Horror as a genre has a lot more nuance than just blood, guts, and jump scares. The term ‘elevated horror’ became popular in the last ten years or so because there was a surge of horror films like Hereditary and It Follows that, while still frightening, focused on more high-concept, psychological terror and atmosphere. But the two styles aren’t mutually exclusive, and it’s totally possible to have a movie that both leans into traditional horror tropes and fleshes out its characters to create something with a message. Viking Wolf is a perfect example of that middle ground, as director Stig Svendsen tells a heartbreaking story of teenage struggle without skimping out on the werewolf action. The Norwegian horror-thriller follows Thale (Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne), a teenage girl with normal teenage problems made infinitely worse by the fact that she’s turning into a werewolf, and it’s not nearly as fun as Michael J. Fox or MTV made it out to be. The movie nicely blends scares and emotional depth, offering something for fans of traditional or elevated horror to enjoy.

‘Viking Wolf’ Turns Teenage Fears Into Something Monstrous

In Viking Wolf, Thale has just moved from the big city to the small Norwegian town of Nybo because her mother, police officer Liv (Liv Mjönes), recently transferred there for work. Thale is also still grieving her father’s death and resents her mother and her mother’s new partner, Arthur (Vidar Magnussen). Being a teenager is tough enough without this extra emotional baggage, but they’re not exactly uncommon problems. What’s less typical is seeing a classmate fatally attacked by a wild animal and getting injured attempting to help – and then that injury slowly turning you into a werewolf. Thale herself is seemingly unaware of the nature of her attacker, only knowing that something strange and terrifying is happening to her. Her transformation into a beat of bloodlust is gradual, and, to an outside observer, could easily come across as a teenager sinking into a depression or a breakdown. She’s fatigued, sleepwalking, and having seemingly abrupt emotional outbursts; what those around her don’t know is that she’s experiencing terrifying hallucinations of her dead classmate and struggling against her transformation into a monster.

Viking Wolf uses the werewolf curse as a metaphor for one of the worst parts of being a teenager, i.e., standing out when all you want to do is fit in, because Thale is also going through plenty of non-supernatural turmoil. She’s developing a crush on one of her classmates, while others are singling her out as not only the new kid but also the one who saw another student brutally attacked, and her family relationships aren’t much better, particularly with her mother. Liv is having her own difficulties, as she’s tasked with hunting the original creature down and in doing so discovers its supernatural origins. As mother and daughter each grapple with things they don’t understand, they’re both unknowingly racing towards a bloody showdown that will alter them forever.

‘Viking Wolf’ Strikes a Solid Balance Between Character Study and Traditional Scares

If you’re a fan of traditional horror and worry that Viking Wolf is too much of an arthouse character study, you’re in luck. Viking Wolf doesn’t hold back on the bloody side of things, and even if the final werewolf form doesn’t have the best CGI, the actual transformation favors practical effects much to its benefit. Thale’s skin peels away, her teeth painfully extend into fangs, and her entire body painfully contorts as she fully becomes a werewolf – and on a bus full of innocent people, no less. The movie explodes outward in the climax from a handful of characters aware of something supernatural happening to the entire town of Nybo, becoming the center of a werewolf massacre. On top of that, the final stage before becoming a full werewolf is the victim’s facial features becoming more animalistic. It’s an interesting addition to the traditional werewolf lore that the rest of the movie sticks to, and seeing Thale’s face become permanently wolf-life is unnerving. It’s also another parallel to the teenage experience of feeling like an outcast; not only has she become physically different from everyone else, she also suffers a bout of bloodlust while on the verge of making out with her crush. What happens then is the worst possible version of a first kiss gone wrong, and it’s as heartbreaking as it is violent.

You could watch something gorier than Viking Wolf, and you could watch something emotionally heavier as well, but that doesn’t mean you should skip over it. It’s actually a really nice middle ground between those two styles of horror, and regardless of how far it pushes the envelope (or doesn’t) on either side, it’s still a solid and cohesive horror movie that goes down easy.