Movies
‘Viking Wolf’ Review – Netflix’s Norwegian Werewolf Movie Has a Weak Bite
Viking Wolf, billed as Norway’s first werewolf movie, delivers as promised. This recent Netflix acquisition doesn’t mislead its audience; there is definitely a wild lycan on the loose in a small Norwegian town. However, Stig Svendsen’s movie doesn’t have the typical origin found in these kinds of stories; the werewolf myth here has been adapted to better fit its Scandinavian environment. The end result is a unique, if not flawed new addition to the pack.
Despite its cheesy title, Viking Wolf (originally Vikingulven) is a serious movie. It takes the trademarks of modern Scandi-noir media and applies it to this creature-feature. In the story, a teenage city transplant named Thale Berg (Elli Rhiannon Müller Osbourne) moves to a place called Nybø after her father passed away. His death has affected the main character’s relationship with her mother (Liv Mjönes), and that tension plays a significant role in Thale’s fate. It’s during a party that Thale first encounters the titular beast; what looks to be a large wolf drags a random partygoer to her bloody death, but not before nipping Thale in the process.
Viking Wolf looks like your standard Scandinavian police-procedural thriller. There are plentiful wide shots of rural vistas that are indeed tranquil and beautiful to look at, but they’re also unremarkable. In addition, Thale’s mother is the frazzled cop in charge of finding whatever killed both that unfortunate party guest and attacked her own daughter. The stress of this case is then piled on top of the strain caused by her home life. Thale resents her mother since losing her father, hence why the teen doesn’t reach out when her condition starts to worsen.
Co-writers Svendsen and Espen Aukan (Troll) invent a distinctive mythos for their werewolf, but apart from those details, this movie doesn’t have much in the way of originality. Thale becoming cursed in the midst of adolescence is something we have seen before — and will, without a doubt, see again — and her eventual attack on the town evokes memories of a subgenre benchmark, An American Werewolf in London. In this movie, what you think will happen almost always does, and it’s done with considerably less effectiveness.
The werewolf itself will disappoint fans of humanoid designs. The fact that the creature looks like a common wolf, only bigger and less kempt, probably has more to do with the movie’s realistic presentation. The story doesn’t avoid fantasy or pretend this werewolf exists in nature, but the story has an otherwise no-nonsense execution. Thale’s mother takes a visiting werewolf hunter’s advice and information to heart, but the ensuing chase and confrontations with her transformed daughter are unimaginative. In addition, the CGI used for the werewolves does more harm than good. As the monster closes in on its victims, the unconvincing visuals cause you to feel disconnected from the action on screen.
Had it not been for its setting and regional lore, Viking Wolf would be forgotten. The blood and action are each meager in a movie of this breed, and the pacing is often sluggish. The mother-daughter story doesn’t reach its full potential either, and the outcome is as sterile as the movie’s aesthetic.
Viking Wolf is now streaming on Netflix.
Ghostface is back on the big screen this weekend… well, sort of… with the release of Scary Movie, which marks the Wayans brothers’ return to the horror spoof franchise for the first time since Scary Movie 2 back in the day. It’s likely to be the talk of the horror community for the weekend, but don’t overlook the other six genre movies that were freshly unleashed today.
Here’s all the new horror that released on Friday, June 5, 2026.
The horror spoof franchise is back with Scary Movie now playing in theaters!
Marlon Wayans (“Shorty”), Shawn Wayans (“Ray”), Anna Faris (“Cindy”), and Regina Hall (“Brenda”) reunite for the new Scary Movie, with the cast also including Dave Sheridan, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Chris Elliott, Jon Abrahams, Damon Wayans Jr., Gregg Wayans, Kim Wayans, Benny Zielke, Cameron Scott Roberts, Heidi Gardner, Olivia Rose Keegan, Ruby Snowber, Savannah Lee Nassif, Sydney Park, and Felissa Rose.
Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer (“Ghostface”), the Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe…
Scary Movie will slash through reboots, remakes, requels, prequels, sequels, spin-offs, elevated horror, origin stories, anything with the word legacy in it, and every “final chapter” that absolutely isn’t. A whole lot has changed in the horror genre since the Wayans Brothers were in charge of the franchise; their involvement ended with Scary Movie 2 back in 2001!
Michael Tiddes (A Haunted House) directs Scary Movie 6 from a script written by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, original Scary Movie director Keenen Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans (Scary Movie 2), and Rick Alvarez (A Haunted House).
From IFC, shark attack movie Chum is now available on Digital.
Alice Eve (Haunting of Queen Mary) stars in shark attack movie alongside Eric Michael Cole, Jim Klock, Elle Haymond, Lisa Yaro, Johnny Gaffney, and Sarah Siadat.
This one sounds very similar to last year’s Dangerous Animals…
Here’s the plot: “A newlywed couple joins friends on a Mediterranean yacht excursion, only to find themselves caught between a predatory shark and a psychopathic killer in their midst-transforming a sun-drenched escape into a fight for survival.”
Jonathan Zuck directs Chum, from a script by Jonathan Zuck and Joe Leone.
Samara Weaving (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come) and Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling) come together in Carolina Caroline, a sexy crime thriller now playing in theaters.
It’s not a horror movie, mind you, but it’s worth a mention here all the same.
Kyra Sedgwick (Family Movie) and Jon Gries also star in the romantic crime thriller.
Director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s film stars Samara Weaving as Caroline Daniels, whose desire to leave her small Texas town brings her into the orbit of a charismatic con man (Kyle Gallner), and together they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast.
Adam Rehmeier previously directed the films Dinner in America and Snack Shack.
Tom Dean wrote the screenplay for Carolina Caroline.
Similar to Steven Spielberg’s upcoming big screen blockbuster Disclosure Day, Signal One explores humankind’s enduring question: what if we aren’t alone in the universe?
The sci-fi thriller is now available on Digital.
Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan), Josh Hutcherson (Five Nights at Freddy’s), David Thewlis (Harry Potter), Raoul Bhaneja (Possessor), Emma Ho (“The Expanse”), and Dennis Quaid (The Substance) star in Signal One from director Jonathan Sobol (The Art of the Steal).
When tech billionaire Sam Houston (Quaid) hires the brilliant computer scientist Annika (Fuhrman), she ventures to an isolated facility run by the brilliant, nihilistic creator of LITTLEMOUTH, a machine which can communicate with alien intelligence.
Annika soon learns some humanity-altering facts: that we are not alone in the universe, that alien intelligences are communicating around us at every moment, and that we are likely too primitive to even remotely understand what they are trying to tell us.
When the goal of the endeavor shifts from listening to talking back, the project rapidly devolves into chaos. With contact comes consequences, and soon Annika and the team must work to ensure the very survival of our species.
A schoolyard dare becomes an urban legend in the creepypasta-inspired horror anthology The Summoning. The indie film is now available on Digital from Brainstorm Media.
“A babysitting gig becomes a nightmare of urban legend when three teens summon Baby Blue. Survival depends on uncovering the past to escape a mother’s wrath from beyond the grave.”
Felipe Vargas (Rosario, Hive), Sergio Gonzalez, Brandon Piskorik, Corey Benson Powers, and Brian Sepanzyk direct the segments. Valeria San Martín, Justina Ceballos, Daniela Flombaum, Nannu Spannauss, Agustín Olcese, and Giovanni Onetti star.
The Summoning is written by Camilo Zaffora.
Happy Death Day actress Jessica Rothe stars as a mom struggling to keep her grip on her sanity and memory in the mind-bending Affection, now available on Digital at home.
In Affection, “Afflicted by a mysterious condition that resets her memory, Ellie becomes trapped in a cyclical nightmare with a man who claims to be her husband. She soon must uncover the horrifying truth of her existence—before she forgets it all again.“
Joseph Cross (“Big Little Lies”) and Julianna Layne (“Chicago P.D.”) also star in the sci-fi horror thriller. Affection marks the feature debut by writer/director BT Meza.
Daniel Kurland wrote in his review out of the film’s premiere, “Affection is steeped in existential questions and fears that plague modern society, while it embraces the ethos of the ’80s through bold body horror. Add to that Rothe’s revelatory performance, and Affection is a hidden gem that will connect with your mind, body, and soul.”
Lucile Hadžihalilović’s latest dark fairy tale, The Ice Tower, loosely reimagines Hans Christian Andersen’s fable “The Snow Queen,” and it’s now streaming on Shudder.
In the ’70s set film, “Jeanne, a 15-year-old orphan, witnesses the shoot of a film adaptation of the fairy tale The Snow Queen, and she becomes fascinated by its star Cristina (Marion Cotillard), an actress who is just as mysterious and alluring as the Queen she is playing.“
Clara Pacini stars as Jeanne. August Diehl and Marine Gesbert also star in The Ice Tower, and look for a cameo from director Gaspar Noé (Climax, Irréversible).
“For me, The Ice Tower solidified Lucile Hadžihalilović’s place amongst the most fascinating creators of fairy tales today,” said distributor Yellow Veil Pictures co-founder Joe Yanick.
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