The White Reindeer (1952)

 

Director: Erik Blomberg

Screenplay: Erik Blomberg and Mirjami Kuosmanen

Cast: Mirjami Kuosmanen as Pirita and as Maarita, Pirita's mother; Kalervo Nissilä as Aslak; Arvo Lehesmaa as Tsalkku-Nilla

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #246

 

The balls of ten bull moose...

If there ever was a film that embraced traditional culture, let alone in a horror/supernatural film, it is The White Reindeer. Finnish director Erik Blomberg with Mirjami Kuosmanen as his lead, his wife and co-writer, worked on this tale, set among traditional Sami culture of semi-nomadic reindeer herders, with an ethological mindset. Shot in evocative monochrome, Mirjami Kuosmanen plays Pirita, a woman whose mother was a witch, rooming in the frozen wilderness and dying in childbirth, leaving Pirita to be raised in a community of herders to adulthood. That Pirita is feisty and talented enough to be the sole woman to participate in the local sledding races makes her the perfect wife for her future husband, theirs hopefully to be an ideal marriage.

Unfortunately, with him leaving frequently to herd said reindeer, the fear of him loving her less forces her to go to a shaman. The feisty figure is stuck at home to tend to it, in the middle of nowhere, and neglect felt leads her to an eccentric hermit who provides an incantation to become the most irresistible woman in that area. Thus, even in this film that feels of another era, something as universal and still relevant today, that a woman feels trapped when she was a free spirit, is the cause for a bad downfall no one is to blame for.

Because, alongside having to sacrifice a pet white reindeer, a cute one, to a god's altar in the middle of a reindeer graveyard, it leads to her turning into a white reindeer or a witch reindeer, frequently as well beyond her control. Inherently enticing for men to chase to catch or hunt, they find the white reindeer only to meet Pirita in her real form, enticing as much. Sadly this leads to them immediately being killed, not even for food from the tone of the scenes, but because for the sake of it. Eventually this will become a tragedy as, with the increasing body count of the men in the nearby community, it will respond with even her husband among those trying to hunt the white reindeer.

This is subjectively a "horror" film, feeling more (as mentioned) as an anthological take of a folktale. At times, this film would almost be whimsical, especially the score, were it not about a woman who turned into a witch reindeer, insanely vivid in terms of verisimilitude. Not surprisingly, director Erik Blomberg worked in non-fiction beforehand, this being his feature length debut. It is always fascinating for me to see a folktale like narrative told, but you can have a variety of ways of depicting this, here the actuality and real locations a distinct touch. It is only close to seventy minutes, an actual small folktale, but it is expressed as distinctly as its snow covered landscapes are, such as introducing Pirita's origins by sung narration.

It is also helped, with a seismic influence, by Mirjami Kuosmanen as Pirita herself. Mirjami Kuosmanen's acting with her eyes alone is such a huge virtue to the film's credibility, investing as much into the film onscreen as she clearly did off-camera. The film is slow and contemplative, more alien as the filmic style here gets older to an advantage, but she however draws one in as a viewer with a relevancy in a modern era. When she acts the evil side of Pirita, possessed by the witch reindeer, this becomes a horror film fully, seductive and menacing. Yet she evokes the tragedy still - one misguided decision, due to loneliness (and easy to read gender politics), likely felt by other women in the community, stuck her into a narrative that will as end tragically for her as it will for her husband who truly loves her.

Something like this would unfairly be put off by some younger viewers. If you want a horror film in the stereotypical sense, this is not that. It is a  folktale which is macabre, yet that truly alien mood of how even its production style, found in films around the world in the fifties when this was made, legitimately makes it a thing out of time nowadays despite being made by a filmmaker with a documentary background. That for those open minded is, as with everything that is a virtue, why The White Reindeer is a huge grower I have come to love.