The White Reindeer

1952 were-reindeer movie

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A gal gets married and instead of buying a self-help book decides to visit a witch man to help her in the sack. Instead, she becomes the titular were-reindeer and starts killing off men in the village.

After a haunting song accompanying shots of the Finnish snowy landscape, this seemed like a silent movie from 1952. It started wordless and dialogue was used sparingly throughout which adds to the mysterious feel. I don't think director Erik Blomberg had to try very hard, but there's some great imagery in this. An alter surrounded by antlers sticking out of the snow is a creepy-enough visual. There were also loads of reindeer extras, a herd of gray against an almost entirely-white background, and there's a beautiful close-to-final (should have been the final) shot of dusty snow blowing across the surface of ice. Some raucous reindeer racing at the beginning certainly looks like a dangerous activity, speaking of reindeer. I felt sorry for one poor guy with only one antler. And I was really impressed with the movements they get from this reindeer. They've made it look like the animal knows it's part of a movie and is cooperating fully. The humans are good, too, at least the pair who stand out. Most of the characters are treated with about as much importance as the snow. The reindeer is somebody named Mirjami Kuosmanen, and she's really good in a style from 25 years earlier with those exaggerated silent movie mood swings and faces. I really like the way she's lit in this movie. And the witch man is really awesome, Arvo Lehesmaa who might be using actual words (I don't know Finnish) but sounds like he's just making noises.

By the way, I did a little research and found out that this kind of thing happens in Scandinavia all the time.

I watched this on Network Awesome.