Viking Wolf, billed as Norway’s first werewolf movie, delivers as promised. This recent Netflix acquisition doesn’t mislead its audience; there is definitely a wild lycan on the loose in a small Norwegian town. However, Stig Svendsen’s movie doesn’t have the typical origin found in these kinds of stories; the werewolf myth here has been adapted to better fit its Scandinavian environment. The end result is a unique, if not flawed new addition to the pack.

Despite its cheesy title, Viking Wolf (originally Vikingulven) is a serious movie. It takes the trademarks of modern Scandi-noir media and applies it to this creature-feature. In the story, a teenage city transplant named Thale Berg (Elli Rhiannon Müller Osbourne) moves to a place called Nybø after her father passed away. His death has affected the main character’s relationship with her mother (Liv Mjönes), and that tension plays a significant role in Thale’s fate. It’s during a party that Thale first encounters the titular beast; what looks to be a large wolf drags a random partygoer to her bloody death, but not before nipping Thale in the process.

Viking Wolf looks like your standard Scandinavian police-procedural thriller. There are plentiful wide shots of rural vistas that are indeed tranquil and beautiful to look at, but they’re also unremarkable. In addition, Thale’s mother is the frazzled cop in charge of finding whatever killed both that unfortunate party guest and attacked her own daughter. The stress of this case is then piled on top of the strain caused by her home life. Thale resents her mother since losing her father, hence why the teen doesn’t reach out when her condition starts to worsen.