Review of Kraken – fjord-based rampage and horror film with an environmental message | Video

AAs Greta Thunberg points out, natural punishment feels somehow sanctified when it comes out of Scandinavia. Perhaps it is because of the idea that people there live in harmony with nature. It is beautifully portrayed as Norway’s Sognefjord, the country’s largest fjord, in an action-packed yet entertaining film. The Kraken could be a bit of a tourist attraction – except it’s a famous monster that kills giant crab-like lice, then emerges from the depths and temporarily manages 90 minutes of environmental disruption.

Marine researcher Johanne (Sara Khorami) ties her clues with a Norwegian creature after Trolls 2) was called to the Sognefjord after reports of salmon strandings. His first port of call is a local fish farm run by Erik (Mikkel Bratt Silset), an old flame with whom he has developed sonic pods used to keep records clean. But in order to please Japanese investors, the owner of Avaldsnes (Øyvind Brandtzæg) has raised the art, confusing the mind not only for the wild salimo but for the deep citizens of the fjord.

Director Pål Øie acknowledges the persistence of fishing and the struggles of increasing tension by preventing the film from being seen. The tentaced one is barely seen for the first two-thirds of the episode, absorbing a couple of silly jetskiers under a whirlwind in the first episode and then tending to slide deep down the river. More opportunities for the film to repeat its culturally-no-whack messages: the old man warning the fjord is no longer the same, the crabs fleeing the high water, grisly flotsam disrupting the capitalists’ champagne.

In the end, the cephalopod reads the same cards, saving the daughter of Avaldsnes, Maria (Jenny Evensen), but not giving the same respect to the businessman. Øie gets into some really scary places – the scuttling bloodsuckers are straight out of Aliens – but mostly keeps his film as fleet and windy as the kraken’s spinning arms. The visuals are lighthearted, but Khorami has a gentle, down-to-earth, woman-like quality that makes this eco-cum-rampage story incredibly entertaining.