MovieChat Forums > Fritt vilt (2006) Discussion > What was so special about it?

What was so special about it?


I see all these glowing reviews for this movie and I just don't get it. Sure it wasn't terrible or anything and to me its just alright. But seriously there was nothing special about it. The synopsis on the back of the dvd case makes it out to be the greatest thing ever. It says "If you thing this is going to be the usual 'trapped teens stalked by a maniac' movie, you're dead wrong". Personally I think that is all it was and nothing more. Maybe I just missed something, I don't know, but what I do know is there are plenty of slashers out there worth watching before this.

reply

I've seen much better and much worse... It's average, but that's still a big deal coming out of nowhere-Norway.

It's only recently that we've started making alrightish movies over here, so the natives are a bit blinded with their reviews.

reply

you're right it's about average, maybe little less, not the worst, not the best,, i guess i just expected more,, didn't realize it was a foreign film.

are you going to bark all day little doggie,, or are you going to bite

reply

"Ther are plenty of slasher out there worth watching before this"

Oh, really, like what?
"Zombie Cheerleaders from Hell" or "How Chucky met Jason"?

This movie has by far the most gruesome and chilling (literally) atmosphere. There is nothing like it. You don't see any tidy, tiny american houses in there, nor are there any topless girls with long legs hysterically knocking on somebody's door with a lovely mat "home, sweet, home" in front. It does make a difference whether you run, screaming for your life and going into some bushes and swampy forests somewhere in California, or you get totally isolated in between thousands of tons of snow, doesn't it?? You would not understand it if you live in America and devour five bags of crispy burritos for breakfast every morning.

reply

I was disappointed by its mediocrity as well, particularly after all the reviews that made it seem like the best horror flick ever made. Very average, nothing new here. The setting was neat, but a neat setting does not make for an excellent film by itself.

Also, I have never heard of crispy burritos, but they sound awesome. Where can I get some, calamity girl??

reply

Lol, you know you shouldn't insult a foreign film or they will attack America's breakfast food choices! Then again my strict diet of crispy burritos totally affects my ability to critic a film, so I guess I see where she is coming from...haha, some people on here. SMH

reply

I think she meant Doritos, instead of burritos. She said five bags, so I'm only assuming. Of course, eating five bags of Doritos for breakfast each morning would screw up anyone's judgment. LOL!

reply

I think you're reaching here. I've never heard anyone describe Doritos as "crispy" LOL

Instead, I think that Norwegian girl has no idea what a burrito is.

Who eats burritos or Doritos for breakfast anyway? And breakfast burritos aren't burritos! They're just an American concoction capitalizing on the tortilla.


Tolerance Is Intolerant Of Politically Incorrect Thought...🇺🇸

reply

I thought the movie was great too, very thrilling and the atmosphere was amazing. But your comment about us not understanding for living in America and us devouring bags of "crispy burritos" was uncalled for. Not every American hates this movie and we're not all the same. How would you feel if we stereotyped all people from your country. I'm sure there are people from OTHER countries that don't like this movie. I am proud to say I'm from America and I LOVED this movie. There's no need for hate, leave it off the boards.

reply

[deleted]

[deleted]

Crispy burritos impede the American appreciation of wannabe Norweigian slasher flicks? Hahahaha! What if its a plain burrito supreme (non-grilled)? Would that give me a better appreciation of Cold Prey? Wait - I checked the instructions on the DVD - it says to eat nothing but Egg McMuffins! That's why I missed the whole point of this movie! Its not the movie - its my breakfast!

What other movies compare? Geez.. the list is practically endless.. The Halloween series, the Scream series, the I Know What You Did series, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, the Hills Have Eyes series, the Wrong Turn series.. Maybe you should subscribe to NetFlix, while you're out there "isolated in between thousands of tons of snow", if you really think Cold Prey is the only movie like it :-) I don't think the snow made it as vastly superior as you turn it out to be.

reply

Wrong Turn series

My favorite of the bunch. Wrong Turn 3 is excellent.



Go 's!

reply

I saw the first Wrong Turn movie which was actually pretty good. If you want to see a better slashes film, see "Cabin in the Woods". That was completely different from any slasher film I've seen. More Horror/Sci-fi/Comedy, but worth seeing at least once.

reply

Saw it already - loved it and am gonna buy it when it comes out on DVD. One movie that is kinda similar (hard to explain the similarities without giving away the plot) is "Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon". If you're a Netflix subscriber, it's on there. Give it a whirl, you might like it.

reply

I live in a place between America and Europe... San Francisco, CA. It's also where a lot of HollywoodLand writer types live, so we knows something abouts teh story time.

My wife and I really enjoyed Cold Prey. The amazing setting gave the film an isolated look and feel that we found very unique. The antagonist was adequately menacing and the actors were all very believable. However, my favorite thing about Cold Prey was the directing. The tight, patient shots were a joy to watch and discuss with our film snob friends. And this brings me to my one critique. The direction was so good it overpowered the average (but still very good) script.

I found the very underrated remake of Halloween II considerably more "gruesome and chilling", but my judgment was clouded by the crispy burrito dust at the time of viewing.

reply

I agree with Calamity Girl about this movie being really good. I loved it.

Don't agree with the hate for my country though.

reply

Your last sentence made me throw out any point you succesfully made. Completely distateful.

Americans know what snow is.

All was well.

reply

[deleted]

Only just found this message board after looking up 'Cold Prey'..

Hmm, 'The Shining' was shot in London and 'The Thing' pretty much all of the interior parts anyway were shot on refrigerated sets in L.A. (and L.A. at the time was having a record heatwave too)

reply

Good movie, but not the exceptional, terrifying movie that it's claimed to be. Oh, and calamity_girl, you're an idiot.

reply

So says the ignorant Scandinavian. I'm assuming you're from Norway (or a similar country; Sweden, Netherlands, Danmark, Finland) You people never change. You are so spoon fed everything you know about the The States that it's utterly disgusting and frankly you should be embarrassed. First of all, every state in the U.S. is different, almost so much so that it's like visiting a different country where everyone speaks the same language complete with unique accents, traditions, etc. It is so diverse that to sum up a comment about the American cuisine with a "five bags of crispy burritos" attempt at sarcastic superiority makes you look, frankly, retarded. Mongo? I think is what you call each other. If the only horror films you've been able to see are films such as your claimed "Zombie Cheerleaders from Hell" and "How Chucky met Jason", then you really are deprived, truly starved of having seen a horror film worth it's while and once again, you are the typical Nowheresville Scandinavian who thinks they have the right to an opinion when you should really be concerning yourself with shutting the *beep* up and paying attention instead. I'm an American, but I've been living in Scandinavia for seven years and believe me when I say, I've seen my share of it, especially Nowhere Norway and SweDUD. I've also watched my share of films originating from these countries including this one. This movie sucked. I didn't even watch the entire film. I was bored after the first few gore scenes. The slut getting axed after *beep* her boyfriend? How is that different than the topless girl with long legs hysterically knocking on somebodies door blah blah blah? There is little storyline, *beep* camera angles, too much gore and too little acting. It's not thrilling or chilling, just boring. Uneventful. Unoriginal. Unremarkable by any decently diverse film lover and although this is, perhaps, one of the best movies to come out of Norway, it pales in comparison to true spine chillers like Wolfcreek, The Descent, The Entity, The Shining, The Exorcist, Halloween, Sixth Sense; well, the list goes on. I could be here all day typing out a list of great horror films from all over the world. American horror films, unfortunately for your ego, are still and will likely forever remain THE BEST.

Deal with it.

PS. Norwegian food is the most horrible tasting *beep* you will ever put in your mouth besides, that is, anything you mistakenly ingest from London. Even in the big cities, the restaurants can't make a decent burger. At least, in Sweden, you can get decent kebab. California cuisine?! Are you kidding me? Some of the best tasting, most health conscious restaurants and menus reside in California. And I don't know what a "crispy burrito" is, but I'd much rather put that in my mouth than the shoddy excuse Norway has for grilled salmon. How can you *beep* THAT up?! Norway, like most of it's movies, manages to do it!

The End.

reply

[deleted]

Netherlands is not Scandinavia Sherlock...

reply

"You are so spoon fed everything you know about the The States that it's utterly disgusting and frankly you should be embarrassed." Pretty sure this is the same in every country, and in regards of news it's not unique pointed against America. People usually thrust their news source. Although you're generalizing quite a bit, which is just silly.

PS: You seem to me like a person which would travel to a other country, only to compare everything you like to this exact country. Like, a burger or other American fast-food. Norway is not a big fast-food country. I'm sure you'd find better fish in Norway than in America, but than again countries are big.

reply

Seriously, calamity_girl, this is one of the dumberst comments I've read in quite some time – and that says something, considering all of the trash that's being written 24/7 on the internet...

All you've accomplished by it, is presenting yourself as a 24-carat idiot that doesn't know the first thing about the United States, horror film history and the medium film in general.


Don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to (P. Green)

reply

No way, Calamity Girl. There are tons of movies like this one.
The gruesome and chilling atmosphere is extremely common for a movie of this kind.
Old bunker, abandoned hospital, creepy house etc.
It's all been done a million times.

You're obviously pretty new to the horror genre. I've seen easily hundreds of horror movies and honestly this one is oversold by its publisher (probably on purpose) and left me quite disappointed. It's really NOTHING special, nothing surprising, and pretty cliché altogether.
For instance The Descent is a similar and arguably better movie. Just to name one.

reply

i agree. it was very average. it is not something that i would ever discribe as "wonderful" or "the best horror movie i've seen recently". not a bad film but certainly nothing to rave about.

reply

After seeing Dead Snow couple of days ago, I decided to check what else have Norwegians been doing lately and this is pretty entertaining. Nothing special here regarding the basic plot, but what I simply adore about these movies is the Norwegian geography and climate- the mountains, the snow, the winter, it's just marvelous. Also, the order of those who die gave me a kind of a surprise. The same thing happened in Dead Snow. Besides, everyone is making horror movies these days, especially in Europe. For an average US viewer this is something completely normal, but for us here in Europe, it's great news Enough with art-drama already!
As far as the quality is concerned, if a Norwegian horror is ever to be played in local theaters over here, based on what I have seen from this cinematography so far, I would certainly go to see it, and I know I wouldn't be the only one.
Cheers!

reply

Completely average, and after a few days pass, I'm gonna bet it's also forgettable.

reply

As I've said before, slasher films are formulaic by definition. Killer kills people, end of synopsis. Where this film shines for me is in the characters, I felt empathy for them, and thus cared if they died. That alone places this film in the top 10% of slashers, where most of the characters have about as much pathos as the red shirts in Star Trek: they're just there for the killing.

Add to that a unique location, believable dialogue, good acting, tight direction and editing, competent camera work and you have one excellent slasher film. Is it deep, meaningful or moving? No, but that's not what slashers are for. And I liked the sequel even better for pretty much the same reasons. They're just put together better than most other films in the genre.

Oh, and I'm American, by the way, if that matters.

reply

"Where this film shines for me is in the characters, I felt empathy for them, and thus cared if they died."

I know exactly what you mean. I feel the same way and have said many times to wife or friends, If I care for the characters, it makes all the difference when they die. Personally, I wasn't relating with the snownboarders. Oh well, to each their own.

reply

Vive la difference! ;)

reply

In answer to what was so special about this movie? I have seen a lot of movies, and I would never dare call this the best I have seen. However, I will go as far as to say that this movie was special for a number of reasons.

I really liked this movie. I can honestly not remember a time when I actually cared so much about the characters. Unlike most other slasher movies I've seen, I did not find these characters annoying to a point of wishing them dead. All of the characters were very much human, doing things that humans do, and not the silly things that most characers do in slasher movies. I even found the slasher to be human, and not some mutant-can't-be-killed-popup-everywhere creature. I was especially concerned for Morten Tobias --- he was the most "human" of them all, and I felt that his character was really more like me.

reply

Where this film shines for me is in the characters, I felt empathy for them, and thus cared if they died.
This. Far too many slasher movies are focused on a 'cool' killer, which must be fed an array of generic fluffhead victims. Good horror is good because it makes you cear about the victims. Something I have rarely seen acknowledged in US horror for decades.

-I presume you've prepared new insults for me today.
-Affirmative.

reply

I actually liked Fritt Vilt. It was different from your "stereotypical" slasher, well American ones anyway. The movie itself uses the same formula from just about any slasher movie but the characters themselves is what sets this movie apart from most slasher films. Again, the movie in general uses old "gimmicks" of the typical slasher movie, but this time you actually care what happens to the victims.

reply

This was indeed a great film...I think why people respond is that its set in the SNOW and its a uniqe look for a film of this genre.

The kills (or villian) arent as good as LAID TO REST but It had a bigger budget and the cinematography is amazingly good.

reply

wow Live Evil could you make it any more obvious you are the writer for laid to rest. it was a piece of *beep* face it.

:
In Your Box Office . com

reply

I thought this film was special for several reasons. For starters, the characters were genuinely likable and sympathetic. Secondly, the bleak wintry setting evoked a very strong and convincing sense of dread, isolation, and vulnerability. Lastly, this movie put a welcome emphasis on creating a creepy and unsettling atmosphere over the usual cheap scares and dumb puerile humor.

"We're all part Shatner/And part James Dean/Part Warren Oates/And Steven McQueen"

reply

I found the characters just as annoying as the characters in any other slasher film. I watched because this one was supposed to have good atmosphere. We got five feet of snow last week (yes, we get snow in America) so I guess it just doesn't strike me as such an unusual atmosphere. It reminded me a little of a deserted lodge we have up here. Now I want to hike back up to it, but that's about the extent of the affect on me. Typical formula, very little story, not even a little scary and done to death (pun intended) before.

reply

Agree with most of you, a very average movie. But pretty good for a teenie slasher and pretty lame for a Norwegian movie.

reply