Draug is a 2019 drama about an 11th century search for a missionary and the evil one young woman must face in finding him.
A thousand years ago, in the northern woods of Sweden, a missionary goes missing in lands renowned for its treachery. A barrel of a man named Hakon (Ralf Beck), who once traveled by sword with the lost soul, vows to find him, taking with him Nanna (Elna Karlsson), his adopted daughter, an orphaned young woman who knows the forests well. She keeps with her an old key, saved from her childhood, plus troubling images of a painful past swirling about her mind. They come upon Sheriff Kettil (Thomas Hedengran), a once proud warrior now tamed by drink and the slave girl Deja (Nina Filimoshkina), tethered to his side. The party venture north, soon besieged by frightful encounters that draw them ever deeper into the dark secrets nestled in the shadows of an endless sea of looming trees.
Spoken entirely in Swedish, this independent tale from directors Karin Engman and Klas Persson is a small affair but no less entertaining, the high production value and inspired performances from a committed cast keeping this a few rungs well above the expected. You don’t have to know anything about the ancient lore it’s based on to get drawn into the mystery and menace, made doubly so by the deeply authentic setting and energetic dialogue. You most likely won’t know anyone on screen, but you’ll certainly remember them when it’s over.
Sure, there are limitations holding some of the filmmaker’s larger plans at bay, the decidedly small scope to it all feeling a little confined in trying to tell what feels like a bigger story. This is a movie with a lot on its plate, especially the further it marches to its finale, with witches, possessions, undead creatures, swordplay, and more. Not all of it works, but you can’t help but feel that this is a production consumed with telling a good story, every one of these actors soaked in the history that brought them here.
Take for instance a battle in the woods at the mid point where the small crew are ambushed by archers and stone throwers. What begins as a seemingly innocuous squabble escalates into a truly brutal fight for survival that may be small in scale compared to the massive on screen armies facing each other in big studio films, but because of its intimacy – in such close proximity – is instead a jarringly personal experience. It only gets darker from there where Draug slips into the abyss of madness and mayhem, blood and butchery. It holds tight to its ebony black fantasy while saturating itself in a grim sense of reality.
This isn’t for everyone, the folktale-esque angle and heavy themes of Nordic horror perhaps keeping it out of reach of Western genre fans, but for those who give this the chance, Draug has a lot to offer, with excellent direction and a tempered but rousing score. There are some truly terrifying moments in this, some sourced from the evils of man, others born elsewhere that strike in the pitch of night. It coils like a cornered viper in setting loose some of these frights, keeping the journey to them wrought with suspense, which is itself an accomplishment being this is the debut film for both these directors. Highly recommended.