Thale (2012)

• Year: 2012
• Released: 17 Feb 2012
• Country: Norway
• Adwords: 1 win & 4 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2112287/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/thale
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Norwegian, Swedish
• MPA Rating: Not Rated
• Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
• Runtime: 76 min
• Writer: Aleksander Nordaas
• Director: Aleksander Nordaas
• Cast: Silje Reinåmo, Erlend Nervold, Jon Sigve Skard
• Keywords: huldra,

	5.5/10
	60% – Critics
	33% – Audience

Thale Storyline

Two men are in plastic biohazard-type suits working as a cleaning crew on a crime scene. One of the men, Elvis, is vomiting continuously in a bucket; and you get a sense that he is inexperienced at this type of work. The second man, Leo, is calmly using handfuls of paper towels to mop up a large pool of congealed blood on the floor. Leo’s cell phone rings and Elvis answers the phone for Leo and holds the phone to Leo’s ear to speak as Leo still has the bloody rubber gloves on. Leo answers the phone, “no shit cleaning service, Leo speaking.” As he is listening to the details of their next cleaning job, Elvis makes the mistake of glancing over at the bloody crime scene for just a second and immediately doubles over vomiting again, dropping Leo’s cell phone in the bloody mess in the process. Leo calmly kneels down and bends his ear down next to the phone on the floor to finish receiving the address to the next job. He finishes speaking and announces to Elvis, “lunchtime” Elvis says, “great!” Elvis is standing on the shore of a lake in a heavily wooded area. The wind is blowing and he’s swaying slightly in the breeze with his eyes closed. Leo walks up and tells him that it’s an elderly man they are about to clean up. (You see a cabin in the background, they are at their next job already.) Leo says that the police only found half of the body as they are in a remote area with wild animals around and the animals have scattered the remains. Elvis continues swaying with his eyes closed, but answers, “so we have to find the other half.” Leo gives his usual nonchalant shrug, he’s obviously not surprised by the details of this kind of work. He asks Elvis what he is doing, Elvis says he’s swaying in the breeze. Leo asks why and Elvis says, “why not?” Leo closes his eyes and sways also. He tells Elvis that they have to tear up the outhouse floor to recover all of the human remains that have been scattered around. Elvis is inside the outhouse throwing assorted clutter out, in order to make room to start removing the outhouse floor.

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Thale Movie Reviews

More adult fantasy and mysterious drama, than horror.

Thale is visually stunning, interesting in mythology and well – played movie. Yes, the story is poor and screenplay has some holes, design of “hurdles” is quite upsetting (the CGI is done well, but they look really strange), but this has an mysterious atmosphere, supplemented by shots of beautiful nature and melancholic music. Short footage is good move how to cover few deficiencies of screenplay, but maybe, it should have been 10 minutes longer…

Over an above, the character of Thale was played very suggestively by beautiful Silje Reinåmo, and the characters of “two friends” are quite nice.

Thale is strange fantasy, but it has also some aspects of art movie (the way the shots are stylized, minimalistic acting, static camera, few actors…).

I’m certainly sure, that Thale will be forgotten, and that’s really pity. It is because this movie is very unconventional, so it will barely engage the attention of masses, or at least some group of people – and maybe because you can’t classify Thale into some universal film genre. It has some aspects of horror, fantasy, and also mystery drama. In addition, the low budget is obvious – but I don’t think it is an negative in here.

Would I recommend this movie to someone?

Namely, if you expect much of horror/gore and action – forget it and better don’t watch it. But if you like shots of beautiful nature accompanied by suggestive music, slow storyline, and you like the impressions more than action, maybe you will enjoy the Thale, as I did.

Quiet fantasy based on Nordic folklore

If you have read anything about the film, including the title of this review, or have seen any trailer, then you already know what the story is about. The film is quiet, haunting and has a quality of foreboding which is quite alluring. It is hardly a horror movie and I could only place it in the fantasy genre.

The plot revolves around huldra, seductive creatures from Nordic folklore that seem to be very beautiful women, but are actually forest creatures. As such, the choice of Silje Reinåmo was very wise; she is very pretty. The film feels almost like a filmed play. After all, there are only four actors in total and a voice.

Even if the lead character is supposedly the one driving the story, the movie being seen from his perspective, the one that really made the film feel real and interesting was, in acting and role, his friend, interpreted by Jon Sigve Skard. A phlegmatic character, he underlines the weirdness of the situation by acting totally cool, creating the appropriate contrast.

Over all it was a nice film, although the entirety of it was pretty much about the same thing and something that was already obvious from the beginning. The feel and the fairytale root of the movie are what makes it worth watching. Some people might get bored by it or enjoy its atmosphere, as I did.

Very talented young filmmaking on tiny budget

After seeing the first teaser of Thale I wasn’t expecting very much of this Norwegian low budget film which is a mix of the genres crime, drama, gore and adventure. The more I got surprised by seeing the film at the cinema.

‘Thale’ is based on a mythical character in Norwegian folklore called ‘Huldra’. A hulder is a beautiful young woman living in water in the dark woods, louring men into the water with them, getting attention with their heavenly singing. This folklore came from warning kids to stay away from waters, back in the ancient times. A hulder looks just like a woman, except you tell it’s a hulder by her tail.

The film opens with some rather disgusting scenes, really preparing you on something the film isn’t – gory. Two crime scene washers comes to a cottage out in the deep woods. It’s a long time since I’ve seen such a start of a film involving blood, stiff body and puking. But the film soon changes more into a thriller when the two men find i cellar looking like a serial killers office. Then they discover Thale…

It’s easy to see that this film is low budget, but there’s much talent here. Silje Reinåmo (Thale) is very good, and the CGI is handled well. Norwegian folklore suits CGI great. With more work on the script, this could easily have been a classic like “TrollHunter”.

Far from perfect, but I’ll give a 6/10 for the talent and the difference. I’d like to see more on a larger budget and a more thorough script.