winter horror movies – Horror Ghouls

There’s Something in the Barn (2023)

Posted on December 23, 2025December 23, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Bill is a family man who is about to fulfill the dream of his life: moving back to his ancestral family farm in Gudbrandsdalen in Norway. The problem is: he’s pretty much the only one who is very, very excited about this. The teenage daughter Nora feels like her life has fallen apart when being dragged from sunny California and over to cold desolated Norway. Carol, the stepmother, tries to keep an optimistic tone with her life coach visions, but it becomes apparent that she really struggles with keeping the smiles up for Bill’s sake. Lucas, the youngest son, tries to be more enthusiastic though. When exploring their new home and the surrounding area, he discovers something fantastic: there’s something in the barn! It’s a good ol’ classic “fjøsnisse“ as we call them here in Norway, or what a local man tells Lucas is a “barn elf“. These humanoid creatures comes with a set of rules: they hate modern changes, loud noises, and bright lights (feeding them after midnight is okay though, they aren’t gremlins). If you ignore those rules, there will be some horrible consequences, because you really, really do not want to make the barn elf angry!

There’s Something in the Barn is a Norwegian comedy horror film from 2023, directed by Magnus Martens and written by Aleksander Kirkwood Brown.

This is a movie that’s mixed with Norwegian folklore, combined with some comedic elements regarding some of our cultural oddities. And with a good dose of that bad English, of course. That cheesy, broken sing-song English that is the common Norwegian accent! (God, whenever I travel abroad I hate hearing my own voice when I speak English). And most of the Norwegian characters in this movie plays this up a bit, especially Henriette Steenstrup who plays the sheriff, and Calle Hellevang Larsen who plays the local barn-elf expert. And speaking of these so-called “barn elves“: this creature stems from very old Norwegian folklore predating the Christian times. Most of the original lore regarding these creatures have been included in the movie, like how they will become quite mischievous if you do not treat them well, however it was originally mostly enough to give them a big bowl of porridge and they’d be satisfied. They were never known for becoming dangerous, though. If dissatisfied with you, they were believed to do things like making noises to bother you, or let the animals in the barn out during the night. Otherwise, they were generally goodhearted and watched over the farm animals, and were especially friendly with the barn cat which most farmers would have to keep away rodents. However, since the filmmakers were making a gremlins-like horror movie, they did of course have to make the barn elves quite mean, with the exception of the “main“ elf which I guess is like the Gizmo of the movie. And yes, there’s no doubt that there’s a lot of inspiration from, and a homage to, the classic 1984 movie Gremlins which is also a holidays-themed movie.

Much of the humour is aimed at the total cultural differences between Norwegians and Americans, where especially the family father is trying his best to adapt. Both “sides“ are purposefully caricatured, and while I’m certain that there are a lot of the Norwegian references that won’t be properly understood when viewed by those abroad, the humour is still straightforward enough even for those who doesn’t know the slightest about Norway or Norwegian culture. The movie explains some of the things gradually through the eyes of the Americans who just moved there, so we see everything through their experience, and often through the experiences of the boy Lucas who first sees the barn elf. Despite Lucas trying to warn his family (no one believes him, of course) they piss the creature off by breaking the rules one by one. What a shocker. First of all, it’s the “bright lights“ rule when they put up all their Christmas holiday decorations, full-on American style (which means a lot of decorations). Then, in order to get to know their Norwegian neighbours better, they also decide to redecorate the barn and throw a party in there, because who knew: they only way to get a Norwegian out of their cold, hard shell is to get them shitfaced on alcohol! And yes, that’s a little bit too true, and as someone who doesn’t drink alcohol I’ve been frowned upon more than once for this choice, it’s like committing a total blasphemy around here. Well, anyway. All rules have been broken, and the barn elf is now majorly pissed off! There’s only one way to appease him…bringing him a big bowl of porridge. So Lucas, as the goodhearted boy he is, makes some and puts it in the fridge to serve the angry nissemann later…only to discover it has gotten eaten by his father. The only thing Lucas can give the barn elf now are the leftovers from a botched “Norwegian dinner“ attempt from earlier that day: the dish Lutefisk. Which, of course, breaks the final straw for the poor little barn elf and makes all hell break loose. Believe me, you’d be pissed too.

From here on, the movie takes a turn from a rather cozy one to bringing in the horror elements, where we get some kill counts and a bunch of violent and mean barn elves running around and wreaking havoc. It’s still too charming and fun to be scary in any kind of way with the goofy antics of the creatures, including them getting drunk after smashing the living room and having the family trapped in the upstairs bedroom. In between, we do get a little bit of forced family drama just to pack it in with some kind of “rediscovering togetherness during the holidays“ message, but it’s also slightly mocking this cliché a bit. While it’s a little sugar-coatey at times with the family dynamics, it kinda works in a premise like this. Never hated any of the characters, although I did root for the barn elves of course.

Visually, the cinematography offers up the beauty of a snowy winterlandscape, and it is jam-packed with Christmas vibes! Despite being a movie that’s featuring some very typical Norwegian scenery, it’s informed in the film’s trivia that half of it was shot on stages in Lithuania. There was also a limited snowfall during the shooting (so there goes that illusion of how Norway is always fully packed with snow) so they had to bring in snow by truckloads in order to accomplish the vision they needed.

Overall, There’s Something in the Barn is a fun gateway horror movie with a good amount of holiday charm. And as can be expected from such a goofy, lighthearted horror movie, it all ends on a good note despite all the mayhem. And it becomes good to be a nissemann, after all.

Happy Holidays and God Jul! Now remember to put out that bowl of porridge (julegrøt) for the nisse with a good portion of butter in the middle and some cinnamon spread atop! Just don’t serve him any Lutefisk…or you know what will happen.

Director: Magnus Martens
Writers: Aleksander Kirkwood Brown, Josh Epstein, Kyle Rideout
Country & year: Norway, 2023
Actors: Martin Starr, Amrita Acharia, Kiran Shah, Townes Bunner, Zoe Winther-Hansen, Calle Hellevang Larsen, Henriette Steenstrup, Jeppe Beck Laursen, Eldar Vågan and a horde of angry barn elfs
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23060796/

Blood Tracks (1985)

Posted on December 16, 2025December 16, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Hairmetal, blood, freezing titties, avalanche in the snowy hills that have eyes, and a dude that looks like George Lucas. Here we go!

This obscure little odd The Hills Have Eyes ripoff from söta bror Sweden starts off with some mean drunk guy who, one late night, comes home to beat his wife and four kids. And this is not the first time as the wife finally has had enough and stabs him to death with a kitchen knife. The wife takes the kids with her as they run away into the thick ’80s movie fog.

Then we jump to forty years later in the year of 1985 where a random narrator says: For the next 40 years, the family hid out in the middle of nowhere. Now, intruders are on their way. Uuhm…ok. We’re at the snowy mountains in Sweden where the glam rock band, Solid Gold, are about to shoot some scenes for a music video. And what’s the title of this song? Take a guess.

― ♪ The horror you fear, You can’t let it go, It’s already there, You’re all much too slow, BLOOD TRAAACKS..! ♫

And if a hair metal band with stagefright could cause an avalanche, I’d bet that Motörhead would cause Mount Everest to collapse like a house of cards. And as the title suggests, there are no blood tracks to be seen here, at least not in the snow. A couple who has some sex in a volvo gets snowed in. The woman eventually gets pulled out, buck naked. Brrr! I’m gonna freeze my tits off! So, now that the scenes have been wrapped up, what’s next? The band, roadcrew and the groupies take shelter in a cabin. The soundguy from the filmcrew goes for an exploration where he enters a big abandoned factory. And in that place lives the mother and the group of children we saw at the beginning, who’s ready to kill anyone who dares to enter. The mother hasn’t aged a day during the four decades though. She must have some great genes, like a certain Sweeney. Couldn’t say the same thing about some of her kids, who looks like pizza-faced mutants from Tromaville. As the soundguy goes missing, the rest of the crew starts looking for him, which eventually leads them, one by one, into the factory to be bodycounted. So there you have it. A dumb premise for a dumb formulaic slasher which we have seen a thousand times already, even in 1985. But fun dumb, at that.

Blood Tracks, or Blodspår, is written and directed by Mats Helge Olsson, Sweden’s answer to Claudio Fragasso/Bruno Mattei, if you will ― the same guy who made The Ninja Mission (1984), Russian Terminator (1989) aka The Russian Ninja and Spökligan (1987), a very early childhood favorite of mine. And just like some of his other films, this one is dubbed to English by some wooden legs. It’s not as fun/bad as some of the films mentioned, but you’ll have your chuckles.

Solid Gold is played by the Swedish band Easy Action, and if you expect them to be the heroes, last boys standing cuz you can’t kill rock n’ roll, you’d be disappointed. The band members are barely acting here though. They’re mostly shoved in the background where they get drunk on whisky as alcohol was a demand to have on set because of nervousness… or because that’s just rock n’ roll, baby! Some of them were lucky enough to shoot some quick sex scenes, where I wouldn’t be too surprised if they were so wasted and coked-up that they, at some point, thought they were in a porn film. Nu ska vi knulla! Oh, well. The little we hear of the themesong could be a catchy fat ’80s earworm which was never fully recorded to be released to one of the albums, like Dokken’s Dream Warriors or Alice Cooper’s The Man Behind the Mask, since they seem to be more ashamed to be a part of this film. Boohoo…

And yeah, we have some fun kills here, which includes a severed head, bodies impaled on spikes, a bitten-out eyeball, death by fire, a woman getting sliced in half, some cheesy bear-hugging wrestling fights, and more. Fun fluffy drunk ’80s schlock from start to finish. And of course, then we have the bizarre George Lucas-lookalike, as if he was still location scouting for the Hoth scenes. Wrong country, bud. Blood Tracks is available on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome/DiabolikDVD. Even though I don’t have a copy, as for now, it’s fair to mention that there have been some angry complaints about the audio on that release, so… just be aware. And if you follow the right blood tracks on Tubi, you may also be lucky.

Director: Mats Helge Olsson
Writers: Mats Helge Olsson, Anna Wolf
Country & year: Sweden/UK, 1985
Actors: Jeff Harding, Michael Fitzpatrick, Naomi Kaneda, Brad Powell, Peter Merrill, Harriet Robinson, Tina Shaw, Frances Kelly, Karina Lee, Helena Jacks
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088827/

We Are Still Here (2015)

Posted on December 9, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The year is 1979, and Anne and Paul Sacchetti are grieving their deceased son Bobby who died in a car crash. They have decided to start afresh by moving to a new home in rural New England, and while Anne seems to be in a near catatonic state on the way to their new place, Paul hopes that her spiraling into a deep depression might lift with some new scenery and a new house. Well…her spirits are in fact quickly uplifted once they get to their new home, but not for the reasons Paul had hoped. Anne claims that Bobby’s presence can be felt in the house, and this eases her grief a bit. After barely having settled in, they also get a visit from two elderly neighbors who comes inside and immediately tells them about the house’s sinister past. It used to be a funeral home, run by the Dagmar family until it was discovered that they had been swindling their customers by selling the corpses of their deceased family members and burying empty caskets. Then, as the elderly couple are about to leave, the man tells them how good it is that they’re here, and how the house “needs a new family“. And upon leaving, the woman gives them a note where she warns them by having written “get out“ in big capital letters. Hmm…a little mixed messaging here, for sure.

Anyway, Anne doesn’t really give a shit about any of the things that happened in the house earlier, her only focus is on her dearest son Bobby. She’s convinced that he’s there, and she invites her friends May and Jacob who are both spiritualists. Paul scoffs at the entire thing, but promises to keep an open mind for her sake. And then…things go bad. And it appears it’s not only the house that carries secrets around here.

We Are Still Here is a supernatural horror film from 2015, written and directed by Ted Geoghegan. He began working on the film as some kind of tribute to The House by the Cemetery (1981) by Lucio Fulci. He had also previously worked with Andreas Schnaas on some of his various low-budget schlocky gore movies as both writer and producer, but We Are Still Here is his directorial debut. After completing the script, Dark Sky Films and Snowfort Pictures agreed to produce it. The filming took place on February 7th, 2014, in Rochester New York where they used the villages of Palmyra and Shortsville.

And yes, I can see how Geoghegan had a Lucio Fulci vibe in mind here, where it’s got the blood and gore (not the maggots though), the isolated house, someone troubled and grieving, the clairvoyant character, a town with secrets, mixed with some Lovecraftian ideas. And yes, there’s more than enough easter eggs to behold here: first of all, the Sacchetti couple is most likely a reference to the screenwriter Dardano Sachetti who worked a lot with Lucio Fulci. Then we have the name of the town, Aylesbury, which is a reference to Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror. The Miskatonic River is also mentioned during the credits.

While the movie does play into several of the typical haunted house tropes, it’s still a solid experience which balances an intriguing plot and a sinister atmosphere throughout. Some scenes manage to be a little creepy, despite never really going into full-on scares but more leaning towards a creeping notion of something sinister at play. I love the retro style of it, and enjoyed the homages. This is not merely a haunted house/ghost story, it’s playing it a lot darker and venturing into a bit of folk horror as well. And when we get to the ending, and the climax itself, then whoa…! It’s like his old buddy Andreas Schnaas jumped onboard and demanded mehr Blut und mehr Tod!, as we get a crazy, bloody gorefest! It’s vicious and cruel, and a delight to behold which gives the movie a nice little pang of an ending.

We Are Still Here is a pretty nice retro haunted house flick set in the cold winter time, perfect to watch now that the weather is cold and it’s good to stay inside, preferably with a cup of warm cocoa and a horror movie on display.

Writer and director: Ted Geoghegan
Country & year: USA, 2015
Actors: Andrew Sensenig, Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden, Lisa Marie, Monte Markham, Susan Gibney, Michael Patrick Nicholson, Kelsea Dakota, Guy Gan, Elissa Dowling, Zorah Burress
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3520418/

Dreamcatcher (2003)

Posted on December 5, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Jonesy, Beaver, Pete and Henry are four men who have been sticking together ever since childhood. Their bond got even closer on the day they met a disabled boy named Douglas, or “Duddits“. They save him from a bunch of bullies, and Duddits rewards them by giving them all telepathic powers. A group of childhood friends sticking together after experiencing something during their childhood…yup, it’s a Stephen King story. As the four friends are going through their seemingly normal adult lives, using their powers when they can, things almost go really bad for Jonesy after seeing Duddits beckoning him from across the street. When Jonesy approaches him he gets hit by a car, but still manages to heal incredibly fast. Six months later, they all go on their annual hunting trip in Maine during the winter season.

This trip will become very different from the others, though, and shit (literally) start happening once Jonesy rescues a man named Rick McCarthy who had gotten lost in the forest. Rick seems…a bit off, though. Sickly and constantly burping and farting. Yay. Jonesy and Beaver makes him lie down in bed so he can recover, and later notices a flock of forest animals outside the cabin. Foxes, wolves, rabbits, deer, predator and prey together, all seeming to flee from something. Suddenly this spectacle gets interrupted by the sound of two military helicopters, who announces to them that the area is now quarantined. Then Beaver goes “What do you mean quarantine? We got a sick guy down here!“ and we pretty much got it established that these characters are dumb as fuck. Because there’s no way a quarantine and a guy with some kind of mysterious illness could have any connection whatsoever, riiight? Jeez.

When Jonesy and Beaver get back inside the cabin, they see a trail of blood from the bedroom leading to the bathroom. Uh-oh. Some nasty shit is going on here. They ask Rick if he’s ok, and he screams at them that he wants his privacy while it sounds like he’s having a really, really bad case of the stomach bug. When he stops answering them, they get inside and see that Rick sits dead on the toilet, covered in blood. A big worm creature writhes and screams in the toilet, having been literally shat out by Rick. Beaver sits on the toilet to keep the lid down to trap the creature, but the creature is strong, and everything quickly goes to shit for both Beaver and the other characters.

Alright, enough with the shitty shit-jokes, although this review could’ve had a lot more of it for more than one reason. This is Dreamcatcher, a sci-fi-horror film released in 2003 and based on Stephen King’s 2001 novel of the same name. The movie was directed by Lawrence Kasdan, co-written with William Goldman. It has been receiving generally negative reviews and was a flop at the box office, having grossed $75.7 million against a budget of $68 million. Which is by no means a massive flop compared to some other box office failures we’ve covered here at Horror Ghouls, like for example Virus (1999) with its $75 million and $30.5 million result. So it could’ve fared a lot worse. The one who took the actual damage for the movie’s failed success, however, was the director who pretty much got his whole career flushed down the toilet (no pun intended). In a 2012 interview, Kasdan admitted that prior to this film’s failure, he was planning to do The Risk Pool with Tom Hanks, and had written a script from Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo. Didn’t happen. And then years passed and things kept not happening, and he didn’t make another movie until 2012 which was called Darling Companion.

Stephen King, on the other hand, praised the film upon its release and stated “This is one of the very, very good adaptions of my work“ (ho-hum…really?) and also added that the film “would do for the toilet what Psycho did for the shower“. Err…nope, it certainly didn’t. But maybe Stephen King at this point was still high on OxyContin, as when he wrote the Dreamcatcher novel he had just recovered from a severe 1999 car accident which he almost died from. It happened when a van struck him while he was walking, which I guess is referenced in the scene where Jonesy gets hit by a car in the beginning of the movie. King admitted to having been “pretty stoned“ on OxyContin while writing it and has later expressed being dissatisfied with the outcome of the book.

If you have read some of Stephen King’s books, you’ll be quite aware of how certain things only make sense when still in book format, and how transferring them to the screen often turns it into something messy and nonsensical. And how he likes to return to certain themes and topics. This one really packs in so many of the formulaic Stephen King ingredients, from the group of male childhood friends, something experienced during childhood, and the supernatural powers and a creature/monster of some kind. And while this movie pretty much warranted B-grade actors, there’s a surprisingly strong cast list, like for example Thomas Jane as Henry and Morgan Freeman in a smaller role as Colonel Curtis. Nothing bad to say about the acting here at all, the only thing is that the lead characters are so incredibly dumb it becomes a bit jarring at times. And when one of the guys becomes “possessed“ or whatever you should call it, and for some unexplained reason starts speaking in an upper-class British accent, I’m not sure whether to snicker or cringe.

Storywise, the movie is pretty much all over the place. It starts decent enough, but quickly starts going back and forth and becomes a bit disorienting as to what the heck is actually going on. Maybe it would’ve worked better as a miniseries, who knows. Still, there’s also the total shift in tone where the scenes with the group of friends are somewhat cheesy, nonsensical and oftentimes weird, while the subplot with Colonel Curtis and the military turns everything into a full-on action film. It’s like there were two films in there, badly merging together.

So, yeah…Dreamcatcher is definitely not one of the best Stephen King adaptions, but as far as silly, trashy B-movies goes it’s actually a bit of fun despite a somewhat long runtime and a bit sluggish pacing. And I guess only a Stephen King high on OxyContin would write a horror novella where diarrhea is a key factor throughout the story.

Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Writers: William Goldman, Lawrence Kasdan
Country & year: USA/Canada, 2003
Actors: Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Tom Sizemore, Donnie Wahlberg, Mikey Holekamp
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285531/

Black Phone 2 (2025)

Posted on October 26, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

We’re in the year 1957, at Alpine Lake Camp during the winter. A girl is making a call from a phone booth placed nearby the camp’s frozen lake, a conversation that later proves to be an important part of the movie’s plot. Then we head further ahead in time, to October 1982. It’s now been a while since Finney Blake was able to kill his abductor, the serial killer called the Grabber, and is trying to cope with the trauma in his own ways. Which seems to involve beating the hell out of other students who dares to even glance at him the wrong way, and smoke a ton of pot. It goes without saying that the kid is basically just spiraling further down the darkest misery-filled rabbithole at this point, but I guess he didn’t exactly grow up with the best role models for how to cope with shit in healthy ways as his father kept drowning his sorrows with whiskey and beer, causing him to often be abusive and mean towards his children.

In this movie, however, it is revealed that the father has reached a three year milestone of sobriety, but is still struggling with urges that he determinedly resists. All the power and kudos to him for that. Another character who is struggling is Finney’s sister Gwen, who keeps having strange dreams…all of which lead to a clue about their mother having worked at Alpine Lake Camp. Together with Gwen’s date Ernesto (the brother of Robin Arellano who was one of the Grabber’s victims in the first movie), they travel to the camp which is a Christian youth camp. Upon arrival, a heavy blizzard traps them at the place where there are only a handful of other people, which are only staff. And the phone booth back from 1957? It’s still there, of course, just not in a working order…but we all know that ghosts don’t need things to work in order to make use of them for communication. It doesn’t take long before Finney receives phone calls from the dead, including the Grabber who vows revenge. And it also seems that there were some grisly murders of a group of young boys at the camp sometime back in the day…and their bodies still haven’t been found.

Black Phone 2 is a supernatural horror movie directed by Scott Derrickson, co-written with C. Robert Cargill and produced by Jason Blum. It’s a sequel to Black Phone, and stars several of the actors from the first film reprising their roles. The first movie, which was based on a short story by Joe Hill, became a success and a sequel was soon in the works. Hill mentioned that his inspiration for a sequel was the “iconic imagery“ of the Grabber’s masks. And while Hill didn’t write a story for the film, he did provide the concept for it which was simply put into this sentence: “A phone rings, Finney answers, and it’s The Grabber calling from hell“. Plain and simple.

While the first movie’s plot was primarily about a real and living serial killer, the supernatural aspects were also present as the character Finney was able to communicate with the killer’s earlier victims through a disconnected black phone. In that regard, it’s not much of a surprise that the Grabber has now turned into a vengeful ghost, and the movie doesn’t need to invent some kind of explanation for how it turned into something supernatural. Those themes were already totally present in the first. And while Finney was the protagonist in the first film, this sequel leans its narrative a lot more on Gwen’s character with her nightmares meshed with visions of the past. The siblings both have the gift (or curse, depending on your point of view) of being contacted by the dead, but while Finney’s contact is restricted by phone calls, Gwen gets contacted while she’s asleep, often causing her to sleepwalk while having the nightmares.

And speaking of the nightmares: I really love the grainy look of those scenes, which were primarily shot on 8mm film using a Super-8 camera. Not only does it give the viewer an immediate heads-up when we’re in dreamland, but it also gives those scenes such a haunting vibe. The dreams also don’t work as some kind of tease or false threat like so often in many other horror movies. The threat here is very real once Gwen falls asleep, where the Grabber has become some kind of Freddy Krueger entity that can kill you in your dreams. Hmmm…a camp, and a dead serial killer threatening to kill you while you’re dreaming? Yeah, you don’t really need to be a horror buff to notice the obvious Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street references here. However, that doesn’t mean the film ventures into some kind of rip-off territory, it’s very much its own nightmare set in the coldest, bleakest wintertime, but with some nods and references to horror classics and 80’s horror. Oh, and the ice skating scene? Yup, Derrickson confirmed that this was a nod to Curtains from 1983.

The synthwave-infused music score by Atticus Derrickson (the director’s son) layers the movie with a perfect dreamlike mood, often more calm and brooding than fast-paced and aggressive, which gives it a slightly hypnotic flair. There’s also many effectively creepy scenes, including the vicious killings of the boys from the camp. The winter setting with all the snow and ice helps setting a more isolated and trapped feeling, and there’s even a scene with a snowman that manages to deliver a spooky moment.

Black Phone 2 is a strong sequel filled with supernatural and bloody carnage. It’s a new addition to the formula of serial killers and the dead refusing to stay dead, but a fun and gory one where I wouldn’t really mind if they decide that death won’t be final this time around either. Serial killers rarely stay dead in horror anyway (like Dexter‘s son also realized recently) so perhaps we’ll see a Black Phone 3 sometime in the close future.

Director: Scott Derrickson
Writers: C. Robert Cargill, Scott Derrickson
Country & year: USA, 2025
Actors: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Jeremy Davies, Anna Lore, Madeleine McGraw, Demián Bichir, Arianna Rivas, Miguel Mora, Graham Abbey, Maev Beaty
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29644189/

Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo (1995)

Posted on February 28, 2025September 5, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

This wild, crazy, silly little flick starts with an introduction of a lone trapper who calls himself the Guardian, played by some dude with schlocky old makeup that looks like dried mud. He tells us the story with a raspy Robert Englund-ish voiceover where he once upon a time came into a battle with none other than the mythical snow beast Wendigo at Manitou Island in Michigan. And this island is no joke as it has a snowy mountain shaped like a human skull. C o o l.

After he defeated the beast, he dedicated the rest of his life to protecting the world from its resurrection, like a Sentinel, if you will. And by doing so, he marks the beast’s burial ground with a circle of skulls of the victims to create a spiritual shield. Clever. But, of course, if the circle is ever broken, he’ll be reborn and more powerful than ever. So there’s no time to retire.

The Guardian is now a hundred years old and lives as a hermit in his small cabin to guard the sacred burial ground. Too bad that the old fool never thought of having a loaded shotgun, just in case. Because this is America, after all, where there’s not only Wendigos and other fairytale monsters to be highly aware of. And the ones to come here and ruin his life’s work and screw everything up, is none other than two trigger-happy hunters in the holy name of the Second Amendment. One of them, the most trigger-happy one, is played by Ron Asheton, the guitarist and co-founder of the legendary rock band The Stooges. And speaking of: the whole soundtrack is blasted with rock music from obscure artists. Because I can’t proudly say that I’ve ever heard of Elvis Hitler. No songs from Iggy Pop here, though. Anyway: They shoot one of the skulls that breaks the circle before shooting the old man.

His final words are The circle … has been … broken. The wind … whispers. Wendigo… God bless, thank for your service and rest in peace. It’s full nonstop B-movie showtime from here on as the Guardian’s body decomposes in some classic stop-motion fashion (just like we saw in the first Evil Dead from 1984) before his possessed skeleton attacks the hunters. They cut the skeleton’s head of with an axe, but then comes a big hand and grabs one of the hunters who ends up decapitated. Back on the mainland the young woman Sandy gets her beauty sleep interrupted when the ghost of the Guardian gives her a visit to pass her the torch. She gets on a plane to the island to close the circle, and her job gets more complicated when a group of drunk guys having a party in a cabin ends up conjuring the wendigo from a ghoulish shapeshifter with a wig to his full glory form.

We also have a chili stew that turns into a monster. And I should be careful with my words from here on as I drink chili beer as I’m writing this …

Frostbiter: The Wrath of the Wendigo was made sometime in the late 1980s after a group of friends got a complete life-changer after watching Evil Dead II and wanted to become filmmakers themselves. And who wouldn’t, after watching that film for the first time, whether you’re 14 or an old fart. The film collected dust for some years after Troma Entertainment finally came to the rescue and gave it a VHS distribution in 1995. In Japan, the film was released under the title Shiryo no harawata (which is simply translated as Evil Dead) to cash-in on Sam Raimi’s trilogy, in some good old shameless Italian style. The true Japanese counterpart to Evil Dead, however, was released around the same time with the colorful title Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell.

The love and homage to Evil Dead really shines through where they do their best to imitate the distinct loose camerawork and chaotic atmosphere. The Troma vibe is also all over the place, though, so don’t expect any creep factor. Instead we have full on dumb, silly comedy performed by a handful of enthusiastic amateur actors who obviously had a blast. The dialogues are even dumber. Fun stuff, in other words, to spend with tacos and beer on a Friday night. There’s also a lot of ambitions in the effects’ apartment with some cute miniature sets, matte paintings, prosthetic effects, and of course the Wendigo monster itself, that could be straight from a Ray Harryhausen film. Some really impressive work here, for sure, where every penny of the shoe-string budget was wisely spent. The audio mixing has some serious issues, though, as the music drowns out the dialogues. So thanks for the subtitles.

The film was recently released on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome and could be conjured on, yes, you guessed it – Tubi.

Director: Tom Chaney
Writers: Tom Chaney, Rick Cioffi, Steve Quick
Country & year: USA, 1995
Actors: Ron Asheton, Lori Baker, Patrick Butler, Devlin Burton, Tom Franks, Alan Madlane, John Bussard
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116371/

Frozen (2010)

Posted on December 24, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Three friends have traveled to a ski resort to have some fun: Dan Walker, his girlfriend Parker O´Neal, and Walker’s best friend Joe Lynch. It’s about to get dark and nearing the ski resort’s closing time, but they manage to have the ski lift operator let them go for just one final run down the mountain. Unfortunately, the ski lift operator is relieved from duty by another employee, and while he tells them there are three people left, the second operator closes everything when three other people comes skiing down. The chairlift they are still sitting on is then stopped, and the three friends do not realize the big heap of trouble they’re in until the lights on the ski resort goes out. And the biggest problem of all: the ski resort will be closed for an entire week. As no one else knows their whereabouts, they are trapped with seemingly no way to get out of the situation.

Frozen (not to be mistaken for the Disney movie) is a psychological horror film directed by Adam Green. The film premiered on the Sundance Film Festival in 2010, where it apparently caused numerous faintings as certain audience members couldn’t handle the tension of the film. It was later released in North American theaters with distribution from Anchor Bay Films.

Movies where the protagonists are trapped in a single location always come with the challenge of limited scenarios, but with the right amount of build-up and the perfect location these kinds of movies can be very tense. And Frozen definitely is. Not only are they in the dangers of frostbite and literally freezing to death, there’s also wildlife putting their lives at risk. There’s a realistic sense of dread throughout the entire movie, and the realism is of course heightened by the fact that the movie was shot entirely practically: there’s no greenscreen, no CGI, no soundstage, and the actors and actress were in reality suspended over fifty feet in the air on a real mountain in Utah: the Snowbasin Ski Resort in Ogden. Kind of gives me the chills just thinking about it…the shots of the moving chairlift were all done by the director himself and the Director of Photography Will Barratt, because the camera crew were too nervous to do it.

The movie moves at a rather quick pace and doesn’t let down on the tension, the threat is always imminent and you keep wondering what is going to happen. The characters, obviously having tempted fate by ignoring the dangers of going for that “final ride down the mountain“, are people you still feel sorry for despite thinking they acted like idiots. And while being stuck in a chairlift doesn’t sound like a concept that could bring in too many threats, there are actually some pretty inventive ways to put the characters in constant peril.

Frozen is a chilling thrill ride packed with tension, where you can’t help but imagining yourself in such a dire and helpless situation. A nice watch during a cold winter day!

Happy Holidays!

Writer and director: Adam Green
Country & year: USA, 2010
Actors: Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers, Ed Ackerman, Rileah Vanderbilt, Kane Hodder, Adam Johnson, Chris York, Peder Melhuse
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323045/

Dead Snow 2 (2014)

Posted on March 22, 2024September 5, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Dead Snow 2 (also known as Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead) starts where the previous film left off, at full speed, where the only survivor, Martin (Geir Vegar Hoel), with an arm less due to cutting it off with a chainsaw after he got bitten. Things doesn’t look too good and when he thought that he’d come to peace with the zombies by giving them their precious box of gold, he forgot to add a golden coin which he had in his pocket. And of course, it isn’t over until Herzog claims that gold and has killed the last body count.

Things get more messy when Herzog attacks Martin’s car, which escalates with a truck that rips off Herzog’s arm that falls into the car with Martin. After it all ends with a car crash, Martin gets brought to the hospital where things get even more fucked-up. Because when he wakes up, the doctors have stitched together Herzog’s arm into his freshly sawed-off limb. Doesn’t sound too bad at first, but it turns out that the arm is something straight from Evil Dead II. But along comes an upgrade with some superpowers, which he has to learn to control.

Things are still pretty normal so far, but it gets out of control when Martin accidentally kills one of the patients, who’s a young kid. Yes, children gets killed here. Not just one, but a few. Oh my. All from kids playing in a sandbox to toddlers in their strollers. So be sure to have the whambulance ready on speed dial.

Anyway, now that Martin is in the deepest shit, with not only Nazi zombies on his tail, he’s now the number-one suspect in the country for killing his friends in the mountains. Martin needs some assistants to get out of this mess, and quickly. The kid he accidentally killed some moments ago told him something about a trio of zombie hunters, called Zombie Squad, from the USA. This group is led by Daniel (played by the Freaks and Geeks actor Martin Starr). With him, he has the two most annoying Star Wars nerds that think every snowy mountain in Norway is the filming location of Hoth. Huh, well, someone has to tell them that Dead Snow 2 was actually filmed in Iceland, for whatever reason.

More blood, more guts, more violence, more action, more plot, more fun, more evil Nazi motherfuckers, more insanity and other surprises is what to expect from Dead Snow 2. And this time Herzog also has a tank which he don’t waste any time to use. BANG!!!

Dead Snow 2 is a sequel done right on every level which surpasses the original like a sledgehammer. The film is also rich on locations where the distinct mountain landscapes of Iceland makes a grim and majestic appearance in its one unique way, even though it’s all supposed to take place in Norway. Alongside with the Zombie Squad, we have some new characters to join the epic journey to the final battle of Herzog and his army. The humor is also amped up with more gallow with a tone far more absurd and wacky than the first one, where Troma meets the early works of Peter Jackson. And it all works great like a slippery dick in a pussy, or like kuk i fitte, as we say in Norwegian. We also have some really fun kills where all from old folks in wheelchairs to kids, gays, and priests aren’t safe, and some brutal home invasion scenes. And without spoiling, unlike the trailer, there’s also a nice and inventive homage to The Return of The King here that fits perfectly. Even though the snow itself seems to have melted, it’s as fun, epic and wild as it can be. Skål, cheers and Sieg Heil!

According to Tommy Wirkola, the script for Dead Snow 3 has already been written years ago where there’s a hint of bringing Hitler himself to the surface. The sad thing is that actor Geir Vegar Hoel, who also worked as co-writer for this one, died in 2020 of cancer at age 47. RIP. How his passing will affect the rest of the franchise remains to be seen and now that it has already gone ten years since the release of this film, it seems more unlikely a third installment will happen. We can hope.

Both films are available on DVD/Blu-ray on the international market and can be dug up from Cd Universe and Amazon. And guess what: they’re also on Tubi!

Director: Tommy Wirkola
Writers: Tommy Wirkola, Geir Vegar Hoel, Stig Frode Henriksen
Original title: Død Snø 2
Country & year: Iceland, Norway, 2014
Actors: Geir Vegar Hoel, Ørjan Gamst, Martin Starr, Jocelyn DeBoer, Ingrid Haas, Stig Frode Henriksen, Hallvard Holmen, Kristoffer Joner, Amrita Acharia, Derek Mears, Bjarte Tjøstheim
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2832470/

Prequel: Dead Snow (2009)

Dead Snow (2009)

Posted on March 19, 2024September 5, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

First off, here’s a drinking game: Take a great shot of karsk for each time Norway/Norwegian is mentioned in this review. Now – Just like Cold Prey, we have Dead Snow, which was also a big deal upon its release back in 2009. Because of this one, we now had our first Norwegian zombie movie to finally show off, with Nazis even. And a lot of red, blood-soaked snow while the Easter sun is shining bright. Another note for the Norwegian film history books. Dead Snow became a hit at the Sundance festival that kick-started the fruitful career of Tommy Wirkola, who’s since made several films in Hollywood – most notably the Christmas action/horror flick Violent Night (2022) with John Harbour in the main role.

Dead Snow opens appropriately enough with Edward Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King, as someone is getting chased in the mountain forest and killed by a group of, yes you guessed it, zombies. Zombies in Norway, you say? Huh, that was new. Thought they only had trolls, gnomes and brunost. Yes, but these aren’t Norwegian zombies, you see, so get ready for an upcoming history lesson. After this short and quick adrenaline-filled opening, we meet our group of body-counts/friends of four medical students who are on their way to a mountain cabin in Øksfjord, far up in the northern countryside to celebrate Easter, get drunk on beer and moonshine, party hard and the luckiest ones gets to fuck in the shithouse.

The party mode gets put on hold for a minute when our group of friends gets an unexpected visit from a hiker. And this guy has seen some dark shit, for sure, his face can tell. He gives them a history lesson of the notorious Nazi colonel Herzog, who with his death squad team occupied the area during WW2. They did gruesome things to the locals over a span of three years, and as our hiker says in his beautiful northern dialect:

Det hær va nånn onde SATANS jævla! Wich is best translated as: They were some EVIL motherfuckers!

To cut his story short: Herzog and co. stole a dose of valuables when the war was over and tried to escape over the mountains where they seemed to disappear. Legend says that they froze to death and there’s an evil lurking over the place that must not be awakened. Yeah, whatever. They only scoff at him and don’t think much of it afterward, because who in the right mind would. So, who wants another beer? It isn’t until they find some hidden old valuables and gold in the cabin crawlspace that the plot starts to thicken. Because, guess who also wants to claim that gold, other than the Leprechaun.

Nazi zombies aren’t something new, nor was it with Dead Snow. We can actually rewind all the way back to the 1940s and dig up the corpses of King of the Zombies and Revenge of the Zombies and the terrible cult-schlock from 1981 that is Jean Rollin’s Zombie Lake, and more. But, of course, in a cold, winter-filled Norwegian setting, this was something we never thought we’d see on a big screen. Especially considering that a film like this would have been completely banned in a gnome country like this, or at least cut to pieces to the unrecognizable if it was made in the VHS era.

The effects are nice and juicy and the film goes full-out with the carnage and what they had in the gore-department. Eyes get poked out in Fulci-style, heads ripped in half, bodies ripped to shreds, people hanging from someone’s fresh ripped-out intestines from a cliff as they fight zombies, some general hack and slashing and its list of references. And of course, we have some glorious chainsaw action. Approx 400 liters of fake blood was used here. Not too shabby for being the first Norwegian zombie movie.

It’s all done with a dose of humor with a great group of actors in some very likable roles. My favorite is Bjørn Sundquist, one of the finest legacy actors we have in Norway. His screentime is short but none other than him would be able to tell the backstory of Herzog in such a serious deadpan manner like he did. However, some of the humor may not land as much on the non-Norwegian audience, especially the classic scene towards the end with the tunes and lyrics of Åge Alexandersen’s Min Dag.

It also shows that this is an early film of a newcomer. It’s of course a big step forward after Wirkola’s debut with Kill Buljo in technical terms. The pacing keeps a steady track, it’s overall fun and entertaining with a lot of energy and some great use of nature scenery. But still, there are some rough edges here. Some choppy and clunky editing choices prevent some of the death scenes to shine and breathe, and the ending gives the impression that the budget just said stop. If Tommy Wirkola already had the sequel in mind, I don’t know, but Dead Snow 2, which came five years later, surely makes this more of a warm-up, or a vorspiel, as we usually say in Norway before the big party. Så det e bare for dåkk kjære hæstkuka å håll sprit’n klar.

Director: Tommy Wirkola
Writers: Tommy Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen
Original title: Død Snø
Country & year: Norway, 2009
Actors: Geir Vegar Hoel, Stig Frode Henriksen, Charlotte Frogner, Lasse Valdal, Evy Kasseth Røsten, Jeppe Beck Laursen, Jenny Skavlan, Ane Dahl Torp, Bjørn Sundquist, Ørjan Gamst
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278340/

Sequel: Dead Snow 2 (2014)

Cold Prey (2006)

Posted on March 1, 2024June 12, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

– Herre hær kjæm te å gjør littegrainnj vondt. E du klar? Æ tælle te tre.

And no, it wasn’t my keyboard that just had a stroke. It’s the Norwegian for – This will hurt a little. Are you ready? I’m counting to three. Also in the dialect of trøndersk, just to mention.

The year was 2006, on Friday the 13th of October when we got our very first Norwegian slasher, titled Fritt Vilt (with the international title Cold Prey). Yay! So this wasn’t just any slasher you see, it was a cultural event that would have its new chapter in Norwegian film history. Yes I know, it’s quite strange that the country that had the biggest export of black metal, church burnings and Satan didn’t have any horror films to showcase until after the millennium. What held us back while the wave of New French Extremity was already near its peak, is a good question.

We, of course, had Villmark (Dark Woods) from 2003, which leans more into the thriller section, and from there on we have to rewind way, waaaay back to the year 1958 (!) with De Dødes Tjern (Lake of the Dead), which has not aged particularly well. What was left was decades of a pretty stiff, wooden and a ridiculously conservative film industry which had not much to offer other than sloggish, forgettable and painfully dry obscure drama films made for god knows who. Yawn. There were some very few exceptions much thanks to Ivo Caprino (RIP). So aside from that, a film like Cold Prey was a big fresh air in my tiny gnome country. A game changer and a complete shift on how films in Norway would be made from here on, which also included other genres.

With the success and the cultural impact of Cold Prey, it also opened the door to several young genre filmmakers to show their muscles, most notably Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) and André Øvredal (Troll Hunter). Roar Uthaug, along with the two mentioned, would also eventually work in Hollywood with various outcomes. But it’s also valid to say that we have our fair share of terrible, shitty horror movies and the last ten years hasn’t been much to be excited about. So I’m not being a blind patriot waving my flag here. There’s also several Norwegian horror movies that seem to be impossible to find anywhere due to lack of release and distribution, so for all I know there could be a hidden gem somewhere. The only titles I’ve seen which are worth watching from recently are Project Z and The Innocents, both from 2021. And soon Norway will give birth to its first sea monster flick called Kraken, which will start filming in the Norwegian coast later this year. So we’ll see how that one turns out.

Cold Prey follows a group of youngsters who are going snowboarding in the mountains of Jotunheimen. The sky is blue, the air is crisp with even some sprinkles of love, and life is good… until one of the poor bastards fall and breaks his ankle. Luckily, they find an abandoned hotel nearby where they take shelter. And nothing bad happens here. After spending the night, they get met by a rescue team and The End. I’m joking, of course. You know that they’re in deep shit when one of the in-love couple checks into one of the rooms that have the numbers 2 3 7. Redrum!

It’s not the biggest surprise that they’re not alone in the hotel. How boring would that be. We already learn in the opening sequence that the place has a dark history where a kid once disappeared under some questionable circumstances. Our group of friends also learn that a mysterious person called the Mountain Man lives like a hermit somewhere in the dark corners of the hotel, and kills anyone who has the nerve to trespass.

If the premise sounds familiar, you’re not wrong. On paper, Cold Prey is as formulaic as it can be, which basically follows the same footsteps of the most generic slasher films you’ve seen hundreds of already. There’s nothing much new on the surface here, nor was it back in 2006, and the film’s biggest sin is that it’s pretty tame with lackluster kills. The brutality from the early films of Alexandre Aja and other extreme Frenchmen are worlds apart, just to make that clear. Us slow Norwegians still have a lot to learn in the splatter and gore department, unfortunately.

And I almost forgot to mention that there’s no cringe sex scene here, so kudos for at least breaking that cliché.

That being said, there’s more to enjoy here. The setting itself gives the movie an eerie, grim vibe and the acting is solid. Ingrid Bolsø Berdal stands out as the heroine who can also handle a shotgun. The story is intriguing enough with a pacing that keeps the entertaining value on track. The film also looks fabulous, where the bleak coldness really spices up the claustrophobic tension and atmosphere. Cold Prey was filmed at Leirvassbu, a tourist cabin in Jotunheimen where the actors lived during the filming. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the isolated and stone-cold surroundings messed a little with their heads.

So overall, despite not being more ballsy with the violence, Cold Prey is an entertaining watch with some unique scenery, great suspense and a fine addition to winter horror. Still, I must be honest enough to say that it would work more as a horror film for beginners. This is also the directorial debut of Roar Uthaug, who in 2018 made Tomb Raider. If you want more of the primitive Norwegian landscape, check out Escape (2012), also directed by Uthaug.

The film got two sequels: Cold Prey II, which is more of a Halloween II (1981) ripoff, and I don’t remember much of Cold Prey III other than it was a prequel. The first two is on DVD from Anchor Bay and Shout Factory. Kos dåkk!

Director: Roar Uthaug
Writers: Thomas Moldestad, Martin Sundland, Roar Uthaug
Original title: Fritt Vilt
Country & year: Norway, 2006
Actors: Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Tomas Alf Larsen, Endre Martin Midtstigen, Viktoria Winge, Rune Melby, Erik Skjeggedal, Tonie Lunde, Hallvard Holmen
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808276/