The White Reindeer
Directed by Erik Blomberg
A newly-married young woman, Pirita, becomes frustrated and lonely as her husband, a reindeer herder for a small Arctic village, spends much of his time away from home in devotion to his work. Desperate for affection, she visits a shaman who offers a potion that makes her an irresistible object of desire, but there is a terrible cost. Pirita becomes a bloodthirsty shapeshifter who lures men out into the barren wilderness where she consumes them
A newly-married young woman becomes frustrated and lonely as her husband, a reindeer herder for a small Arctic village, spends much of his time away from home in devotion to his work.
Cast: Mirjami Kuosmanen, Kalervo Nissilä, Åke Lindman
Member Reviews
really enjoyed this one. Reminds me of November!
I have seen this prior so I wanted to give this a good rating, its just so mesmerizing and beautiful to look at!
Folk tales are not the same thing as folk horror everyone. Careful what you give to the stone god.
Honestly remarkable window into Sami ways of life (maybe presented from a distorted Finnish/colonizer lens? I don’t know how Sami folks feel about the representation in this movie). I think most, if not all of these actors are doing their own stunts, and I’m primarily interested in what’s happening in the background of the plot: possibly homegrown Sami actors, Sami and/or Finnish culture, lack of judgment about sexuality, Sami spiritual practices/folklore etc. Makes you wonder, as in the case with all folklore, what is the message of this particular story/the guidance it would’ve offered the generations it passed down to? Not super scary for a variety of reasons, but absolutely worth a watch.
I wanted to like it more. Stories about shapeshifter wives have always been a soft spot for me. I'm trying to accommodate for the 1950s of it all, and I'm glad I watched it, but really the only thing about it that set it apart from any other monster/witch movie of the era is the intro credits lore song. Would have loved more of that, actually. Always good to have a broader base of cultural representation available, but the movie itself is "meh".