The Hunger Games heads back to the Dark Ages when a group of five young Saxons is captured by a clan of fearsome Viking warriors and used as prey in a ritualistic manhunt. High on a potion that turns them "berserk" the brutal hunters are soon on the scent of the terrified youngsters in a desperate battle for survival from the ritualistic manhunt. Written and directed by Welsh film-maker Antony Smith.
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Not the best Viking movie out there (can't speak about the current TV show, haven't watched it yet), but a small budget effort, that some might find interesting. Many accuse me for trying to find even the smallest positive aspect in a movie. Actually that's pretty accurate most of the time, as in this case.So you don't have a big story, you don't have a movie many will remember (if they watch it). But it's not the worst movie I've seen by a long shot (no pun intended). So while the action is OK, the hairstyles might be not really accurate for the time period this plays (especially from the female lead) and the acting might not be the best, this is a low budget movie, try to remember that or don't watch it at all (you won't be missing out on that much of course).
Set in 835 AD we meet a Saxon peasant called Wade. He gets captured by some Vikings and both he and his brother get carted off to the Vikings den, which are some tents and twigs on the side of a hill. There they are chosen to take part in a Viking ritual that involves the use of sacrificial human hearts. This is done by some sort of Priestess witch who has a fetish for heavy use of mascara.This ritual is done by releasing the victims and hunting them down (like in 'The Naked Prey'). Cue a lot of one on one scrapping, some blood letting, minimal dialogue and some brilliant examples of prosthetic bad dentistry. The Berserker bit comes from when the Viking lot take some sort of drug and go 'berserk' - which is actually where we get the name from. It was more commonly used for battles where you could use an amphetamine rush in order to take on the enemy - but hey a human sacrifice chase will do too I suppose.Now this is a small budget and it shows. However, there are some pretty good performances, the music is also really very accomplished and the continuity guy did an exceptional job. They also make the most out of what they have got to work with and it has a genuine feeling of plausibility. However, I was still unengaged at times and got a bit bored with the constant brawling and lack of anything meaningful to engage my cerebral cortex. If you like Viking films you may want to see this even if they don't have pointy horned helmets.
