lost-in-limbo
After seeing the title, you could say it's a neat homage to Tobe Hooper's horror classic "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". In some regards it's virtually that film, but set on a whaling vessel where the crew (a family; mother and her two sons) practice their trade on unexpected victims. Hey even Gunnar Hansen makes an appearance, but finds himself in the opposite chain of events. A group of international tourists on a whale watching trip in Iceland, find themselves in trouble when their captain is killed in a freak accident. But lucky for them there is a passing former whaling vessel where they are force to take refuge, but to their surprise it's no safe haven as once they step aboard the ship they become the helpless prey. The oddball plot might be thin, but the choice of location was fitting and it did offer a surprise or so. However its bitter, mean-spirited tone that really did surprise me, as it doesn't hide its intentions. Especially since after it kicks into gear, it never lets up setting up its bewildering situation. On the other side of that, I did find the majority of the characters (mainly the victims) quite insufferable and disconnected. Very typical, if dislikeable bunch, with the exception of two characters (played with gusto by Terence Anderson and Pihla Viitala). This means there's a healthy body count and numerous over-the- top slaughter sequences. Blood runs freely. It can get really cartoon- like in its graphic depiction, which does disrupt the suspense and raise a chuckle. But still the script does have that dark humorous edge, which never lets it become too serious. Director Julius Kemp's handling is streamlined, being well-shot and confidently paced. Nothing out the ordinary, but a amusing, rustic splatter horror slasher.
disgaea380
I have to say that this movie is extremely different from any of those teen slasher flicks. What makes it stand out is the extremely diverse cast and good character development. But lets not forget the creative kills!! In saying that there are some major flaws to this gem of a slasher film. Even though there is a large cast it is a flaw in this film. Since this film does contain such a large cast you cant really connect with any of them. So, when the body count starts racking up you do not really care until you realize the character development in the final few characters. Another flaw is the pacing. The pacing was all over the place. At first it was going slow then it started to go way to fast when characters start dying one after the other with little break in between. In my opinion I did not like that at all. But all in all Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre is a definite stand out in the slasher genre is probably one of the best out there.
jjdosha
There aren't many horror films from Iceland; however, this one is a very good start. "Harpoon" has all the great elements of a horror film, despite its less than stellar subtitle "Whale Watching Massacre." The director chose all the right performers to bring the characters to life; each actor did a great job at owning the person they were portraying; however, the director left much to be desired in the action department...and the film could've done without the few gasps of ironic comedy with the character Endo and the matriarch of the insane clan. Overall, the gore effects were good and a few surprising moments that the audience may not suspect. I really despised the ending because it disabled me from taking the film seriously overall, meaning the ending was too campy for this type of film. Kudos again to the actors who performed very well.
Lawson
This might be the first solely Icelandic movie I've ever watched and it's not a bad one, really. It's set in Reyjavik, has an international cast, and is mostly in English. The background story is amusing: A bunch of tourists go whale-watching but are beset upon by Icelandic redneck fishermen who're sore about environmentalists halting their livelihood of whale-hunting. It's a slasher movie but with some welcome black humor. It's also filmed pretty well, with grainy shots for ambiance. I've two issues with the movie, one being the misogynism at the start of the movie. At least the movie shows it's not homophobic, since it has a heroic non-nelly gay man. The other issue is the twists in the story. I have no idea how the movie ended the way it did. It has to do with a certain character who does an about-face in the middle of the movie and changes motivations and I'm not sure why... Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, I don't know. Anyway, this was a fun and exotic slasher movie.
AD
