A small town secluded in the wilderness, an introverted teen with parental issues considered an outcast by the rest of her peers, quasi-historical anecdotes, a familial angle in the monster mystery, and a token elderly hunter acting as exposition bot – Netflix’s latest Norwegian monster horror flick “Viking Wolf” has all the cookie-cutter trappings to be a teenage horror classic like “Twilight” or “Ginger Snaps.” Unfortunately, it fails to deliver anything unique except for some sprawling scenery of Scandinavian settings, thanks to the dual snooze of clichéd monster narrative and uninteresting human characters. Directed by Stig Svendsen, the movie is touted as the first Norwegian werewolf flick, as the cheesy name blatantly suggests, and even though it attempts to make minor new adjustments to the classic monster lore, the rest of the derivative choices bog it down.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In ‘Viking Wolf’ Film?
In the beginning, viewers are taken back to 1050 AD during the conquest of Normandy by the Vikings. The Viking leader Gudbrand leads his men to plunder the lands as they come across an abbey. They discover a secret chamber, which the resident monks plead with them not to open. Despite their ominous warnings, Gudbrand goes on to break open the chambers in search of loot. What they find instead is a feral wolf cub, which is regarded as a hellhound by the omniscient narrator. And indeed, it proved itself to be one, as the Viking troop decided to carry the cub in their ship to their homeland—on their way back before the ship touched the shore, every single person on the boarding ship passed away. The demonic creature found the Norwegian wilderness to be its new home and was presumably never heard of again. The scenario seems to have taken inspiration from Count Dracula’s ship of death chapter.
After a millennium, in the present day, viewers are introduced to the small, idyllic town of Nybo in Norway. As we peep inside the household of our teenage protagonist, Thale, the slasher movie playing in the background forebodes the upcoming massacre. Thale had just moved to the small town from the capital Oslo with her family and is still adjusting to a new life. Her mother, Liv, serves as the deputy chief in the local PD, and her active-duty career made it hard for her to spend time with her daughter or get to know her better. Thale has not been able to process her father’s death, and her teenage mind finds it revolting that her mother has been able to find love in another man and is trying to move on. The relationship between mother and daughter is far from being a healthy one, as Thale’s contemptuous dismissiveness has caused a rift between them. Thale shares a loving bond with her speech and hearing-impaired sister Jenna, as the duo promise to look after each other. Liv’s new partner, Arthur, is a caring person who wishes to have a familial relationship with Liv’s family, and although Thale is on good terms with him, she isn’t willing to acknowledge him as her father.
Thale gets an invite from her new classmate, Jonas, to attend a friendly hangout in the Bay Area. As an outsider, she finds it difficult to mingle with the local teenagers who pick on her. Jonas gets into an argument with the Town Mayor’s daughter, Elin Gran, apparently over inviting Thale to the hangout, and they get separated. While returning to her home, Thale spots the duo in the forest fringes and sees them getting attacked by an unseen assailant. She rushes to help them, only to get knocked down herself, and sees a fatally injured Elin getting dragged into the darkness. Local PD rushes to the spot, and Deputy Liv is relieved to see her daughter unharmed, although she has suffered an injury in the shoulder. Upon questioning, Thale or Jonas are unable to recall what exactly took place, and Thale mentions a howling sound she had heard during the chaotic situation. The police recover a broken claw from the close proximity of the incident, although Erin hasn’t been found.
Liv tries to identify the claw and matches the sample with online images, and identifies it to be from a wolf, and you don’t have to be a taxidermist to find the scene nonsensical and hilarious. However, after Erin’s mangled, half-eaten body is found in the forest the day after, her suspicions get confirmed that it might be the result of a wolf attack. Forensic pathologist finds it hard to believe that the viciousness can be attributed to mere wolves and suggests Liv contact an expert vet. Meanwhile, Thale starts having lucid dreams, visions of the dead Erin, and her senses start getting heightened.
A mysterious, self-proclaimed creature hunter, Lars Brodin, checks on Erin’s corpse in secrecy and visits Liv to share information regarding the case. He suggests that the creature behind the grisly crime was not an animal; it was a lycanthrope, a man turned monster—a werewolf. He states that the beast transfers its curse by biting other people, which can be broken only by severing the bloodline—by killing the last host of the curse. Brodin further adds that the beast cannot be killed using regular ammunition and that only a silver bullet can take it down. Considering his suggestions to be the rambling of a senile person, Liv dismisses him. Before leaving, Brodin shares his address, lest she needs him in the future, and gives Liv a silver bullet.
Thale’s condition gradually worsens, and Liv remains mostly unaware of that. After an expert vet, William, identifies the claw to be that of a wolf, the local PD gets their permit to organize a search and hunt. During the operation, all of the hunters get hunted by a gnarly wolf creature, the Sheriff, who previously had a nervous breakdown, gets grievously injured, and Liv barely survives after using the silver bullet to take the beast down. Seeing Brodin’s warnings come true, Liv and William decide to visit him. Brodin delineates the history of the curse of werewolves, which was carried to Scandinavia by Vikings through Europe (connecting the prologue). After learning more from him about the symptoms and the impossibility of reversing the curse, Liv is concerned about her daughter Thale, who was bitten by the creature. For some strange, unexplained reason, the movie shows the Norse mythology of Fenrir the giant wolf, who was the son of the God of mischief Loki, and the giant Angrboda, sibling of Midgard serpent and Hel, in a parallel narrative as a part of Thale’s lessons in school, but never connects it with the central creature mystery.
The same night, Thale visits Jonas, and at the sight of a full moon, he transforms into a Werewolf and kills him. The next morning, William inspects Jonas’ corpse and confirms that the culprit beast is a younger one, further solidifying Liv’s suspicion that Thale might be the newest victim of the curse.
‘Viking Wolf’ Ending Explained – Does Liv Shot Thale? Is She Dead Or Alive?
Thale tries to run off by boarding a bus to Oslo, but in the middle of the journey, the sight of the full moon once again causes her to transform. Unable to control her beast self, she slaughters the passengers left and right as the bus overturns. Liv, being the closest on-duty officer, inspects the area as William confirms that the DNA test shows the younger werewolf to be Thale. In her werewolf form, Thale visits her home and comes face-to-face with her beloved sister Jenna, who at once identifies her sister (possibly due to Thale’s heterochromatic eyes visible in the beast’s features too, but we aren’t ruling out the possibility of sisterly love). Arthur attacks the beast and gets severely injured, but manages to outrun it, taking Jenna along with him. Unfortunately, due to his severe injuries, he faints and crashes at a downtown location. Thale arrives and causes carnage, killing multiple civilians. Responding to the alert, Liv arrives at the location with William and tranquilizes Thale, causing little to no effect. Brodin appears out of nowhere and rams his van into the beast, not the wisest move to be honest, which actually causes more harm to the human side of the conflict, and he gets himself killed by the werewolf too. Finally, Jenny manages to dose Thale with tranquilizer once again to put her into a deep slumber.
The werewolf is brought to forensics, and Liv weeps at the predicament of her daughter. She feels partially responsible for her daughter’s condition; had she been there for her, the situation might not have worsened to that extent. At least if they couldn’t have reversed the curse, the deaths could have been prevented. But more than anything else, she regrets not having her daughter’s back when she needed it the most, and now she is in a precarious situation where she has to put her daughter down herself. Liv brings out the silver bullet given to her by Brodin and makes up her mind to end Thale’s suffering. “Viking Wolf” ends with Liv entering Thale’s room and keeping the bullet in front of her photograph. The bullet casing remains intact, which might indicate she has not killed her daughter. Also, Brodin might have ended Sheriff’s life to sever the bloodline, but there are multiple injured still remaining alive in the town. What happens with Thale if she wakes up, or what of the numerous victims of the curse? “Viking Wolf” ends on an ambiguous note without answering these questions.
