When Animals Dream

When Animals Dream (Nar Dyrene Drommer) (2014)

Runtime: 84 minutes

Directed by: Jonas Alexander Arnby

Starring: Sonia Suhl, Lars Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter, Jakob Oftebro, Stig Hoffmeyer

From: Several different Danish companies... and a French one too

I have returned after not having seen a movie in a few days. I had other things to worry about. But now I am back and things should be more normal now, at least for the time being. My review of this foreign movie is below in my Letterboxd review:

I haven't posted any reviews in the past few days as real life got in the way; don't worry it was nothing bad or serious, but I had other things to worry about. However, I am pretty much in the clear for the next few weeks barring any unexpected setbacks. I knew I had to get back on the train of foreign film watching, so why not check out something that I heard a number of people compare to Let the Right One In? After all, LTROI is one of my personal favorites so why not see another Scandinavian horror movie w/ a young female protagonist?

The story concerns a 16 year old girl named Marie; her family are considered outsiders in the small Danish town they live in; her mother is in a wheelchair. She notices her body changing (yeah, a girl becoming a woman was clearly a definite theme) and well, I think the cat is out of the bag already when it comes to this: Marie and her mother are werewolves. She gets mistreated and you can guess what happens with that.

I heard that the movie was slow-paced, so at least I knew that going in, and what I heard was correct. I also heard there wasn't a lot of lycanthropy action and with both, I am fine with that as for me it's not an automatic detriment. Sonia Suhl did a nice job as Marie, although her character wasn't exactly dynamic. Sad to say I can only rate this as average, despite game performances all around and good cinematography. I won't get into the issues I had with it as I think I've already spoiled enough. The idea was better than the execution. This is far down the list of complaints but I am not quite sure why two masked man attacked Marie in a gross way... only to unmask themselves in full view of her. While that Eurotrash character Felix was a highlight in the time he appeared, this movie did not wow me like it did some people.

This is no Let the Right One In, IMO. Many films will suffer in comparison and plus, those two stories are real different. Yet, what LTROI did and the story it told was of more interest to me and it was definitely better executed. I know that some love WAD and you may feel the same way; I just can't rate this above average despite some nice points and a decent ending.