The Trip – Netflix Review [Fantastic Fest] (4/5)

THE TRIP is a new Netflix movie from Norway (org. title I onde dager). Officially an action thriller, but it’s more of a Nordic horror-comedy. Think Tarantino, but with a Scandinavian twist. Screened at Fantastic Fest and yeah, I loved it. Read our full The Trip movie review here!

THE TRIP is a new Netflix movie that just screened at Fantastic Fest where we saw it. It also played in movie theaters in its native Norway (org. title I onde dager) and will be out on Netflix later for all the world to enjoy. And yes, you really should enjoy this one.

While it is officially (on IMDb) labeled as an action thriller, this one is more along the lines of a horror-comedy. It’s extremely violent and bloody but also with very funny and weird moments. Tarantino craziness dialed into a Nordic twist. Hell, this is better than Tarantino to me (and I do like Quentin Tarantino).

Continue reading our The Trip movie review below and look for it on Netflix from October 15, 2021.

Till death do us part

The tagline for The Trip is “till death do us part” because the initial plot of this movie is about a married couple who wants to kill one another. They literally both have plans to kill the other during their weekend trip to a cabin in the Norwegian mountains. Whether they still have these plans by the end of the movie is the question you’ll ultimately sit with!

The married couple is played by the always amazing Noomi Rapace (the original Lisbeth Salander) and Aksel Hennie. Noomi Rapace (Rupture) is Swedish and Aksel Hennie (The Cloverfield Paradox) is Norwegian, so both languages are spoken throughout the movie. However, the dialogue – however strong it is (and it really is!) – isn’t the main thing in The Trip.

Instead, the crazy and very violent scenes tend to take charge.

Honestly, I was a little (okay, a lot) nervous when I saw the runtime was 1 hour and 53 minutes. That sounded way too long for a movie with such a silly and crazy plot. However, rest assured, there is plenty of storylines to fill that runtime.

Especially since twists and turns with new characters are followed by flashbacks to show us how the new characters wound up in the same place. These scenes in particular offer some extremely funny (and often cringeworthy) moments!

Make sure you watch The Trip on Netflix

Tommy Wirkola is the director and co-writer behind The Trip. If you’re a fan of crazy horror-comedies, then you’ve (hopefully) watched the Nazi-zombie craziness that is Dead Snow (2009). If not, I cannot urge you enough to check it out. Any fan of the horror-comedy hybrid genre needs to check out that one.

Other movies by Tommy Wirkola include What Happened to Monday (2017) which also starred Noomi Rapace along with Glenn Close and Willem Dafoe. And also Witch Hunters (2013) starring Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner. Essentially, Tommy Wirkola has worked both on bigger international movies and the smaller Scandinavian productions.

The result is usually better with these Norwegian productions, but I suspect it’s due to having a much higher level of artistic freedom. You shouldn’t hold back the awesome craziness of a filmmaker like Tommy Wirkola. When you don’t, you’ll get a brilliantly entertaining movie like this one.

We screened THE TRIP at Fantastic Fest 2021, but it will also be out on Netflix from October 15, 2021.

Details

Director: Tommy Wirkola
Writers: Nick Ball, John Niven, Tommy Wirkola
Stars: Noomi Rapace, Aksel Hennie, Atle Antonsen, André Eriksen, Christian Rubeck, Nils Ole Oftebro, Tor Erik Gunstrøm