Recently PPM facilitated the completion of shooting for the Norwegian feature film Dark Woods II. Directed by Pål Øie, the original Dark Woods (2003) (Villmark, in Norwegian) was considered the first authentic Norwegian horror genre film. Below is an interview with the director and some stills from the film shoot.
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At the time this was article is written, director Pål Øie was staying in Budapest to shoot the initial scenes of Dark Woods 2. Between two cuts, the ‘pioneer of Norwegian horror’ found some time to talk to us about the project related to the sequel and to share with us a few spanking fresh photos of the film shoot.
Director Pål Øie emerged from nowhere when he made Dark Woods (2003), the first genuine Norwegian horror. No other Norwegian film had adhered to the conventions of the genre before, keeping the atmosphere and brutality in focus. When I mention to Øie at the beginning of the interview that journalists consider him the uncrowned horror pioneer of Norway, he has a good laugh and tells me that Dark Woods became a genre movie out of an incident.
– I am glad to hear that. What I always say, without being an analyst of genre movies, which I couldn’t be anyway as I myself just specialize in a genre, is that we didn’t make Dark Woods to come up with the first Norwegian horror film. The whole thing began with the story of this team, an innocent project that I wanted to realize and that I found exciting and dramatic. Bit by bit we understood that we were making a horror movie, although it is not typical in the recent years, when less blood is shown and the atmosphere is emphasized more.
Scenes of the sequel are now being shot. When we met, the staff was already spending their 5th day of production in Budapest. He enigmatically tells us only that the original film and its sequel will be connected.
– Although Dark Woods 2 is a sequel, it is not the same team that returns, naturally. This is a completely independent story, which is connected to the original at several points. Water, which had an important role in Dark Woods, is a central element in the new part, too. Water is the starting point and a new team arrives in the non-functional sanatorium building at the foot of the hill, trying to participate in the rehabilitation of the building before its demolition. Naturally, they discover several things in the walls; it is no exaggeration to say that the team is put to the test. The mythological background is the same and there are some threads of the story that may become clarified in the second movie, he says.
– In case of a title like Dark Woods 2, it is obvious that there are relationships but I am not fully aware of the rules as to what contents can justify a certain title, he adds with a smile.
According to Øie, it was the Sanatorium in Luster, awaiting demolition, which sowed the seed of the sequel – 10 years after the original.
– A lot of random elements play a role when you start planning a new movie. It has always been in the air that we may do something related to Dark Woods and then there was this building actually waiting to be pulled down. When we walked around the venues, we had a look at this old sanatorium, which is located at the same place where the original film took place. This is how the idea started to evolve. It took some time before we got fully involved and I had to postpone other projects due to Dark Woods 2.
Dark Woods was a quiet horror film, even by 2003 standards. The focus was on the atmosphere and the contrasting brutality, which was well supported by the effective sound work. Øie tells us that they are trying to continue this in Dark Woods 2, although the latter will certainly be a more modern example of the genre.
– It may prove to be a more typical horror movie. But we want to transfer the atmosphere, the mood and, of course, the excellent acting team into the new film. This is very important for a convincing and genuine movie. For this title, the staff is formed by Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Renate Reinsve, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Thomas Norström and Baard Owe. I wrote the screenplay with Kjersti Rasmussennel.
– In fact I didn’t really concentrate on the horror movie as a genre but of course, as I said before, the story of Dark Woods suits this genre very well. I believe that if you work on a genre movie, it is important to have a wide range of movie traditions at hand to be able to borrow elements from various genres. This is not to say that Dark Woods was made like that but it wasn’t an extreme horror movie, either. As I mentioned before, the story itself specified the genre in which we finally embedded it.
There had to be a source for Øie’s interest in horror. When I asked what it was, he became uncertain, speculating that Western Norway might be the reason.
– The reason why I am fascinated by dark things may be the fact that I was brought up in Western Norway, where fiords are dark and deep woods start right behind the houses. This is the only explanation I can give. And then this is a genre that many people like and I greatly appreciate that the audience wants to see the movies we make.
Dark Woods 2 will premiere in October 2015.
The Luster Sanatorium, the venue of “Dark Woods 2”, is also the subject of Therese Jacobsen’s documentary titled “The Sanatorium”.
Interview conducted and written by Tommy Gjerald
Below find stills from the Dark Woods 2 shoot in Hungary.
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