There is a strong premise here – monster movie meets climate change – but unfortunately it does not quite materialise in the way that you would hope

Norwegian folklore is full of creatures. From trolls in the mountains to the Huldra in the woodlands to the Nøkk within fresh waters. Divided into the benign and the more sinister, stories have been passed down for generations as to the origins and likely dwellings of these mythical beings. And, buried within the waters of the majestic Norwegian fjords, is perhaps one of the most fearsome myths of all: the kraken. 

Director Pål Øie (The Tunnel) introduces us to Johanne (Sara Khorami), a marine biologist who is tasked with returning to the fjord town of Sognefjord, due to a series of mysterious occurrences. The local salmon – subject to sonic lice treatment at Western Salmon are behaving oddly. More than that, two tourists have gone missing in the hardy Nordic waters. Is this nothing more than capitalist greed disrupting the delicate eco-system or has an ancient monster been awakened? 

Øie does a magnificent job of showcasing the resplendent Norwegian landscape. Despite the potentially nefarious goings on in the town, you can’t help but wonder what it would feel like to gulp in a breath of the crisp, clean air. The waters look turquoise and pure; the mountains are earthy brown and capped with a sprinkling of snow. There’s a mist that clings to everything and everyone. The fjord reflects the landscape as a perfect mirror image. It seems like an idyllic place to while away the years (if it wasn’t for all of the death and destruction that is going on). 

From the offset, it’s clear that the sonic lice treatment of the salmon is going to be the root cause of the problem. With exposition heavy dialogue, Western Salmon boss Jostein has made it clear that he will do whatever it takes to gain investment from an Asian business conglomerate. He even offers to sell them “as many fjords” as they want.

The lice treatment is supposed to be regulated but, in a quest for inflated numbers, Jostein has been cranking up the dial and disturbing the bed of the fjord. He would be twirling a moustache, if he had one. Most monster movies do have a deeper meaning to them – usually along the lines of man’s right to play God – and, in that sense, Kraken is no different. Øie touches on an anti-capitalist message about over production and over consumption and how both of these scourges mess with nature. However, it feels too two dimensional to have any meaningful impact. 

The village itself is a mixed bag of characters. Sara Khorami’s Johanne is both an outsider and old friend, and that dichotomy seems to haunt her decisions for the majority of the film. It’s a shame that she’s not given more to do with her character as it is a relatively solid performance. We have young climate activists, led by Jorstein’s daughter Maria (Jenny Evensen) and a host of fishermen whose sideways glances reveal that they are very unhappy with this over-farming that’s going on. 

The film also opens with old news reels, featuring eyewitnesses who swear they saw something over two hundred metres in size terrorising the fjord. Clearly, the monster from the deep is just getting started. We are treated to plenty of shots of ripples in the water; fish suddenly diverting course; birds squawking and scattering; crabs scuttling on to the land. There are also plenty of the classic underwater shots that hover just long enough to make you question what that shadow in the corner was. 

However, we do have to wait until almost an hour into the film before we get so much as a hint of the beast. It emerges from the ever-present mist, before lunging for the decks of the salmon farm, landing with a satisfying squelch.

From there, we see a large sucker on a porthole and grasping tentacles furrowing along corridors, leaving screaming workers nowhere to hide. It even has its own parasitic lice, which scuttle around like the face-huggers from Alien. It feels like too little, too late, though, as there has been so much build up and so little screen time for the titular monster. Indeed, most of the film feels more akin to a cosy Scandi police procedural than Jaws. 

There is a strong premise here – monster movie meets climate change – but unfortunately it does not quite materialise in the way that you would hope. Øie spends so much time setting up the thought of the kraken that, by the time it appears, it is not given enough screen time to truly reel you back in.

Kraken is available on Digital HD 1 June. Distributed by Signature Entertainment