This Icelandic film is a much better movie than the title suggests. In fact the title is a lurid and stupid one. The original title is closer to the truth. (promoted in Iceland as "Tryllir" meaning something between Thriller and Horror) More a Thriller than a straight up slasher film, it is well acted and has the grace to add some truly interesting moments into the mix: a girl suddenly getting on a ship's intercom and singing IT'S SO QUITE when a character dies in a freak accident, a mousy Japanese tour guide becomes Ninja smart, and a black, gay man ascends to be a true action hero. It is also shot well.However, the ending twists are highly confusing, illogical and unsatisfying. You find yourself saying "WTF?" a hell of a lot in the last 20 minutes, where characters suddenly shift motivations with no apparent reason just to satisfy the public's stupid need for stupid twist endings. I do appreciate that most of the bad guys (a racist whaling family) get it worse than their victims and that the violence and gore, while brutal and bloody, is not overly extreme or pandering. (but only in the R-rated version, the uncut version is gorier) To me though, that ending translates to: doesn't matter if you are a good person; brave, strong, sympathetic to other humans, or that you have been through a lot already BEFORE the psycho family decided to hunt you down, you will still most likely die and greedy people who weren't good people will get away alive. It may be life, but it ain't entertainment in the Book of Jaimes.

After seeing the title, you could say it's a neat homage to Tobe Hooper's horror classic "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". In some regards it's virtually that film, but set on a whaling vessel where the crew (a family; mother and her two sons) practice their trade on unexpected victims. Hey even Gunnar Hansen makes an appearance, but finds himself in the opposite chain of events. A group of international tourists on a whale watching trip in Iceland, find themselves in trouble when their captain is killed in a freak accident. But lucky for them there is a passing former whaling vessel where they are force to take refuge, but to their surprise it's no safe haven as once they step aboard the ship they become the helpless prey. The oddball plot might be thin, but the choice of location was fitting and it did offer a surprise or so. However its bitter, mean-spirited tone that really did surprise me, as it doesn't hide its intentions. Especially since after it kicks into gear, it never lets up setting up its bewildering situation. On the other side of that, I did find the majority of the characters (mainly the victims) quite insufferable and disconnected. Very typical, if dislikeable bunch, with the exception of two characters (played with gusto by Terence Anderson and Pihla Viitala). This means there's a healthy body count and numerous over-the- top slaughter sequences. Blood runs freely. It can get really cartoon- like in its graphic depiction, which does disrupt the suspense and raise a chuckle. But still the script does have that dark humorous edge, which never lets it become too serious. Director Julius Kemp's handling is streamlined, being well-shot and confidently paced. Nothing out the ordinary, but a amusing, rustic splatter horror slasher.

There aren't many horror films from Iceland; however, this one is a very good start. "Harpoon" has all the great elements of a horror film, despite its less than stellar subtitle "Whale Watching Massacre." The director chose all the right performers to bring the characters to life; each actor did a great job at owning the person they were portraying; however, the director left much to be desired in the action department...and the film could've done without the few gasps of ironic comedy with the character Endo and the matriarch of the insane clan. Overall, the gore effects were good and a few surprising moments that the audience may not suspect. I really despised the ending because it disabled me from taking the film seriously overall, meaning the ending was too campy for this type of film. Kudos again to the actors who performed very well.

So far the only thing we have seen from Iceland are Bjork, Sigur Ros, volcano's and whale hunting. Not many people know that Iceland was ready to deliver their first horror flick called Harpoon (or the longer for some unspeakable title Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre). And I must admit, it is a decent movie. Some people will have difficulties to understand the language used, there is the Icelandic language luckily subtitled but there is also a French guy trying to talk English and some Japanese who tries to talk English too. But you will get used to that. Second, one name is wheel known in the genre, Gunnar Hansen. He's in the movie because he's Icelandic, not as a teaser. The movie itself sometimes becomes really bloody and even gory, there is some kind of suspense and even some nudity. Okay, there are reviewers who pointed out that there are some flows in the story but I wasn't offended by it. It's about the guy who appears with a handicap, but I didn't have any problems with it. Anyway, it's a bit of TCM on a boat. It surely delivers the stuff you need for a horror and remember, it's the first film coming from that country in our genre, well done...