Jannicke is scared to death. Her friends have been killed, one by one, by the masked menace who hides in the mountain hotel where they have taken shelter. She is terrified and makes a desperate run for it, out into the freezing gloom of the brutal winter dusk. In a daze she stumbles through the door of the tool shed in the hotel yard. Breaking down on the floor, Jannicke finally begins to cry. Eyes closed, deep sobs, utter despair at the hopeless situation she finds herself in. Lying on her back, her sobs subsiding, she opens her eyes and sees a shotgun stowed under the ceiling. Jannicke loosens the gun from its rack and re-enters the hotel, where she knows there is a box of ammunition in the reception desk. The terrified girl gives way to another being, an angry woman about to avenge her friends and fight her way out of despair. She loads the shotgun and begins stalking her tormentor, armed and ready.

This is a scene from Cold Prey (Fritt vilt), the 2006 feature film debut of director Roar Uthaug. The main character Jannicke, portrayed by Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, goes through a moment typical of the slasher movie, a transition that turns a terrified girl into an angry woman. This subgenre archetype is removed to a Norwegian setting in Cold Prey, and Uthaug stages every beat of the character’s development from initial innocence to ultimate showdown with the dark and deadly force personified by the masked killer (Clover 1992: 21–42).

Cold Prey was the movie that really set the Norwegian horror tradition in motion, taking its cue from Dark Woods (Villmark). The film was easily the most intense and graphic portrayal of physical violence in Norwegian cinema up to that point, and it enjoyed great popularity and commercial success. Uthaug’s movie exploited the characteristics of the predominantly American slasher film and spawned two sequels, thus creating the first Norwegian horror movie franchise. This and the following chapter will examine the slasher subgenre and its particular emergence and resonance in Norwegian cinema post-2000.

Psychos and their victims: the slasher movie

The slasher subgenre of the horror movie usually tells the tale of a group of young people being stalked and murdered by a psychopathic killer.