PPM recently helped facilitate the Budapest portion of the feature film Villmark 2 shoot. The sequel to Norgegian horror classic Villmark is 10 years in the coming. In the film, actors Anders Baasmo Christiansen and Ellen Dorrit Petersen explore a haunted sanatorium.
The original 2003 Villmark was called Norway’s ‘first pure horror film.’ It attracted more than 150,000 Norwegians to the cinemas and made the idea of spending a night in a tent in the mountains far less tempting for those who saw it. Now, more than ten years later, the shooting of the sequel is well underway. The second instalment features a new cast and an undeniably creepy sanatorium from real life in a central role.
“It is a totally crazy place,” says Anders Baasmo Christiansen, referring to the massive Lyster sanatorium in Sogn og Fjordane. Villmark 2 is set mainly in Budapest, but large parts of the action of the film take place inside the Norwegian sanatorium. The now-dilapidated building has been used among other things as a tuberculosis and psychiatric hospital since it was built in 1902. Earlier, there was a cable railway from the steamboat quay in Luster that ran up the steep mountainside where the sanatorium is located. The plot centres around a redevelopment team preparing the building for demolition.
For actor Baasmo Christiansen, the horror film genre is uncharted territory. In Villmark 2, he plays a laboratory technician and the father of a small child who finds himself in dangerous situations while working inside the sanatorium. “The film is excitement-driven, but Pål Øie has also made sure that the roles feel human. “It was a special challenge to play that you are hunted for and feel in danger of death,” he said in a recent interview. He claims to be very pleased with his fellow cast members. “It was great fun to play against Baard Owe, who was doctor Bondo in The Kingdom and also Ellen Dorrit Petersen is one of the best female actors we have in Norway,” he said.
In the film, actor Dorrit Petersen plays the leader of the team that examines the darkest corners of the sanatorium. She had no previous experience with the horror genre, either. “There was more running and yelling than what I’m otherwise accustomed to. I have always made drama, so it’s real fun that I can be tough and really grab the strongest emotions,” she said in a recent interview. Before the production of the film, she watched the horror classics like Alien to prepare. “This was because it has a tough female lead role and is about an isolated group,” she explained. In addition to Baasmo Christiansen and Dorrit Petersen, team of the film included Renate Reinsve, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen and Thomas Norström.
“The idea of a sequel has always been there,” said director Paul Øie, who since the first Villmark has among other projects made the Norwegian thriller Skjult.
He had known about the spectacular sanatorium since the shooting of the first film, which took place nearby. In the Villmark universe, there is water, being a central element in the first film, behind the sanatorium, thus linked together the action of the original and the sequel with some narrative continuity. “I was completely amazed by this white cathedral on mountain side,” said Øie. “When we heard that the sanatorium would really be demolished, the last pieces of the story fell in place, with a team that must go inside to map everything that may not get out into nature. It is a classic expectation of a building that was the home for distress. You would like to have again something hanging on the walls, which therefore also promises several creepy tent scenes.”
The premiere for Villmark 2 is scheduled for release in October of next year.
Original interview published in Dagbladet
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