Movies
[Fantastic Fest Review] Tommy Wirkola’s Zany ‘The Trip’ Puts Its Protagonists Through Intensive Couples Therapy
Tommy Wirkola is no stranger to dark humor. The Norwegian filmmaker has already carved a place in the black hearts of horror fans everywhere with the dementedly wonderful humor in both Dead Snow films and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, the latter of which has seen a steadily growing cult following over the years. His frenetic energy always makes for an exciting watch, even if they tend to be all over the place in terms of narrative. With The Trip, Wirkola reunites with his What Happened to Monday star Noomi Rapace to deliver a riotous, ridiculous ride of a film with plenty of twists and turns (and poop) to boot.
In The Trip, soap opera director Lars (Aksel Hennie, The Cloverfield Paradox) and aspiring actress Lisa (Noomi Rapace, Prometheus) are a dysfunctional married couple who head to a remote cabin to help rekindle their dwindling romance. Unfortunately for Lisa, Lars’ intentions are more sinister, as he has plans to murder her and collect the money from her life insurance policy. Unfortunately for Lars, Lisa is a lot more capable of defending herself than he thought possible. And unfortunately for both of them, an even greater threat looms in the area that will force them to put their differences aside and work together to survive one hellish night.
Playing like a bloodier version of The War of the Roses, The Trip is a tricky movie to discuss, if only because there are so many twists and turns that the film takes (even early on), that to reveal certain plot developments would ruin the many, many surprises the film has in store. Suffice it to say there are moments involving double-crosses, a lawnmower, a Nazi who doesn’t know who Anne Frank is (“it’s just like that book you read about the little girl hiding in the attic,” the Nazi says) and one very large penis. That’s just to name a few!
What the film could have used is a swifter hand in the editing room. At nearly two hours, The Trip goes on for far too long. The film is structured in a way so that every time a new bit of information is disclosed, we go back in time a few days to see how those plot developments came to be. This is all well and good the first couple of times, but The Trip dips into that well one too many times, giving the narrative an unnecessarily episodic quality. These sequences could have been shortened, but as it stands the film feels self-indulgent at times. It’s also a film that revels in poor taste (see the aforementioned poop reference), but a portion in the second act that delves into threats of sexual assault and anal rape feels tonally out of place. It’s not played for laughs, but it almost feels too dark for this dark comedy.
Hennie and Rapace are simply delightful in their roles as the bickering protagonists, with each character delivering a hefty amount of passive-aggressive barbs to each other over the smallest things in order to twist the metaphorical knife where it hurts the most. These acidic barbs become even more hilarious once they’re juxtaposed with the ridiculousness of their increasingly outlandish situation. While the exchanges between Lars and Lisa are funny, the film never loses sight of their humanity, making for some unexpectedly touching moments between the couple amidst all the chaos. It’s also refreshing to see Rapace, after excelling in multiple serious roles, get to let loose and have some fun.
The Trip is a wild, zany ride that Wirkola and his cast are 100% committed to. It’s unfortunate that Netflix doesn’t seem to be promoting The Trip at all (it hits the streaming platform on October 15th), as it has the makings of being an ultimate crowd-pleaser. It wouldn’t be surprising if we get an English-language remake at some point in the near future, but until then this version is readily available for your demented pleasure. At the risk of being cliché: you’ll want to take this trip.
Netflix will release The Trip on October 15th.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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