This Icelandic film is a much better movie than the title suggests. In fact the title is a lurid and stupid one. The original title is closer to the truth. (promoted in Iceland as "Tryllir" meaning something between Thriller and Horror) More a Thriller than a straight up slasher film, it is well acted and has the grace to add some truly interesting moments into the mix: a girl suddenly getting on a ship's intercom and singing IT'S SO QUITE when a character dies in a freak accident, a mousy Japanese tour guide becomes Ninja smart, and a black, gay man ascends to be a true action hero. It is also shot well.
However, the ending twists are highly confusing, illogical and unsatisfying. You find yourself saying "WTF?" a hell of a lot in the last 20 minutes, where characters suddenly shift motivations with no apparent reason just to satisfy the public's stupid need for stupid twist endings. I do appreciate that most of the bad guys (a racist whaling family) get it worse than their victims and that the violence and gore, while brutal and bloody, is not overly extreme or pandering. (but only in the R-rated version, the uncut version is gorier) To me though, that ending translates to: doesn't matter if you are a good person; brave, strong, sympathetic to other humans, or that you have been through a lot already BEFORE the psycho family decided to hunt you down, you will still most likely die and greedy people who weren't good people will get away alive. It may be life, but it ain't entertainment in the Book of Jaimes.
However, the ending twists are highly confusing, illogical and unsatisfying. You find yourself saying "WTF?" a hell of a lot in the last 20 minutes, where characters suddenly shift motivations with no apparent reason just to satisfy the public's stupid need for stupid twist endings. I do appreciate that most of the bad guys (a racist whaling family) get it worse than their victims and that the violence and gore, while brutal and bloody, is not overly extreme or pandering. (but only in the R-rated version, the uncut version is gorier) To me though, that ending translates to: doesn't matter if you are a good person; brave, strong, sympathetic to other humans, or that you have been through a lot already BEFORE the psycho family decided to hunt you down, you will still most likely die and greedy people who weren't good people will get away alive. It may be life, but it ain't entertainment in the Book of Jaimes.