It's a Scandi seaport. A water monster would have been more appropriate. A werewolf flick in a Scandi seaport is like Dracula attacking a polar expedition....or a mermaid attacking my hometown (eastern Europe). I go to a Scandi fishing town to see the sea and all things sea related. I want to eat rotten fish, drink lighter fluid, and party with blonde viking chicks. I don't travel 1,000 miles to see the exact same thing we have a hundred meters down the road.
That's my point! Thank you! lol A mermaid or sea monster would have been so much more appropriate. Even the bathtub scenes and the "caught it down at the beach" etc just would have worked better in a mermaid scenario. How about the lady caught it as an infection from a mermaid, caught "mermaidism" just like "werewolfism"? Flesh out mermaidism to be an infection. They're sea-going folks, they can do it. I get it was caught from Russians and all, but even that is sort of reaching. Again, Russian sailors would have more exposure to the sea-based legends. I mean Frankenstein's Monster went to the Arctic in the book so an arctic Frankenstein story would be a good plot. But in whose mind does a Scandinavian werewolf story make sense?