Highly Overrated But Still Good

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I'm not sure I got it the first time, but 'Rovdyr' is partly an ode to the magnificent 'The Texas chain saw massacre'. The fact that this one takes place in 1974 (the year that 'The Texas...' was released) is just one little hint. Then, there's four friends in a Volkswagen van, a roadside gas station, and plenty of other similarities.But 'Rovdyr' isn't a total rip-off. It does its own thing, in Norway, with a good cast (leading lady Henriette Bruusgaard is a voluptuous feast for the eyes), and plenty of fine horror moments, deep inside the woods. It's all pretty straightforward stuff, but with enough wit, surprises and bloody gore for any fan of the genre. The '70s atmosphere wasn't all that apparent to me, but it hardly makes any difference to me. The set of bushwhackers that our protagonists are confronted with is an adequately brutal bunch. The ending is nicely grim, as it should, and again in part an ode to that one movie I mentioned before.A small 8 out of 10.

First thing to mention was that when I began watching this movie, I had no idea it was a foreign film. It wasn't until watching the opening credits and realising that the entire cast was Norwegian that suspicions began to arise. I in fact really like subtitled/foreign horror movies. It means at no point can you take your eyes off the screen leaving you open to every fright and horrific image that the movie has to offer. Also, you can't tell if the acting is worse than Brendan Frasers (in anything but The Mummy Returns and that one episode of Scrubs).As a survival horror movie, it could be thought of as a bit of a tribute to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the ultimate survival horror movie) – it was even set in 1974 (coincidence, I think not). 4 unwitting "friends" pick up a hitch-hiker (Did I hear Texas Chainsaw Massacre?) at a petrol station as they drive through an ever thickening forest. This leads them into a battle to survive the attacks of a gang of hill-billy hunters (or whatever the Norwegian equivalent of a hill billy is).I had two real issues with this movie. Firstly, the ending (surprise surprise). Horror movie endings always run the risk of being a disappointment because either another movie has done it, it'll be too subtle that we won't understand it, it can't be a truly happy ending because, y'know, it's a horror movie so they force a "horror ending" or it'll be so cliché that even a bomb, seventeen knife wounds to the chest and a shotgun blast to the face won't kill it. This ending unfortunately falls into the "too subtle to explain what's happened". Did she get away? Was the woman who picked her up in cahoots with the other bad guys? It left a lot of unanswered questions and not in an interesting way.Which leads neatly into my second issue: the bad guys motivation. Some horror movies are so scary because the anti-hero has no real reason to attack the person they're attacking (e.g. The Strangers) but even then there seems to be some sort of motivation or explanation for why they are doing it. But in Manhunt that doesn't seem to be the case. Are they hunting these people? Why does one guy find them and leave them there to get away? Is it a game? Are they just sadistic redneck Vikings?On top of this, it's not entirely clear why the four of them were travelling together. 2 of them hate Lassa Valdals "Roger" who, to be fair, was a douche bag of Kanye-West-esque proportions and he clearly hates all of them. Why would they go travelling together in a cramped mini-van (another throwback to Texas Chainsaw Massacre)?However, it wasn't all bad. It was made in 2008 but set in 1974. Hopefully intentionally, the quality of the film was as if it was made in the seventies except with make-up, blood and guts good enough to make you believe that even the goriest of wounds were real. The camera work saved a lot of this movie including some clever lingering shots of the landscape cementing just how isolated these individuals are.

Really only 5 stars? you have to be kidding me this film was great. From start to finish it kept me on the edge of my seat, I felt like my heart was going to pop out of my chest. It is quite a basic movie as are most movies of this nature, there is not to much time spent on plot as we need to build suspense and see how the reactions of the characters play out. Its a basic story of good Vs Evil set in a 1970s Norwegian woods. A group of friends travel to the middle of nowhere to go hiking and camping(what an original idea) and end up in a fight for survival. Its your usual everyday plot for a survival horror, But for what it lacks in originality it makes up for in bucket loads everywhere else. The acting is above par along with suspense and some pretty gruesome effects. Its obvious to me that the makers of this film are big fans of the genre and have stayed true to its spirit, which for another fan makes it a great joy to watch.As I've said the acting is superb, as we get immersed deeper into the action and the dialog becomes ever more sparse we start to see the real capability of the troupe, convincingly portraying the terror of being trapped and hunted by unknowns pushing the suspense level through the roof. Henriette Bruusgaard as Camilla stands out here in the lead role who to my surprise has only played in one other role after this. Visually it looks great, nice grainy quality to the picture along with some solid cinematography. It feels like watching something of a similar nature from the 70s which helps add authenticity to the project. From the main titles to the ending credits it feels like an exploitation movie from the heyday of the 1970s which many movies lately have tried to achieve and haven't managed to pull off half as well as this. The sound design is also very impressive and offers a great soundtrack.I really would like to congratulate everyone who worked on this obviously they put so much effort in and it shows. I cant find any reason to complain about this movie I enjoyed it immensely and can't recommend it enough, like a gruesome flashback to the 70s this movie stays true to the genre pushing you to the very edge of your seat chewing down your fingers to nubs. So put on the oven mitts, glue yourself to the sofa and enjoy the ride.

The movie received great reviews here in Norway, and I was looking forwards to seeing it. Being a Norwegian production, I guess the critics put on their patriot pants, because this is not that great a movie.The story we've seen before. Some young people gets captured, are hunted, with blood and gore following in ample amounts. The only thing that differentiates this movie from its many siblings is the betrayal within the group, and the charters being somewhat interesting and real. They lack depth thought, and are quite frankly not that well played or presented.The biggest exception to this is the villains, and their behavior. Without giving any spoilers, let me just say they are a bit to evil and cold. A tad more insight into them would make the movie allot more interesting.What does deserve praise is the visual side of the movie, with the effects especially in mind. The movie is well shot, and really drags you into it by virtue of this. The effects look so real it's frightening. So frightening in fact, that it is one of the movies greatest flaws. It's just too much. Now, I'm not a very gentle soul, and enjoy the odd horror movie without problems, but this movie is not that enjoyable. That said, I'm sure if I went hunting moose this autumn, I'd probably not sleep very well having seen it. Ugly, scary and outright ultra-voilent? Yes. Exciting, interesting and progressive? No.