some light mother-daughter drama. At a lakeside gathering for the local teens, a popular girl gets carried off by the werewolf. In the attack, Thale is also clawed by the wolf.

As her mother searches for the attacker responsible while slowly coming to understand that it is, in fact, a werewolf, Thale is dealing with her own inevitable transformation. We don’t see a lot of mother-daughter werewolf stories, so I was pretty happy to see this angle even if it feels a bit underdeveloped. 

There is a lot of room to explore the complexity of that specific bond.  I’d love to see a werewolf movie tackle that split between anger and loyalty-to-your-maker kinds of emotion. We’ve seen it with men and werewolves; let’s give the ladies a turn. Female and male rage should look like different things. As such, the vehicles we use to tell stories about rage, like werewolves, should look and feel different for male and female characters.

But I Have Digressed.

Viking Wolf does a good job of balancing the two storylines: Liv’s hunt for the wolf, and Thale’s transformation.  There’s some emotional catharsis that’s lacking, but that could also be from my very Americanized perspective. This is after all a Norwegian film.

I like the character moments in Viking Wolf. Liv feels like a real person as she deals with the strange and traumatic events unfolding around her. Thale is a tragic and sympathetic lead as well. There are parts of her character I wish had been developed more though, such as her relationship with her younger, deaf stepsister.

This is a case where Viking Wolf could have skipped some of the standard werewolf tropes in favor of heavier emotional storylines.

What about the Wolf?

This werewolf isn’t the walking-on-two-legs, hybrid man type. This is just a big-ass wolf. Which would be ok, if the effect looked a bit better at the end of the movie.  When it comes to werewolf lore, they do some interesting things, specifically when talking about the difference in damage that the silver bullets do versus lead.  Viking Wolf isn’t big on science, but they make a fair attempt at an explanation that isn’t just moon magic.  In the end, it does circle back to standard lore.

This year I’ve seen a few different werewolf movies. I’ll probably watch a few more before the year is out. For me, there are certain elements that have to be in a werewolf movie for me to enjoy it, no matter what the quality of the rest of the film is.  It’s back to those themes, that struggle between man and “beast”, whatever the beast is a metaphor for.  Those themes are why Frank Grillo’s Werewolves was more fun for me than Leigh Whannel’s Wolf Man.  Werewolves may not have used the themes in the best way possible, but they were there. Wolf Man was an infection movie in a wolf costume.

Viking Wolf looks at these themes from a different angle: what if you found out your kid was a monster? This struggle between man and beast is more about a mother struggling to accept what she must do.   It’s not an easy watch, and the ending may not feel like it wraps the story up.  This may leave some viewers unsatisfied.  I don’t think it’s as ambiguous as it first appears, but that gets into spoiler territory, so we will just leave it at that.

Final Thoughts

I dug Viking Wolf. It takes a while to get where it’s going, but the emotional payoff is worth it, as is the final body count. If you are looking for more traditional-looking wolf, or an inner struggle-based story, this may not fit what you are looking for.  For me, it really nails the emotion enough to recommend, despite the other flaws.

Viking Wolf is available on streaming