What’s cool about werewolf films by my reckoning is their flexibility.

They can be metaphors for sexual wakening, stories about coming into adulthood, whodunits or nothing more than a person changing to a beast.

Vikingulven (or Viking Wolf) is the latter, which is to say that it appears to be saying nothing more than what you see, and that’s fine, though the movie is just okay.

So why is Vikingulven just ‘okay?’

The only problem worth speaking on is unfortunately a major one, which happens to be the restraint exercised by the director, Stig Svendsen.

The movie is beautifully shot – Svendsen is among a rare group of directors that seems to understand that drone photography should be sparingly, and only it it adds value to a scene – and gives viewers a look at Nybo that most are probably not accustomed to seeing.

It’s also very well-acted, which is to say that everyone takes what’s going on fairly seriously.

And speaking of acting, the story revolves around the Berg family, who relocate from Oslo to Nybo, a significantly smaller city.

The mother of the family, Liv (Liv Mjönes) is a police officer, which is relevant to the plot. She has two daughters, Jenny and her older sister, Thale (Mia Fosshaug Laubacher and Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne).

Her husband, Arthur (Vidar Magnussen) is a fairly minor character who’s entire purpose seems to be to watch Jenny and make repairs around the house.

In any case, Thale while with some friends at the bay – literally called The Bay – is present when one of her classmates is attacked by a creature, which manages to wound Thale prior to dragging the other girl away.

Thale’s wound appears fairly minor but she starts to have fairly odd dreams as well as an increase of her sense of hearing to such a degree that sounds most of use aren’t even aware of really irritate her.

While Liv believes that the creature that’s causing the havoc is a wolf, a suspicion that’s confirmed when she finds a claw at the scene, though her boss isn’t buying it and wants to be sure beyond a doubt.

Before long we come to learn that the creature was not only a wolf, but a werewolf.

Which is done well, except the movie is fairly restrained in its presentation of gore and violence, which undermines things somewhat.

And it’s worth mentioning that while I respected that the movie didn’t really use music to manipulate emotion (though a bit more sturm und drang wouldn’t have hurt) it just never really brings the goods.