User Reviews

This is a full and frank review, with spoilers, discussing the story and the ending.

I am lucky to have seen Maelstrom recently, and it rekindled so many childhood memories. I remembered the sinister theme music and the dolls, but soon found that trying to sing along with the theme music would give me a sore throat.

Some reviews are very harsh on the lead actress, Tusse Silberg. I had no problem with her, and rather liked the Catherine character. Nicely intrepid and unwimpy. The only other place I have (knowingly) seen Tusse Silberg is in the late, lamented 90s soap Eldorado, where she plays a Swedish mother-in-law for a few episodes. She's quite good in Maelstrom, especially in comparison to hopeless blonde, Ingrid.

Ingrid is my biggest problem with Maelstrom, as Edita Brychta's performance is completely unconvincing and wooden. I spent the first two episodes thinking that Ingrid was obviously the culprit, and then realised I was only thinking this because of Ms Brychta's unnatural and bonkers performance. Saying "shall not" instead of "shan't" is writer's shorthand for madness, and Ingrid does this throughout. She was too obviously mad to be a real mad person, and I twigged on that it was going to be Anna Marie shortly before the real giveaway. The tension could have been ramped up much higher if there was not a shot of Anna Marie looking mad and wild-eyed in approx ep 3, as Catherine is walking away from her.

The scenery is gorgeous, but I believe all of Michael J Bird's writing deals with nice locations like this. Norway doesn't seem especially foreign, though. It could have been a pretty bit of Britain. Not much language barrier and not much cultural difference. In fact, in the scene where Catherine swims ashore after being shipwrecked, she flags down a car and much is made of her not being able to communicate with the driver. This is completely blown away when he tells her to "hop in"!

It's an odd choice to have a non-English actress playing Catherine, and Scandinavian Anna Marie played by an Englishwoman. I liked Susan Gilmore's Anna Marie a lot, and it's odd that the star of boat-soap Howard's Way is the only one never seen on a boat! David Beames is very much the square jawed hero, and there's nothing special about the character. Ann Todd as Miss Linderman is very convincing, completely caught up in the past. It was surely obvious that she would do herself in at the end of it.

The end was relatively clearly signposted. A few years ago, the BBC started a drama called Sea of Souls. I watched the first episode, but no more. The first episode was nicely eerie until the last twenty minutes, which turned into lead goodie and lead baddie chasing each other about with knives and burning the house down. It was as if the writer was happily writing away to himself, and then thought "bugger, I've got to finish this in ten pages time and I have no idea what to do". Maelstrom had a similar ending but without the desperation. As soon as people started talking about bonfires on Midsummer Eve, it was clear that the haunted house was going to go up in smoke. I saw it coming from about 3 episodes away. Nevertheless, it was very effective when it happened. Anna Marie's wonderful comment about "time to light bonfires", turning away from a pile of wood and moving towards the house, raised a chuckle. Also, her clouting Catherine over the head. A bit daft of Catherine to go to the house alone, though!

The fire was brilliantly done. Anna Marie's scorching and blackening before the roof came down, and the ghost of Freya and melting dolls, were all believably nasty. Typical of bonkers Ingrid to say her sister should be left in the burning building, though.

I occasionally found it a bit tricky to work out which house was which, and also got a bit confused by the geography of the island. Is there a jetty in front of the haunted house? It seemed so, in some shots, as people were able to drive a boat across the fjord and park in front. In other scenes, people seemed to approach the haunted house from behind and come down a slope to it, as if they had taken a boat all the way round the back of the house/island and then walked down to the front. Also, the two pictures next to Catherine's bed also confused me. One was her adoptive mother, and who was the other? Freya? It wasn't helped by Miss Linderman flicking though her photo albums and implying that the second photo was of one of her students. (Also, why did Miss L put her photo albums on such a high shelf when she has such obvious mobility problems?).

I enjoyed Maelstrom a lot. Very creepy. Great cliffhanger to episode five, with Catherine spotting someone behind the door. It didn't lose any pace of storytelling, and I was very surprised to find it was 6x45mins. Nowadays, it would probably be 3x60mins. It was nice to see so many old British actors in it, too. Shelagh Wilcocks is so good in Tenko. John Abineri, Paul Darrow and his Blake's 7 colleague Peter Tuddenham, Thomasine Heiner and Trevor Baxter.

All-in-all, wonderful stuff. Very atmospheric and moody; occasionally even scary. Some brilliant images that linger in the mind for a while, and a very doomy atmosphere. After all these years, I am delighted to find that the memory does not cheat, and that the series that was discussed in the school playground still lives up to 21st century scrutiny.

In 1985, Maelstrom was sent on Norwegian TV during Easter, and the filming location was in the city of Ålesund and its surrounding. I lived in Ålesund as a student in the mid 80's and watched it, and therefore enjoyed the familiar scenery.

Now in 2007 I bought Maelstrom on DVD and saw it again, for the first time in 22 years!

And I really liked it! The plot is good, building up the tense excitement during the six episodes. Most of the actors are English, and it is fun to listen when they try to speak Norwegian :-)

But anyway, it is a good thriller with an ending many of you could see coming up.

And of course the beautiful scenery of Ålesund is an extra bonus.

Recommended!

I saw this mini series while I lived in Kuwait in 1989...I missed the end as I came back to the USA...It had bothered me for years on how the series ended and where I can get a DVD of it...I loved it! I have searched and searched the internet Long for Maelstrom...About 3 months ago I found the BBC CULT site..Thak goodness!! Can I write to the BBC to get a copy????

I found the series to be quite engrossing. It moved slow in the beginning, but after the first 2 airings I was completely into it. What was the significance of the dolls and what was the mystery? To this day in 2006 I am still wondering.

Finally I was able to see this captivating BBC thriller again. It was shown in Finland on August 1985, and I have wanted to see it ever since. The plot involves a British woman Catherine Durrell ,who inherits a farm house and a piece of land in Aalesund, Norway, from a drowned millionaire. Catherine has no idea who this millionaire was, so she travels to Norway to see her legacy. There are a few people who welcome her to her property, but someone (or something) starts to disturb her. The deserted farm house had previously belonged to Freya Jordahl, who had committed suicide years before.

When ever Catherine visits the house she has a feeling that someone was still living there and watching her... at the end, everything about Catherines inheritance is revealed.

That´s all about the plot, but I can say that this BBC thrliller is one of the best I´ve seen, and it still is! I remembered quite many thing from the series, especially the creepy dolls that were inside the farm house. It´s especially the dolls that everyone remembers.

This series is very psycological, captivating and from time to time very horrifying as well. The camera work on the Norwegian fjords is absolutely stunning.

In conclusion, this series has not aged at all during these 18 years, and that´s my honest opinion. Highly recommended!

I watched this on TV back in 85, and later on when they did a re-run in the early nineties. I can safely say, no other thriller has made such an impact on me. The matters that are dealt with seems at first to be super-natural, but moves towards a scary insight of the disturbed human mind. The house on the island, the dolls and the woman in white standing at the balcony has burnt itself on my mind. However, the most chilling memory from the series is a very small but important moment in the first episode. The first appearance of Freya Jordahl on the coastal steamer. Creepy indeed. As a Norwegian, I do get annoyed by the moments of "visit-norway" footage, and Tusse Sliberg is at best stiff as Catherine Durell. But the basic mood of the series is so disturbing that it crawls under your skin. It is a thriller so intense you will never forget it, and with very little visual horror. What you don't see is the frightening part.. Special mentioning to the performances of Ann Todd and Susan Gilmore. Brilliant ! And there is of course Edita Brychta. Certainly among the most beautiful actresses ever, really ! ! BBC- we need this on DVD, please, please !!!

Forget The Birds, the X-files or the Sixth Sense

Hey, anyone still afraid of dolls ??????????

This is the best and scary I have ever seen on the (dutch) telly Almost 20 years ago now, but still very vivid in my memory

The scenery of the Norwegian landscape was stunning indeed. It made me make a plan, years later, to visit this beautiful place set in the Alesund region of Norway

Nobody else than me and some good friends from the past, seems to know this movie. They keep going on about the X-files and billions more like this. They should know better... Maelsrom was the best !!

Truly a shame this is not on a DVD or VHS yet so we can enjoy it over and over again.

When I was a kid Norwegian Broadcasting used to send mini series of suspense, criminal mysteries and thrills during Easter, and I remember Maelstrom as one of them. I do not recall much of the plot and so on, but I have memories of single scenes that left me terrified and afraid of the dark for months. One of the most disturbing happened when a man went over to the solitary house on the island to investigate, and upon entering the room with all the dolls there was a woman standing behind the door. This woman was very scary. I do not know what here agenda was, but I do remember the whole house being burnt down. I am guessing that the insane female character did that. Although I was very young when I watched this, I do think it was quality TV.

This is SO scary! And will be in Finnish TV again at 2005 in "YLE-teema" after many years of waiting from 1985. I'm wondering if it is as good as I remember...

Feeling in the series is like in "twin peaks" at the first time, but lot better. Maybe the familiar nordic surroundings are one reason why it was so scary for me.

My mom didn't let me watch this, but my stepmother did, and I had nightmares for many years. Sometimes I woke up screaming "Ingrid!"

This is something that everybody should see. And if it has gone too old, somebody should do a new version.

I am only afraid, that everything in this series is boring nowadays cause every element in the series has been used and maybe done better after 1985.

I loved this very suspenseful mini-series series when I first saw it on A&E in 1986. When they re-aired it a year or two later, I recorded it on VHS, and several of my friends became big fans as well. It's an enthralling story, well acted, and filmed on location in Norway. At one point I loaned it to someone who never returned it, and I don't think I can get it back. If anyone has it on VHS or DVD I'd be most grateful. I also have a DVD recorder that can transfer it from VHS to DVD. Plan B would be to petition A&E and/or BBCA to resurrect it. Plan C might be to see if the director or one of the stars has a copy of it. As I said, I'm desperate, so feel free to e-mail me with any pertinent information.

Hi everybody. First off all j have great news for all off you.Maolstrom will be released on DVD in Mars-April-2007.Maolstrom is one off the finest and dearest thriller and suspense-mystery series ever made.here in Norway they showed it on TV in Easter 1985-1986.J Was seven years old in 1986.J loved every piece off the series.The White house on the island surrounded by a small forest behind it-the big collection off 80,s plastic dolls in the bedroom upstairs-the woman hiding in the house.J remember the 80,s in every moment.The decade was fantastic.Clothes-music-TV-series-movies,and so on.

Back to the series.It was a brilliant thriller.What j remember most is the theme music,and the porcelain doll in the water.That was the opening scene. J get an adrenalin kick just by thinking about the series.J remember every episode. Specially when that English woman visited the house for the first time,and found the bedroom upstairs foul off 80,plastic and porcelain dolls.Then she went out and locked the door.Behind the white curtain in that bedroom you could see somebody move it.Wery creepy.In the second episode she went back and went to the bedroom,there she grabbed a doll,and the doll cried big water tears.She became scared and ran out of the house.There she was ran down by an motorboat in the lake.She made it unharmed to the other side off the lake.The next episode she was en,t over there,but in the end off that episode in another bedroom in the white house someone had tried old fashioned clothes on ,mostly dresses .They laud on the bed.The series was beginning to reach its end.In the end of the fifth episode,she went out off the house to find a smashes doll taped to the house wall.The face was smashed.Then the end was beginning to rise,my god. She took the boat over to the house and ran inn into the living room.The record player was on playing old fashioned music from the 30,-40,s.She knew Anne Marie was hiding there.She found Annne-Marie hiding behind the door upstairs in one off the bedroom.In the sixth episode-Thar last one she was trapped there.Anne-Marie had destroyed the boat.In the evening she collected nice wood firewood.It was bonfire time.She knocked her down and locked here inside on off the bedrooms upstairs.Then,Anne-Marie took all the furniture in the living room upside-down and through gasoline on the hole thing.The she lit the hole living room Whit fire.Then she went outside to with the hole house burn down Whit her inside,trapped.On the mainland her boyfriend saw what was hap ping and took the bout out to the burning white house.He ran down from behind it and found Anne-Marie sitting there watching.He ran into the house and broke up the door and the escapes.Then Anne-Marie thought off her beloved dolls still inside the house.She ran in to rescue them,but it was to late.The flames was everywhere. She caught fire while she was holding her melting 80,s dolls in her hands.She cried out loud,holding everything in her melting ,burning hands.It was the end. After 20 years,j am looking forward to see it and have a good time. J hope all off you do the same.Love.

The series has a website, I found it out recently. There is very much information from the series. I saw in my childhood, then after 20 years. But the story, the sight lost nothing. I fell in love with it into Norway, Alesundba. The story creepy, frightening. Too bad, that Hitchcock was not worth the series already. http://www.mjbird.org.uk/Maelstrom.html The coastal house was frightening with the many babies for me, then with the painting. Like this subsequently thinking again, the solution, the past appeared customary, but a screw was put into him because of that, with what it is not possible to mistake it for an other series. The last part, in which everything comes to light,, this was very surprising repeatedly back up I was watching, because there was so much information in him that I was not able to catch it...

The first time I saw this series was in 1985. I loved the setting of it as I had visited Norway a couple of times and made friends I still have contact with. I was even invited to a wedding of one of them in 1988.

Norway is stunning and it is still very prestine when you travel the countryside away from the major cities. The fjords are magnificent and majestic. A wonderful background for this series.

Catherine Durrell finds that she inherited a major bequest from a Norwegian milionair, but never knew the man or his family. She travels to Alesund in Norway. There she meets the daughters of Hjalmar Johrdal who are very hospitalble and friendly. But strange things happens and it becomes evident that not everybody is happy with Catherine and her inheritance. Who is living in the house on the island? Who is trying to kill Catherine and make it look like an accident? Is the deceased mother of Anne-Marie and Ingrid really dead?

Dolls are not mere toys but are conveying the message that Catherine is an intruder and unwanted. Eerie and bone chilling atmosphere coupled with wonderful scenery makes this very enjoyable to watch. Though it was made in 1985 it doesn't feel old and it withstands the times. I have the series on dvd and I can recomment this series wholeheartely!

An Englishwoman inherits property from a Norwegian industrialist she's never met, and, and, see the other reviews, or take my word and watch it without knowing what to expect.

Please, I need somebody to help me! A very dear friend of mine loved this series (Maelstrom) and frankly can't shut up about it. who can help me find it on vhs or dvd (region 2) thanks a bunch, just e mail me with any info you might have.