When Isaac Pickman (Ludovic Hughes) was a little boy, his mother took him out of their family home on an island in Norway and across the Atlantic to the United States, where he was brought up without his father. Indeed, his father passed away some time ago, and Isaac is drawn to return to his former house now his wife Emma (Sophie Stevens) is about to make him a father. The idea is that they check the place out with a view to selling it at a profit - it is a desirable property, they reason, and nobody has stayed there for some time. But they reckoned without the locals, who are deeply unfriendly to strangers, and only accept Isaac when Emma points out he was born here - he is won over by their change of heart, but she wouldn't mind leaving at all.
It's about this time that the local police chief Renate Nygard (played by horror stalwart Barbara Crampton) sits the couple down in the family home to ask them about Isaac's father's murder. His what? It's the first the couple have heard of this, and when the chief points out the bloodstain on the rug that proved too stubborn to remove, the effect is highly disturbing, especially to the bereaved son. But this is not all that's strange about this island, as if the pair paid attention to their dreams they would be well aware there was trouble afoot, given this was a film obsessed with having characters wake up with a start - including that old favourite, sitting bolt upright staring straight into the camera - after experiencing a heavy hint-dropping nightmare.
So if you did not mind sitting about for the conclusion to resolve itself more or less as you expected - there was a slight but negligible twist, but nevertheless it was business as usual - then this was fairly well done for what it was. We're told Crampton had a dialogue coach to work on her Norwegian accent, but maybe she should have got a refund, though the scenery was authentic as presumably was the general gloom (they weren't lucky with the weather), adding to the ominous mood. The dreams acted as interstitials to the main descent into hell (or Hel) as Isaac turns into a different personality, complete with Amityville Horror wood-chopping, and Emma grows more panicky, especially with the baby on the way, so a bit if Rosemary's Baby in there too. It was amusing enough, and all led up to a final line that may make you laugh (intentionally), but despite the claim in the credits to be inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, you imagine the author Paul Kane had more to be owed. Despite the accents, it's actually British. Music by Tom Linden.
