This is a fine effort in the horror/thriller genre. Coming out in 1958 and from Norway you wouldn't think so but...it works...trust me.

First off, the acting in the first say...15 minutes or so...is pretty lame. I guess it's due to the "un-hollywood" like skills of the actors but after it dissipates, the rest of the story/film is a mystery until the end.

Basic premise is that 6 friends go to a cabin at a remote lake to meet up with one of their brothers to relax and have a good time. Turns out the lake they go to has a bad history and the rest of the film we learn about it's secrets. We also learn about most of the friends who show up while they sit a debate where the missing brother has gone or if he's dead or not. It's mostly a talky all the way until the end but it really does grab your attention. You may think of a Friday the 13th feel to this but what you won't get is blood and gore. What you do get is an intricate story that hold you to the couch right until the end.

This one is considered one of the top 5 Norwegian films made..and I can see why. If you give this one a chance you'll see why also.

This wonderfully shot (and short),powerful film is a lost horror gem. The film focuses on a group of friends that travel to the woods. It all goes a bit terrifying as a brother is missing, people start sleepwalking, and the truth mixes with superstition. The film is quite dialog heavy in explaining itself, as we have a hypnotist that refuses to believe in ghosts. The scenes build up with a kind of quiet charm, and never fully reveal themselves, allowing our thoughts to intertwine with how the characters see it. The audience is really included in this film, with a lot of moments seeming as though the characters are trying to persuade us onto their side.

A few months ago I was speaking to fellow IMDber manfromplanetx, who told me about a Norwegian Horror,which so intrigued me that I picked it up on DVD,only to misplace the disc later!

This week:

Whilst annoyed that I could not find the title as I was taking part in ICM Nordic and 50's Cinema viewing challenges, I a few days ago was moving some books, and was shocked to see it appear in the middle of the pile. This led to me at last taking a dip in the lake.

View on the film:

Simmering on top of the lake as a narration pours out of Sonja reading out the first draft of her husband Bernhard's occult novel, writer/director Kare Bergstrom & cinematographer Ragnar Sorensen cloud the lake with eerie Gothic Horror smoke on the water, going far-back in order to cover the screen in the isolated forest, where beams of lights across the cabin dwellers cast a ripple of the reflecting horror lit in misty superimposed images.

Swimming towards Bernhard's novel, Bergstrom takes it out of the lake and into a Old Dark House atmosphere, where the confined large cabin setting is surrounded by excellent rustling outdoor sound effects, and wide, tightly-held corner shots light the cabin fever.

Based on lead actor Andre Bjerke (great as the slow-burn Mork) own novel,Bergstrom's adaptation delightfully carves into Norwegian wood thumbnail sketches of the tensions each group member brings to the cabin, with Liljan being given given a enticing, ghostly figure quality which the others in the cabin can't get too close to. Paging from Bernhard writing his novel to the story itself unfolding, Bergstrom merrily plays on the mythical element of Gothic Horror cinema, with a book-ending which rationalizes the occult myths which came out from the lake of the dead.