Víkin: A Cult Classic Spews Forth On Hornstrandir

Víkin by Bragi Þór Hinriksson is a squirm-inducing delight

“Honey, you need to see this,” I said this week, while staring at my MacBook Air. I actually probably shouted each word separately.

I was so clearly alarmed and amused that I didn’t have to explain my reasoning. If I had to, as I have done all week to anyone who will listen, I would’ve said that the movie Víkin, which was marketed as a thriller, is instead a balls-to-the-wall Icelandic male terror-dream mixed with the most cringy, locally focused humour I have ever seen.

How much is this an Icelandic male terror dream? It takes place at a summer cottage. On the inaccessible strip of land Hornstrandir. Fine, you say, summer cottage stories are somehow commonplace now. My answer is to explain the scene in which Iceland’s most accessible, gentle character actor, Örn Árnasson, famous for playing Grandpa Örn on children’s television, seems to go into heart-pulsing homoerotic rage and slice into his own hand while watching a weathered, muscle -shirted, middle-aged man eat flatbread and smoked lamb. This is after his wife has been sieving broken glass from schnaps and declaring it fit to drink because this movie is so much based on the stacking of bad ideas that we experience here.

Does this make sense to you if you just arrived in Iceland? I don’t know. The score by Helgi Svavar Helgason, the editing, and the deeply alarming male antagonist playing Jack, the embodiment of overconfident underprepared on-edge American tourist (in a cross between scenery-chomping and Ritalin-chomping performance by Leifur Sigurðarson), I believe anyone can feel the stress. But for those of us who have had all-night drinking sessions with men here as they approach middle age, I’ve got to say this is what I’ve been told of their subconscious.

Are there quotes you can put on a t-shirt? There are a dozen. In English. However, each is key to an insane plot twist.

In a just world, Víkin will have midnight screenings. It is to 2025 Iceland what The ‘Burbs was to 1989 America. What this movie shares with the Joe Dante classic is a cast of absolute character actor power hitters. The arrival of this style of movie is a shock to the system. It suggests that the help of streaming access, and the arrival of local film schools, has brought with it truly enigmatic, expressive movies outside of traditionally valued films. We are now making cult classics.

Sieve the glass from whatever broken bottle of booze you have on hand in your plastic Bonus bags, and enjoy.

Víkin is still in local theatres in Reykjavík at the time of this writing. Our screener had an English-language title of Cold Echoes, which may be the title used for international distribution.