"Oft in the woods, a listener is nigh"
A Swedish zombie/viking yarn, taking place in Hälsingland at the end of the 11th century.
Draug provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Nanna was raised by Håkon to be a soldier at the royal estate of Sigtuna.
- When the highwaymen attack, Deja attacks one of the wounded highwaymen with a rock and bashes his face in.
- The Alcoholic: Ketill is introduced already-drunk presiding over a feast, and later bullies one of his liege farmers into giving him more beer for the road.
- Attack the Mouth: Gunder's cheek is pierced by an arrow during a skirmish and runs around the rest of the fight with an arrow sticking through his mouth.
- Creepy Crows: The hirdmen follow some ravens they see over the canopy, eventually finding Bure and the missionaries' rotted remains. Shortly after the draugr begin to attack in earnest.
- Doomed Hurt Guy: Odd gets his leg badly injured by the highwaymen, and almost immediately after becomes the draugr's first victim.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Nanna's own parents are the draugr, having been murdered by Ketill and Håkon during an earlier Swedish campaign into Hälsingland, with the latter adopting her after a crisis of conscience.
- Don't Go Into the Woods: Nanna is told by a hallucinating witch not to stray from the road. When the highwaymen force them too, she and the hirdmen are doomed.
- End of an Age: The film takes place after the proper ending of the Viking age, as remnants of Asatru is driven out.
- Final Girl: At the end, only Kol survives.
- Folk Horror: The film's plot and horror is drawn heavily from the setting (Hälsingland) and it's folklore, down to the use of "Horgalåten" as it's closing theme.
- Interfaith Smoothie: Beyond the expected mixing of Christian and Norse pagan ideas, the being Nanna sees in her vision is dubbed Hela-Ereshkigal which leaves more questions than answers.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Håkon and Gunder try to torture info out of Kol after capturing him, starting with Gunder sticking his hand in his wound before Håkon waterboards him.
- Lost Woods: Ödmården is infamously deep and impenetrable, and holds within roving highwaymen, pagan holdouts, as well as the undead, and Norse gods.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The draugr are more akin to ghosts or vampires, can enter peoples minds to drive them insane and suck out their life force.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The highwaymen lead by Kol are a vicious gang of farmers and local warriors that come off as barbaric compared to the hirdmen.
- The Sheriff: Ketill is an old nordic example, who takes unethical advantage of his position to bully the locals.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The fact that Kjetill has a slave woman is an early sign that he is a bad person.
