Netflix's Viking Wolf dissects yet another Norwegian monster story. It recently unveiled wrecking Oslo but this film dives into a were wolf passing on its curse from the Viking era. It comes to a rural town Nybo taking many lives before biting a young girl Thale.
Before the wolf gets killed it turns Thale who goes on a rampage killing many in a gorier Teen Wolf story. Sadly her bloody spree shapes a harrowing ending when her mother Liv and sister Jenny square off. However while Viking Wolf tries for the obscure conclusion to leave fans torn it doesn't work out due to a key error in the final fight.
Thanks to the help of a forensic expert William and a werewolf-hunter Lars Liv uses her skills as a cop to inject Thale with a heavy sedative. She takes her to the lab where it seems like she's going to use Lars silver bullets to end the wolf. However the film doesn't reveal any gunshot -- it just cuts to the future with Liv placing a bullet by a family picture before the credits roll.
It suggests maybe she's missing the teen after a mercy kill with this bullet as a memento of the pain and suffering her love wrought. However it could be Liv freed Thale in the wild and is keeping the ammo in case the wolf ever comes back from the forest -- a place implied to have other werewolves too. Clearly Viking Wolf wants fans to keep musing, but it's a botched arc.
The crux of the matter revolves around Thale's humanity. Earlier she tried to attack young Jenny but the deaf girl uses her eyes to remind her sister of her heart and soul. The wolf calms down only to be attacked by her stepdad. That compounded how the girls share a unique connection building a sisterhood and spirit that should have carried through to the scrap in the streets.
Unfortunately, when Thale's going to attack Jenny a second time there's no emotional pause. She just wants to lunge and devour the kid which opens the way for Liv to inject and knock her out. Now, had the movie reestablished this connection hinting Thale's humanity returned it'd provide context for why Liv retains hope at the end and possibly lets the wolf go playing into that trope of controlling the beast within in shows like Wolf Pack.
She could think Jenny's a saving grace or William might be able to find a cure with the bullet just being contingency. Instead Thale's an all-out monster so by the end it's hard to see any reason for Liv not to shoot her. Ultimately the movie needed more tempering of the bond between the sisters and the mom who got broken over her husband dying in the skirmish too getting some reason to have faith again. Sadly none of that gets provided making the vague ending fall flat.
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