By David Dent
Thomas Aske Berg is Vidar, described in the publicity blurb as ‘a 33 year old, sexually frustrated, bachelor farmer who leads a monotonous and strenuous Christian life on his mother’s farm, located on the outskirts of Western Norway.’ Vidar, increasingly bored with his existence and his horrendous and demanding mama, prays to Jesus to get him out of his rut.
But the Jesus who answers his prayers is slightly more demonic than the figure we’re all used to, and grants Vidar his wish to lead a more interesting life by turning him into a vampire.
But Vidar should, like of all of us, be careful what he wishes for, because Jesus now installs himself as the farmer’s guide in vampiric life, and is infinitely more successful with the women that Vidar could hope to be.
Berg also wrote and directed this patchily funny but rather overlaboured film, which with its quirky reality style of filming and naturalistic performance, is clearly somewhat in thrall to Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s 2017 comedy What We Do in the Shadows.
The director clearly wants to offend as many as people as possible, which is fine (a demonic Jesus anyone?), but the movie also balances the humour with pathos – the result can come across a little uneven at times, but there’s no doubting that this is an idiosyncratic piece and a true one off from a quirky talent.
Vidar the Vampire screened at the Soho Horror Film Festival.
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