31 Days of Halloween: Rune of the Dead

2019, Rasmus Tirzitis (Vilsen) -- download

Or The Huntress: Rune of the Dead.

And then there is that movie that has, at its core something scary, but turns out to be just an atmospheric period fantasy story. In the game Skyrim one of the primary low level enemies are the Draugr, basically Undead Vikings. Draug is an actual Scandinavian word for the undead, so it's not surprising that a Scandinavian movie would take advantage of them to setup a scary antagonist.

Runa lives with her mother, younger sister and blind grandfather while father has gone off on a viking raid. Mother is depressed and Runa is bitter. She spends her days doing chores and hunting in the woods, showing off the skill with the bow that her father instilled in her. Their blind grandfather provides wisdom and a reminder that they shouldn't give up on his son.

One day Runa comes across a wounded soldier, a man who claims to know their father and assures her he is still alive. She drags the man back to their home and demands that they help him. When he recovers he tells the family of successful raiding, treasure gained but of an unintended curse, and how the survivors of the raid set upon each other to claim the gold for themselves. Soon after, father does arrive home, but beset with a deep worry; is it PTSD or something else?

I find that recaps, while needing to impart where the story is going, are often boring filler to any writing about a movie. They can be soulless and utilitarian. But for this movie, much felt the same way. While there was a definite style, a moody fearful theme, where Runa flows from anger at her mother and father (one for not being there, the other for not being entirely there) to calm repose in the forest, to the occasional prophetic waking dream filled with fear and an unknowable future horror, much of the movie felt more like a viewing of someone's decent LARPing event. It didn't have much life in it.

Finally the movie does swing around to where it was actually going, with the dead men seeking to reclaim the gold come looking for Runa's father and the other warrior. By this point, all scariness that was foreshadowed has been drained out of us. Think the final season of Game of Thrones where we accept the story has to go that way, but it ends up being more rushed and boring than a culmination of the built up story. There are draugr and there is tragedy, but.... yawn.