Når dyrene drømmer (2014) Reviews

• Artfully composed

  Red_Identity2014-12-10

  Wow. What a pleasant surprise. Carefully-paced, artfully composed with some beautiful cinematography and direction, and some strong acting. The fact that it's the director's feature film debut is highly impressive, and it actually reminds me of Let The Right One In in some aspects. It's definitely a horror film, but definitely a coming-of-age drama in other ways. Definitely recommend this little gem, and further proof that 2014 was actually a good year for horror (among others like Under The Skin, Coherence, The Babadook, Honeymoon). I hope people try to seek this one out because it's definitely worth the time to, especially among sure dire horrors these days.

• an atmospheric Scandinavian horror film

  SpannersGerm6692015-02-06

  When Animals Dream has a lot of similarities with the Swedish masterpiece Let The Right One In. While one movie deals with Vampires and the other with Werewolves, both share a brilliant atmosphere along with sympathetic situations. When Animals Dream isn't so much about Werewolves as such, but about a family struggling to cope with hereditary illness. The power of a young female caring for her ill mother and depressed father. The whole situation is hopeless and portrays a very depressing story, but strangely at the same time, a story of beauty. The story is simplistic, but its the rich flavour that keeps the movie afloat. While Let The Right One In is a better film, When Animals Dream is yet another very memorable Scandinavian horror/drama. Highly recommended!

• Unusual horror, avoiding abundant bloodshed, yet maintaining loaded atmosphere around werewolf coming-of-age. Clearly outlined dilemmas of family in question and villagers

  JvH482015-05-08

  Saw this at the Film Fest Ghent 2014. Combined several nice ideas derived from the Horror genre, thereby avoiding an abundance of blood and gore that gave the genre a bad name. Only a handful of people died in the process, at times where the story needed it and where we like to see "bad" people punished for their deeds. It was nowhere over-the-top frightening, so actually more Drama than Horror. A good-looking adolescent girl Marie with hidden were­wolf genes plays the leading part in this movie. She has a mother who is constantly drugged for initially unknown reasons, and a father who tries to suppress the inevitable that he sees coming. And the villagers keep them constantly under watch for reasons that become clear later on. The effect of the hidden genes become more and more apparent. Meanwhile the whole village assumes that Marie will develop the same symptoms as her mother, and eventually has to be kept semi-conscious too. Father and daughter play their respective roles very well, and their dilemma's and compromises become very clear. Though less prominent, the same can also be said about the villagers, mostly colleague workers in the fish factory where she starts a new job. Not a lot of action in view yet not boring throughout all of the 84 minutes running time. The werewolf theme and its positioning in the village seems interesting, but could possibly have been exploited more fully. Nevertheless, we should encourage movies like these that do not make spilling blood and causing bodily harm to their primary goal. It is more important to create a loaded atmosphere around a phenomenon that we don't fully understand, with potential very dangerous repercussions when it would turn against us. The latter need not be a danger for everyone, as we see in this movie where most good people are left unharmed. Of course, we have no problems when a few bad people get what they deserve, which is precisely what happens here as well.

• Mild Horror, drama from Denmark.

  t-dooley-69-3869162016-06-11

  Marie is sixteen and lives in a coastal town with nowt to do, no friends and a mother with a mysterious debilitating illness. The local doctor seems to take a lot of interest in Marie's condition especially when she starts to grow thick body hair and she would like to know why. Now she gets a job at the local fish factory, where she is not exactly made to feel welcome. She makes a connection with Daniel, a kindly soul who is also a good looking man whom she takes a shine too. The thing is she starts to feel that she has not been told everything about her 'illness' and soon she will find out the hard way. Now this is a slow burner but one that is fairly intense at the same time. There are some sterling performances especially from Lars Mikkelsen – brother of Mads but everyone is actually good even Gustav Dyekjær Giese who has a small role playing a nasty type here and was in the rather good 'Northwest'. It is short at 81 minutes and that includes the run off credits, but it does not do much wasting of screen time and is better for it. For lovers of 'horror' this may be lacking as it is a coming of age tale and a relationship story as much as the horror part and that makes it a more rounded film – recommended.

• New twist to werewolves

  que_no_me_toque_un_alto_delante2015-10-27

  A twist to a theme already seen many times, but is an original contribution. Through concise and fair dialogue, we can see a clear intention not to give everything chewed to the viewer, not explaining everything that happens (which came out very well in my opinion).The lead actress does a fine job. Perhaps a rewriting of the myth of the werewolf, perhaps a metaphor for the animal in us, maybe a social critique to the aggression that the horde develops when something is different and frightens us. Probably all that together. I liked the point made by the father/mother and father/daughter relationship in the context of the situation they are living. Either way, it's a movie with original features, beautifully set in a rural town in Denmark, and with decent special effects.