Skjult (2009)

Once again the Norwegians prove that they are a force to reckon with when it comes to horrormovies. Skjult, it's english title Hidden, is an excellent horrormovie that takes influences from all over the place and mixes them into a little movie full of shocks, dread and atmosphere thicker than a lot of other movies in the same genre.

When the movie starts we follow a young boy running through the forest, obviously fleeing from someone/something. He runs out onto a road and causes a truck to slam right into a car, causing it to burst into flames, killing the people in it and making another young boy orphan. Now we jump forward 18 years where the little boy, now grown up and all moody, returns to his little hometown in the middle of nowhere after his mother has passed away. He returns to his old home, a suitably dark and foreboding rundown house in the woods to settle his affairs and we slowly get to realize that his mother wasnt really a very nice person which means there are some pretty nasty skeletons in his closet. Add to all of this the fact that there seems to be someone or something that remains in the house...

Pål Øie truly shows great potential as a director, handling the suspense expertly. He even manages to reuse the old balltrick from the movie The Changeling, without it ever feeling like a cliché. The cinematography by Sjur Aarthun is another one of the movies assets, capturing the dark woods perfectly and turning into an amusementpark of constant dread. Add to this some excellent acting, especially Kristoffer Joner in the lead, and a fine script by the director. The best thing about the script is that not only is it about the strange events that is going on in the present day, there is also the (actually faarly obvious but still compelling) mystery of what happened 19 years earlier and it opens up several options about what is happening. Is there a supernatural cause for all of this, or is it just in the lead characters mind or is there a completely different explanation? In short, one of the best movies to come out of Scandinavia in the last few years and the best thing about it, like last years masterpiece Sauna, it feels genuinely Scandinavian without being overwelmingly dreary and depressing. A must see.