Movies
Manhunt: Backwoods Massacre (Rovdyr/Predator) (Norway)
“Fans of no-holds-barred terror flicks will surely enjoy this little gem for its bawdiness and hardliner attitude alone, while cult flick aficionados will certainly relish its many nods to genre classics such as THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and MOTHER’S DAY.”
The cold, dark and deserted woods of Norway aren’t exactly the most cozy and inviting place on earth… and they get even less inviting when you find out that in fact they are not that deserted at all, but that they’re rather occupied by a gang of merciless redneck sadists, who get their kicks from kidnapping innocent people and hunting ‘em down like game animals. And like all self-respecting redneck psychos, these disagreeable fellows are also not really satisfied with killing their victims fast ‘n clean, but rather do they prefer to torture them in the most brutal ways their deranged minds can come up with.
Too bad that the blonde sweetheart Camilla and her friends Roger, Jorgen and Mia have decided to visit exactly this baneful part of the country during their summer holidays, cause as you can imagine, the grumpy natives are more than happy to give the four kids from the city a welcome they won’t soon forget. And before they even know what’s going on, Camilla and her friends have already fallen prey to the bloodthirsty rednecks and from that moment on “Kill or be killed” is the motto of the day in the dark and dense Norwegian back-country where no one hears your screams except for the sadistic sons of bitches who are responsible for them.
You see, the story of the 2008 Norwegian slasher/shocker flick MANHUNT – BACKWOODS MASSACRE is about as far from being profound, new and revolutionary as it can get and also the main characters (a good-hearted cutie, a self-centered macho, a nerdy comic-fan and an outspoken feminist) are little more than just our typical horror film stereotypes, but apparently this lack of substance and complexity does not work against MANHUNT at all, but rather does the movie’s extreme simplicity and straightforwardness result in a very rough and realistic atmosphere that makes the viewer feel pretty agitated and uncomfortable throughout most of MANHUNT’s running time. As soon as the rednecks come into play and the hunt begins, ROVDYR (as the film is originally titled) turns into an extremely intense tour de force that’s not at all watered down by cheesy Hollywood pathos or contrived stylishness.
With its uncompromising roughness and sheer brutality, this movie grabs you by the throat and clutches harder and harder till you’ve got hardly any air left to breathe. When the rednecks, who are pictured as anonymous, faceless bringers of death throughout most of the movie, blow their victims to pieces with shotguns, rip out their intestines with hunting knives or bind and gag them with barbwire, you can’t help but cringe and feel really uneasy.
Fans of no-holds-barred terror flicks will surely enjoy this little gem for its bawdiness and hardliner attitude alone, while cult flick aficionados will certainly relish its many nods to genre classics such as THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and MOTHER’S DAY. Sure, first-time director Patrik Syversen hasn’t exactly reinvented the wheel with MANHUNT and I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a masterpiece or instant classic either, but I sure as hell had a great time watching it and will recommend it to every horror freak out there looking for an unpolished and uncompromising low-budget shocker with convincing actors, strong gore effects, good cinematography and a very dense atmosphere.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Kraus took the literary world by storm back in 2023 with the release of his hit novel Whalefall. A terrifying yet intimate survival thriller with mythological undertones, the book was almost immediately bombarded with offers from movie studios wanting to adapt its claustrophobic imagery to the big screen.
Fast forward to June of 2026, and we finally got our first glimpse at Brian Duffield’s long-awaited adaptation of Whalefall, starring Austin Abrams as our unfortunate lead who gets swallowed alive by a sperm whale. While this two-and-a-half-minute teaser only covers the beginning of the story, it’s already been making waves online (and in-person at select 4DX promotional screenings) as one of the most stressful cinematic experiences of the year.
In fact, my own wife had to cover her eyes and exclaim, “You’re definitely not dragging me to watch this one” when we saw the whale’s jaws begin to close in on Abrams, with this incident alone already leaving me convinced that this will likely be one of the biggest genre hits of the year. With that in mind, I’d like to invite you to take a closer look at the teaser in order to break down interesting details and get a better idea of what’s in store for genre fans when the movie finally comes out this October.
Of course, as usual, don’t forget to comment below if you noticed something we didn’t!
Now, without further ado, here are five things we learned from the Whalefall trailer!
5. Austin Abrams Performed Many of His Own Stunts
Much like in his previous film, No One Will Save You, Duffield insisted that this visceral experience should be grounded by our main character’s believable reactions, regardless of the plot’s effects-heavy setup. That’s why the camera always makes sure to linger on Abrams through his diving mask, so we know that it’s really him going through this ordeal alongside the audience.
While plenty of CGI was used in order to bring this larger-than-life story to the big screen without killing our leading man, Abrams apparently insisted on performing many of his underwater stunts himself (several of which are visible in the trailer) – much to the chagrin of a worried Duffield and the flick’s stunt coordinator, Shauna Duggins.
4. The Film Seamlessly Transitions Between the California Coast and Underwater Sets
Duffield obviously wasn’t about to drag his crew out to the middle of the ocean and shoot inside a real sperm whale, but it’s reassuring to see the filmmaker blend on-location footage with the underwater tank segments and the literal belly of the whale set.
There may be plenty of CGI stitching these elements together, but the trailer shows us that only the truly impossible shots are completely digital, meaning that the filmmakers didn’t take the easy way out when it came to adapting this unique story.
3. The Whale is Only Part of the Story
Book adaptations tend to leave out inner monologues and the occasional flashback in order to streamline the narrative (which is one reason why it’s so difficult to translate Stephen King novels to the big screen), but a claustrophobic parable like Kraus’ Whalefall would get a bit dull after a while if the whole thing was entirely set within the creature’s stomach.
That’s why it’s such a relief that the trailer hints at how Duffield will also be adapting many of the book’s introspective moments chronicling our protagonist’s harsh upbringing under his troubled father. Not only do these inclusions give the audience some much-appreciated breathing room, but they also give Josh Brolin a chance to shine as a truly complicated character.
2. The Movie is Keeping the Book’s Scientific Accuracy…
While Kraus’ novel was inspired by a viral video of kayakers nearly being swallowed by a humpback whale, the writer ended up consulting with marine biologists about exactly what kind of situation might lead to a whale actually eating a human being alive.
The answer was surprisingly specific, as cetaceans are almost universally known to be friendly towards humans. However, even a gentle giant can make mistakes, and as we see in the trailer, Abrams’ unpleasant fate is more of an accident than anything else – with the massive sperm whale only trapping the poor diver in the first (and thankfully acid-free) chamber of its stomach due to a mix-up involving a giant squid.
Fortunately for the film’s special effects artists, they can now reference the first-ever footage of a real-life sperm whale chowing down on one such squid, as this freaky recording was released late last year.
1. …With a Catch!
Duffield may be doing his best to recreate the grounded (or is it submerged?) thrills of Kraus’ novel, but there are limits to what can be depicted onscreen while still guaranteeing an entertaining movie. That’s why it’s no surprise that Whalefall will take advantage of certain cinematic parlor tricks as the director tests the limits of both physics and biology so we can actually watch his movie.
For starters, the innards of the whale itself have been greatly exaggerated so there’s enough space to make out the action, and in the spirit of movies like Neil Marshall’s The Descent, there also seems to be plenty of non-diegetic lighting meant to show us what’s going on even if Abram’s character wouldn’t necessarily be able to see anything.
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