Review: Mortal
DVD & Digital HD: Mortal (2020)
Mortal (in Norwegian: Torden) is the latest offering from Norwegian director André Øvredal (Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark…interview show online with him on Thursday 13th August in our usual audio podcast show AND in video form on our YouTube channel – Dave) and stars Nat Wolff (brother of Alex “Hereditary” Wolff) as Eric, a young man who is living rough in the wild forests of Norway.
Roaming around for food he happens upon a gang of teenagers who taunt him, and somehow one of them gets killed in a very unusual way and Eric runs away.
Eric is arrested and meets Christine (Iben Akerlie), a recently bereaved psychologist who realises there is more to this young man than it first seems.
Norweigan film is getting easier to access thanks to Netflix, and movies like The Wave and The Quake not only have the most incredible vistas, they make you care about the characters.
The wonderful scenery and empathy for the characters is what elevates Mortal from a cheap indie film into something special. This is essentially a chase movie; good looking stranger with a ‘secret’ does ‘bad things’ with lightning and he must be caught before he does anymore damage. Throw in a love interest (Christine) and Bob’s your uncle.
However the actual landscape and weather become characters in themselves, and Nat Wolff is actually quite subtle in his angst, making the end of the film fist-pumpingly believable.
Now the problem with reviewing this film is…. knowing the end could spoil it for you (it would for me, you can guess, but you’re not entirely sure until….).
This is somewhat of a slow burner, and although the special effects are NOT massive Hollywood ones, they work perfectly for the tone of this films story.
The story itself is simple, and to me perfect films are ones that have a beginning, a middle, and an end. This has an open ending and I sincerely hope André Øvredal manages to make part 2 because I think this would be a fantastic saga especially if he keeps it in Norway. I’d like to know what happens to Eric, because as the old saying goes, “with great power comes great responsibility“.
Mortal is out now on Digital HD and on DVD 24th August 2020.
Review by Tina from a screening link kindly supplied by Signature Entertainment.
