Review of Norwegian horror movie extraordinaire...

...I keep babbling about the cool Norwegian horror movie DE DØDES TJERN and now kool Todd over at "Die Die Die Fuckers Kill Kill" blog has seen the light too!!! Go here (there's an awesome Aqua Lene video as well!!).

Friday the 13th

As you know Friday the 13th is a public holiday for horror movie fans and watching at least one horror movie on the day is COMPULSORY in celebrating the day. xD.
My film tonight was the amazing and very spooky Norwegian horror film DE DØDES TJERN (aka Lake of the Dead) from 1958. As regular readers will know (cos I've talked about it endlessly) it was released recently on a spiffy English subbed DVD. Read more here.



PS: Welcome to the latest subber, Lord_Garvals Khalikov.

De Dødes Tjern - the DVD cover is here

The new cover for the upcoming DVD release of the very spooky Norwegian horror movie DE DØDES TJERN (1958) is here!



I must admit I prefer the old VHS cover:



Since the Norske Klassikere (Norwegian Classics) series isn't selling that well some fans are speculating that the film may not be restored or anything. But, hey, at least it's gonna be on DVD and easy to get hold of. Hopefully it'll have some kinda subtitles. Release date is October 14th. :o)


EDIT: Alright alright, stop hassling me! I've seen my misled and wrong ways and I too think the new cover is much better than the old one!

De Dødes Tjern (1958)

I finally watched Kåre Bergstrøm's excellent Norwegian horror movie DE DØDES TJERN from 1958 and... woh-hoah!! What an awesome horror film!!! This is a classic in Norway but is practically unknown in the rest of Scandinavia. My gawd, they should show stuff like this on Danish TV instead of those retarded reruns they keep force-feeding us with!!

The plot deals with a group of friends who stay in a cabin in the forest near a lake. The photography is great and the atmosphere is so thick you could slice it with a knife. But other than that description I'm not gonna spoil anything for you by revealing any more of the plot. But if you like spooky horror flicks then this is it! When you're a seasoned horror fan it takes quite a bit more to get a fright but... Gott im himmel!... I didn't even wanna go into my kitchen in the dark for more coffee during the film! I don't even remember the last time I watched such a spooky horror movie. Brrr. There are absolutely NO Danish horror movies, new or old, that come even close. It's an OFFENCE this isn't already out on internationally released DVD. And it's a pure crime to humanity that the upcoming DVD is a Norway only release. I just hope that at least it'll have subtitles in Norwegian (the accent was a little heavy in a few places but I understood most of the dialogue).
EDIT: the dvd has English and Norwegian subtitles.

DE DØDES TJERN is based on André Bjerke's book by the same title from 1942. There's a Danish edition from 1943, entitled De Dødes Sø.

Thanks to Dag-Johnny for getting me this on DVDr.


EDIT (28/07/09): When I raved about this film in my usual exaggerating manner over on Uncut.dk someone pointed out that the film NATTEVAGTEN (the original Danish version of NIGHTWATCH) is pretty good too. And I gotta admit; Yes, NATTEVAGTEN is definitely good! Actually, I bought it on UK DVD recently).
EDIT (29/09/09) Alright, alright, Lars von Trier's RIGET TV series is pretty damn good too!

De Dødes Tjern on dvd in October (or: Hell Comes To Your Tjern)

Great news! Two weeks ago, I wrote to Nordisk Film in Denmark and asked them about a possible DVD release of the Norwegian 1958 horror movie DE DØDES TJERN and today I (finally) received an e-mail from Nordisk Film's branch in Norway saying the film is going to be released on October 14!

Great news indeed! It seems it'll be a Norway only release but I can live with that. Let's cross our fingers it'll have English subs so people everywhere can get to enjoy this classic (and I say that even without every having watched anything but the two clips I linked to in the first post!!!).

Thanks to Elvira Vegas Messel of Nordisk Film Distibusjon for the info. She also read my first blog entry. :D
Now, Elvira, how about a review copy??? LOL.

De Dødes Tjern on upcoming dvd?

A couple of months back, Jocke (of Gummimonster-fetischism blog) reviewed the Norwegian horror movie DE DØDES TJERN (aka Lake of the Dead) from 1958, directed by Kåre Bergstrøm.

Apparently the film is totally rad and one IMDb user said he had to turn it off as it was too scary. Gee. So obviously I'd like to watch this spooky slice of celluloid but unfortunately it seems there's no DVD or VHS versions available. It's only been released as a film club VHS and shown on Norwegian TV. I haven't been able to find any info on upcoming DVDs either. Boo-hoo. So my question to my scores of Norwegian readers; do any of you know of an upcoming release (or if it's scheduled for broadcast)??? Thanks.

NB: No need to direct me towards torrent sites. I don't download. I fear the gestapo of the Eastern block country that I live in more than I want to see these rare films. And yes that is sad. :/
LOL.