Cadaver (2020 film)

Cadaver
Film poster
Norwegian	Kadaver
Directed by	Jarand Herdal
Written by	Jarand Herdal
Starring	Gitte Witt Thomas Gullestad Thorbjørn Harr
Cinematography	Jallo Faber
Edited by	Jens Peder Hertzberg
Music by	Jonathan Sigsworth
Production companies	Motion Blur SF Studios
Distributed by	Netflix
Release date	October 22, 2020 (2020-10-22)
Running time	86 minutes
Country	Norway
Language	Norwegian

Cadaver (Norwegian: Kadaver) is a 2020 Norwegian horror film directed and written by Jarand Herdal and starring Gitte Witt, Thomas Gullestad and Thorbjørn Harr.^[1][2]

Viggo Johansen - Lamb's head on a plate; one of the paintings exhibited at the hotel

Plot[]

The Norwegian city in which Leonora (Gitte Witt) and Jacob [Thomas Gullestad) live with their little daughter Alice (Tuva Olivia Remman), was hit by nuclear disaster. There seems to be no electricity, no work, nor any food left and no hope. While everybody is struggling to survive Leonora hears about a theatre play - which comes with a warm meal – at one of the few buildings that has not been destroyed: the hotel. The family is hungry and Leonora hopes for a good time, so she buys evening tickets for all of them.

Alice is first refused entry. However the overly charming hotel director, Mathias (Thorbjørn Harr), personally steps in and welcomes the young girl to his “wonderland” (referring to her being called Alice).^[3].

The atmosphere is very festive, there isn't just electricity, but also candles, white table cloths and antique furniture. About 40 or 50 people are happy to be seated at tables for the meal. Most of them are so starved that they directly grab the slices of meat and eat with their hands. Mathias informs his guests that the entire hotel will be the stage of the night's performance. To differentiate the visitors from the actors, all spectators are given heavy golden masks.

A few actors start performing and as the guests are invited to attend any performance that interests them anywhere in the large, atmospheric building, people start to explore the numerous floors of the vast building. Not long after the family started to follow the performances, Leo and Jacob lose Alice in one of the long, dark corridors. They start to call her and search for her, hardly noticing that most of the other spectators seem to have disappeared.

As Leo navigates through the red labyrinthine corridors, she finds odd trapdoors, and strange men in white overalls, but no Alice.

The dark, partially shabby ambience of the hotel offers some splendid visual effects, including long corridors, barely lit by small colourful lamps, recalling the atmosphere of Inland Empire.

Cast[]

• Gitte Witt as Leonora
• Thomas Gullestad as Jacob
• Thorbjørn Harr as Mathias
• Tuva Olivia Remman as Alice
• Kingsford Siayor as Lars
• Maria Grazia Di Meo as Kathrine
• Jonatan Rodriguez as simp
• Trine Wiggen as Rakel

Thomas Gullestad was the central character in The 12th Man (2017), in the part of Jan Baalsrud

Gitte Witt played the part of a Norwegian patient in The Impossible (2012) directed by J. A. Bayona

Thorbjørn Harr participated in the historical fantasy series Vikings (2013), where he played Jarl Borg

Reviews[]

The film has a 33% 'Rotten' rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

According to Sheena Scott of Forbes, who gave the film a mixed review, 'The story in Cadaver is too predictable, you'll guess pretty quickly what will happen, but there is a creepy atmosphere that works well.'^[4]

Karine Adelgaard of Heaven of Horror gave the film a negative review, stating that 'For a while the plot works really well, offering a quite immersive experience. Ultimately, too many plot points mean the heart of the story is lost. However, it does offer up a very satisfying conclusion that leaves its viewers with a more positive sense that we might have expected earlier on.'^[5]

References[]

External links[]

• Cadaver at IMDb
• Cadaver on Netflix