So far the only thing we have seen from Iceland are Bjork, Sigur Ros, volcano's and whale hunting. Not many people know that Iceland was ready to deliver their first horror flick called Harpoon (or the longer for some unspeakable title Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre). And I must admit, it is a decent movie. Some people will have difficulties to understand the language used, there is the Icelandic language luckily subtitled but there is also a French guy trying to talk English and some Japanese who tries to talk English too. But you will get used to that. Second, one name is wheel known in the genre, Gunnar Hansen. He's in the movie because he's Icelandic, not as a teaser. The movie itself sometimes becomes really bloody and even gory, there is some kind of suspense and even some nudity. Okay, there are reviewers who pointed out that there are some flows in the story but I wasn't offended by it. It's about the guy who appears with a handicap, but I didn't have any problems with it. Anyway, it's a bit of TCM on a boat. It surely delivers the stuff you need for a horror and remember, it's the first film coming from that country in our genre, well done...

A motley assortment of international tourists venture out into the Icelandic ocean for a whale watching expedition. Things go horribly awry when the group wind up trapped on a barge with a crazed family of murderous lunatics. Director Julius Kemp, working from a crafty and engrossing script by Sjon Sigurdsson, relates the absorbing and twist-ridden story at a brisk pace, builds a considerable amount of nerve-wracking suspense, delivers a pleasing smattering of tasty female nudity and a handy helping of in-your-face brutal'n'graphic gore, and further spruces things up with a wickedly funny sense of pitch-black humor. Moreover, Kemp and Sigurdsson provide a surprising and fiendishly enjoyable feeling of deep-seated misanthropy that depicts the human race as a general whole in a remarkably dim, hateful, and negative manner: The tourists find themselves in jeopardy because of the idiotic actions of an obnoxious French drunk, perky token American Marie-Anne (the fetching Miranda Hennessy) ultimately turns out to be a selfish and unsympathetic bitch, and clever and resourceful sole survivor Endo (splendidly played to the ruthless hilt by Nae) comes across as even more scary, deadly, and disturbing than the family of nutjobs. In addition, Pihla Viitala is strong and appealing as sweet German gal Annette, Terence Anderson as gutsy and noble black gay Leon rates as a genuinely radical and refreshing out of the ordinary hero, and genre icon Gunnar Hansen does well in his secondary role as grizzled old sea salt Captain Petur. The family of psychos are a memorably nasty bunch: Helgi Bjornsson as hulking brute Tryggvi, Stefan Jonsson as depraved hunchback Siggi, and Gudrun Gisladottis as sadistic matriarch Mama. The startling outbursts of ferocious violence and the grim conclusion both pack a really mean punch. Kudos are also in order for Jean-Noel Mustonen's sumptuous widescreen cinematography and Hilmarorn Hilmarsson's rattling score. Good grisly'n'twisted fun.

HARPOON: THE REYKJAVIK WHALE WATCHING MASSACRE is billed as Iceland's first horror film and their answer to THE Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, with the action shifted to an inhospitable landscape and a ship. Unfortunately, it turns out to be as dull-witted and laughable as many a Hollywood slasher sequel, a film that strives to be horrific and entertaining and yet which ends up a mess.

The first half of the film sets up the cast, which is fair enough, but it doesn't help that most of the characters are intensely irritating (with the exception of the black guy and the Japanese girl). Gunnar Hansen pops up for a worthless cameo, but after that we're mired in a mess of horror film clichés and predictable death sequences. It's all badly written and quite badly directed, two things which sap enjoyment from the production.

One thing HARPOON does have going for it are some explicit gore sequences, although these aren't quite as grisly as you'd expect, with the emphasis being on the staging of each effect rather than going all-out to gross-out the viewer. But such moments aren't enough to save what is another forgettable, lamentable horror yarn.