lyn-kr
Dødes tjern,de is considered to be a Norwegian classic. It tells the story of a group of young people staying in an isolated cabin situated in a forest. I have seen this film more than once as it is a regular on Norwegian TV. Its fun in a way to watch Norwegian movies. Not too may are made and the ones that are, are usually very bad. This one is an exception. The story in itself is quite good, but as usual, to anyone not Norwegian it is an amateur attempt at film making. Norwegians do not have film actors, only theater actors, something that is obvious when watching the film. The actors overact, the camera lingers much too long on certain shots and the dialog is spoken in a way no Norwegian would speak. In spite of this criticism one cannot help but be intrigued by its ghostly story. Each time I have watched it I am in turn embarrassed that we cannot make a better film from a good manuscript, and the enjoyment I get from laughing at the exaggerated character acting. Perhaps my criticisms will not be so obvious to a non Norwegian as they'll be to busy reading the subtitles to notice the aforementioned faults. I make no excuses for it being made in 1958. Casablanca was made long before and it is as watchable today as it was when it was made.I'd love to see this film remade today by an American studio. It could be a box office success.
halfan
Don't let the previous poster scare (no pun intended) you away from seeing this film. It has a very good cast made up of seasoned Norwegian actors (including the writer himself, Andre Bjerke), and the plot is very good acted out. Now, it would be really unfair to compare Norwegian films made in the 1950's with their Hollywood counterparts then and now - they were made on very tight budgets and usually played for a limited audience. However, this film (made in creepy black and white) has some outstanding scenes that made me (at least) really very uneasy. It's really a very good attempt to make an exiting movie out of a brilliant psychological thriller novel. I think it still - even by today's standard - has a very high entertainment value, just as it had about 50 years ago. No CGI effects here - just good, solid acting!
Kinetic
This is the only movie that have scared me so much that I had to stop watching. Not many will find a norwegian black&white movie to be interesting, but this movie makes all those sucky american horror movies look just like sucky american horror movies. Enough said.
MartinSa
For younger generations of Norwegian film enthusiasts, Andre Bjerkes "De dødes tjern" is held to be one of the best Norwegian films ever to be made. This film-noir is a "must see" for everybody with a liking for classic cinema!My vote: 10 out of 10