Draug – review

Directors: Karin Engman & Klas Persson

Release date: 2018

Contains spoilers

I have been looking forward to this Swedish folk horror film for a while now and it has just received a wide streaming release. Shot on a small budget this story set 1000 years ago is remarkable, before anything else, for its ambition. However, before we discuss the film let us discuss the vampire type within.

So, what are we talking about? Well “the typical Scandinavian revenant, at least in the medieval period, was the reanimated corpse, or draugr, of a deceased individual” (Keyworth, 2007, p. 28). Keyworth mentions two primary types – land and sea draugr. There might be some debate to their vampire nature (though not that they are restless, troublesome corpses). They are mentioned in detail within Bane’s Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology and, more classically, in the 1886 edition of Curious Myths of the Middle Ages there was reference to vampires (rather than use the word draugr) within the saga of Grettir by Sabine Baring-Gould. The draugr is often guarding a treasure or seeks to gain revenge.

Nanna and hakon

This film begins with young Swedes being trained in a lake. One of them, Nanna (Elna Karlsson), seems to be in trouble and later her guardian Hakon (Ralf Beck, Sinister Visions) asks what happened, rightly suspecting that she had a vision (we see these in flashes, perhaps as - deliberately - confusing for the viewer as the character) and commenting that it was a sought after trait once. He has to go on a mission and gives her belongings that were with her when he became her guardian (including a key) but then desides to take her on the mission with him.

Deja and Kettil

The mission is to search out a group of Christian missionaries, travelling with one of Hakon’s old warrior brethren, who never reached their destination. As they enter the initial village, following their boat journey, Hakan tells Nanna to keep her head down as Swedes are not popular. They enter the feasting hall and, after some initial banter, it becomes apparent that Hakon is also old friends with local sheriff Kettil (Thomas Hedengran, Frostbite & Marianne) and he uses this as leverage to get Kettil to journey with him. Kettil brings his slave, Deja (Nina Filimoshkina) and they also have the warriors Gunder (Urban Bergsten) and Odd (Matti Boustedt) with them.

grandmother's vision

They stop at a farmhouse – the last before the trail – at which Kettil extorts some ale, sends Nanna to meet the grandmother (who is deathly ill with ulcers rotting her legs and deemed crazy but actually probably has some insight and herbalist knowledge) and asks about the brother-in-law, local rebel Kol (Oscar Skagerberg) who is known to be whipping up anti-Swede fervour. The farmer, Are (Ola Ljung), denies seeing the missionaries. Later Kol leads an ambush on the group who retreat deeper into the woods, after Odd is badly wounded, but capture Kol in the process.

a draugr

It is, of course, not the rebels who have killed the missionaries but something worse – draugr. They are portrayed as blue-skinned, which Bane says is traditionally “described as being… …hel- blar (“death- blue”)” (p55) and their movements at times are somewhat spiderly owing a tad to the wider horror genre. They are corporeal but also seem separate to their actual corpses. Described as the living dead, a memory of another draugr occurrence suggests the way to kill them is to disinter them from their grave, behead them, burn them and scatter the ashes into a river (binding them to the water).

drawing Odd's life?

They can cause visions and we see one of the group distracted and, apparently, blissful as they see a child no-one else sees. Another group member is caused to dash their own brains out against a rock. As for vampiric activity… its difficult to say. We see one on the chest of the injured Odd and he arches his back and wide-mouthed it might be that his life is drawn out. Whether that is what the filmmakers were portraying or whether it is my interpretation, coloured by my knowledge of the wider genre, I can’t say. What I can say is that these Draugr are after revenge and, whilst one character describes them as filled with rage and hate until there is nothing else, it is secrets within the group that prove the key to their story.

a tad too dark

The film itself is really nicely put together for a low budget effort with an authentic look and atmosphere that works well. There is a nice layer of background story added through the film that makes the plot more three-dimensional and draws the viewer in. The characters perhaps aren’t drawn too deeply but the actors imbue them with unique personalities and build a viewer sympathy. Not everything is perfect, some of the horror aspects are a tad too dark, probably to help hide the joins as much as for atmosphere. There are gaps deliberately left for viewer interpretation and this works. All in all this was an enjoyable delve into Scandinavian myth and impressive given the budget. 7.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

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