Stig Sevendson’s “Viking Wolf” makes use of the same tropes that have been done and redone for any and every werewolf film that you could think of. There is absolutely nothing in this narrative that would make you feel like it is an original work of art. By saying that the film lacks novelty, we nowhere mean that it is unbearable to watch, but it is way too bland to keep you engrossed, as you would have already guessed the story in the first few minutes. The actors do put on a good show, but more than once, it feels like they are just meandering, devoid of any motive or purpose. The conflicts that had the potential to pack a punch are executed in a manner that they fail to have any lasting impact. So, let’s see what “Viking Wolf” has in store for us and understand the dilemmas and issues faced by the characters.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Viking Wolf’ Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?
“Viking Wolf” takes us back to the year 1050, when the chief of the Viking clan, Grim Gudbrand, went with his entire army to raid Normandy. While they were in Normandy, Gudbrand’s forces discovered a secret room, which the native monks begged the chief not to go inside. Gudbrand thought that the room would have some treasure, and that is why the monks were trying to stop him and his men from entering there. But that was not true. The monks were begging Gudbrand for his own safety. They knew that whatever satanic creature was inside had the potential to wreak havoc on the entire human race. But Gudbrand didn’t listen to them and believing himself to be as infallible as the gods, he entered the room. They found a little cub there, and though it looked harmless at first, it was no less than a hound of hell. It is said that ignorance is the root of misfortune, and that is what happened with the Viking soldiers. They brought the cub on their ship, and it killed the entire army before they reached Norway. The wolf went and hid inside the dense Nordic woods, and the journey that was supposed to add a feather to the cap of the fearless Viking clan allowed evil to find a permanent residence in the land of the midnight sun.
A thousand years later, people had forgotten that anything of that sort had ever happened. Thale had just moved to Nybo in Norway, and she was still adjusting to the new place. She didn’t have a lot of friends and the discord between her parents meant that she mostly kept to herself. Thale was very close to her sister, Jenny, who was hearing and speech impaired. Thale’s mother, Liv Berg, was a deputy in the Norwegian police force. Thale’s father had died, and her mother had married another guy named Arthur. Thale had still not accepted Arthur as a part of her family, and though she was cordial with him, she didn’t hesitate to state clearly that he could never be his father. Arthur was a good man, and he understood the kind of internal conflict Thale was facing. He always told Liv to give her some space and to let her be. Liv had found love, and it was very difficult for Thale to understand how she could move on so quickly. Thale always felt that her mother wasn’t affected by the demise of her father, and that had made it easy for her to move on. But Liv was not wrong in what she did. Things were not going great with her first husband, but that didn’t mean that his death hadn’t affected her like Thale had assumed. Thale, like a quintessential teenager, was a rebel and extremely averse to somebody trying to control her life. Jonas, a friend of Thale, had messaged her, asking if she would be joining them that evening. Thale went to meet him, and an unexpected tragedy came her way that changed her entire life.
Thale, Jonas, and another friend of theirs, Elin Gran, were attacked by a predator, though they were not able to see what kind of creature it was. Jonas and Thale were gravely injured, but that predator had taken Elin Gran inside the woods. Elin was the daughter of the mayor of the city, and that is why the police forces were under a lot of pressure to find her. Liv arrived at the screen and when seeing her daughter there, she got worried. To her relief, her daughter survived, though she did suffer some injuries. Liv tried asking Thale and all the others present at the scene about what exactly had happened, but nobody had seen anything that could help the police make a breakthrough.
Who Was Lars Brodin? What Did He Know About The Viking Wolf?
Elin Gran’s body was finally found, and though it looked like she was attacked by a predator, the abrasions were so huge that the medical expert wasn’t able to ascertain what kind of animal it was. The forensic pathologist asked Liv to contact someone in the Norwegian school of veterinary sciences, as she believed that the experts would be able to tell better if it was a wolf or something else. One day, out of nowhere, a man named Lars Brodin came to the police station and requested to meet Liv. He told her that the predator who had killed Elin was a lycanthrope, a kind of werewolf that he had been hunting for his entire life. Lars told Liv that the wolf could only be killed by a special kind of bullet that was made of silver.
In the film “Viking Wolf,” we saw that William, the expert from the institute, came and examined the dead body and came to the conclusion that the predator was a wolf, though he didn’t understand how the claws of the beast could be so much bigger than a normal wolf. Liv got the hunting permit, and the Norwegian police force started the search for the werewolf. The beast finally came out from hiding and attacked them. Though the police force suffered some casualties, they were able to kill the horrifying creature. When William examined the body of the dead wolf, he noticed that, surprisingly, the normal lead bullets didn’t do any damage to it, and the single silver bullet that had been given to Liv by Lars Brodin caused a weird chemical reaction that ended up killing the beast. Liv understood that Lars Brodin was actually speaking the truth, and she went to meet him once again with William.
Lars welcomed them into his caravan, and he told them whatever he knew about the creature. According to Norse mythology, Loki and the giantess Angrboda had an offspring named the Fenris wolf, also known as Fenrir. It was said that Fenris couldn’t be controlled by the gods, and it took a great deal of effort to bind him using magical powers. Lars wanted them to know about the possibility of the werewolf infecting another human being, and he informed them that the predator was always driven by a hunger for human blood.
‘Viking Wolf’ Ending Explained: What Happens To Thale? Is She Dead Or Alive?
On the night Elin was attacked, Thale was bitten by a werewolf. She started getting weird visions, and she had no clue what they meant. The wound on her shoulder had also not been healing, and at times she felt nauseated and sick. Thale was slowly transforming into a werewolf, and nobody had a clue about it. Thale was with Jonas when she couldn’t resist her blood thirst and ended up devouring him. Thale went into hiding, and the police came and found the dead body of Jonas. After analyzing the wounds, William realized that this werewolf was not as big as the one they had killed earlier. When the reports came, it was established that the predator had a lot of similarities with human DNA, and William knew that an infected person had transformed into a werewolf. Meanwhile, Thale, who had gone into hiding, boarded a bus, but in between her journey, she completely transformed into a werewolf. She started killing the passengers on the bus, and that’s when Liv was informed about the situation, and she instantly reached the Nybo tunnel. Liv realized that it was her own daughter who had transformed into a werewolf. It was a grave predicament for a mother, as on one hand, there were people for whom she was responsible, and on the other hand, there was her daughter, who had become a bloodthirsty predator. Thale, who had no control over himself whatsoever, went to her own house. When Jenny saw the wolf, she looked it in the eye and instantly realized that it was her own sister. Jenny’s presence calmed Thale down, and it felt like she would be able to overpower her instincts without hurting her. But just then, Arthur arrived and seeing Jenny in front of a deadly predator, he started hitting it with whatever he had.
Arthur and Jenny escaped from the house, but Arthur crashed his car and he fell unconscious because he had been profusely bleeding. Jenny once again came face to face with her sister, and it felt like she would be able to bring her under control. But Liv and William arrived at the scene this time and shot the werewolf with a tranquilizer. It didn’t slow the predator down, and Thale came after them with full force. Lars Brodin sped up his caravan and rammed it into the werewolf, hoping to injure it, but his efforts were futile, and he was killed by it as well. Finally, it was Jenny who stabbed the wolf with a tranquilizer and made it stop. It was a difficult thing for her to do as she knew that it was her own sister, but she had no option left. Thale was brought to the forensics lab, and Liv knew that she had to be killed so that she couldn’t attack anybody else. She loaded her gun with the same silver bullets that Lars had given her and probably shot her daughter with her own hands. Liv came back, and as a tribute to her daughter’s memories, she kept the silver bullet in front of her photograph. “Viking Wolf” ends on a sentimental note, though it is possible that we see another infected person wreaking havoc in Nybo in the next installment, if there is any.
“Viking Wolf” is a 2023 Drama Thriller film directed by Stig Sevendson.
