A new André Øvredal movie is always going to be worth getting excited over. The Trollhunter and Autopsy of Jane Doe filmmaker already has his Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark follow up, Mortal, in the works, and it looks like a perfect fit in the director’s canon. And a nice treat for horror fans. Check out the partially-in-English trailer below.
Mortal follows a young American man, Eric (Nat Wolff), in Norway. When people discover he has “god-like powers” that have something to do with Norse mythology, things don’t go well for him.
We’ve seen similar set ups before. It’s basically the origin story of every superhero. A person has powers they don’t quite understand and can’t always control, people find out, don’t understand, and freak out. Because humans are frightened, frantic, skittish creatures, bad things happen.
While we may have seen the set up in Mortal before, Øvredal puts his chilly horror spin on the proceedings. Steeped in Scandinavian lore, it’s also sure to have a different perspective than your usual take. (I can’t help but think of recent films like Freaks or Brightburn, that play with these kinds of tropes.) Any way it shakes out, this definitely looks like something potentially great.
Co-written by Øvredal and Norman Lesperance, Mortal stars Wolff, Priyanka Bose, Arthur Hakalahti, Per Egil Aske, Ravdeep Singh Bajwa, and Iben Akerlie. The film is set for release in Norway on February 28, though there’s no word when the rest of the world might see it.
Given the director’s recent profile stateside, it seems almost a given someone will pick Mortal up for distribution. I also won’t be surprised to see it make a festival run to boost its profile before release. This seems tailor made for a fest like TIFF, Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, or one of the more genre-leaning gatherings. Either way, this is a movie to keep an eye on.
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