THE WHITE REINDEER (1952) – As Halloween Season nears its end, Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at a fascinating and haunting Finnish horror film. First off, let me assure readers that The White Reindeer is, indeed, a serious movie despite the way that some glib descriptions of it make it sound like just another campy black & white monster movie from long ago.
Even though the premise – the beautiful daughter of a witch begins turning into a reindeer-monster and killing off townspeople – sounds a bit silly, director Erik Blomberg succeeds at making The White Reindeer a moody, creepy and effective horror film.
Blomberg’s best move was just accepting the fact that he didn’t have a big enough budget for convincing special effects so he relies on stylish editing, shadows and every camera trick in the book for the transformation scenes.
The film is based on Sami legends going back centuries and is set in a vaguely defined time period, adding to the odd atmosphere. Rifles are in evidence, but the story’s Lapland location precludes the presence of vehicles of any kind, so the exact decade and century cannot be discerned. Continue reading
Balladeer's Blog 