Monsters, action, gore, vikings and a story based vaguely on one of the oldest tales in British culture. Can't go wrong can you?

Obviously no one told Howard McCain. He's taken some fantastic ingredients and baked them into a great big cake that unfortunately hasn't risen. Poor metaphor I know but stay with me.

The setting was great. Big sweeping Scandanavian vistas, gloomy pine forests, serene mountain lakes etc, but that was about as close to an authentic Scandanavian viking tale as this story got. Since when have Vikings had facial tattoos?

There were a couple of decent action sequences but the rest of the film laboured along at a trundle rather than a sprint and there were a lot of missed opportunities in relation to the story line.

The acting was OK at best. Jim managing to make the best of a bad script but Ron Pearlman couldn't seem to make his mind up as to what accent his character should have.

The creature wasn't bad but, as previously… more »

Monsters, action, gore, vikings and a story based vaguely on one of the oldest tales in British culture. Can't go wrong can you?

Obviously no one told Howard McCain. He's taken some fantastic ingredients and baked them into a great big cake that unfortunately hasn't risen. Poor metaphor I know but stay with me.

The setting was great. Big sweeping Scandanavian vistas, gloomy pine forests, serene mountain lakes etc, but that was about as close to an authentic Scandanavian viking tale as this story got. Since when have Vikings had facial tattoos?

There were a couple of decent action sequences but the rest of the film laboured along at a trundle rather than a sprint and there were a lot of missed opportunities in relation to the story line.

The acting was OK at best. Jim managing to make the best of a bad script but Ron Pearlman couldn't seem to make his mind up as to what accent his character should have.

The creature wasn't bad but, as previously mentioned, the effects arn't amazing and they must have been a bit skint as the creature didn't make an appearance for at least half an hour at one point throughout the film which, considering the film is a creature flik, wasn't ideal.

All in all, the film is less than inspiring but would do to wile away a couple of hours one rainy afternoon if it was on sale. I paid a tenner and think that it was way too much.