With Iceland being such a small country, it is unsurprising that it has not been incorporated into cinema. Like many films, its breathtaking landscapes have served as a filming background for countless movies, but it is still fairly uncommon for foreigners to watch films that feature Icelandic stories, characters, and language. In this regard, it is refreshing to have I Remember You. An Icelandic thriller that combines the dark aspects of popular television series such as ‘The Killing’ and ‘The Bridge’ with something much more supernatural. It is safe to say there are popular shows whose themes include murder mysteries and crime with a hint of fantasy, and this show, while doing a pretty decent job, embodies it. It does so by employing non-linear storytelling and presenting two interrelated segments to the audience.
The first character we meet is Freyr, a psychiatrist (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) who attends a death scene out of sheer necessity. This necessity comes into play after he witnesses an elderly woman committing suicide in a remote church. For context, the woman in question had died in a great amount of distress, but before that, she hung herself after vandalizing the church in addition to carving various crosses on its walls.
As the plot thickens, it is revealed that the crosses etched on the walls are also carved into her skin, although we do not know who did it the different depths of the scars suggest that it is something that has been going on for years. Freyr, now partnered with detective Dagný (Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir), gets more involved while trying to reason this bizarre death. Investigations into her life suggest that some of her childhood acquaintances had died under peculiar circumstances as well in fact, only two out of a children’s group picture that had been menacingly torn apart still breathes, while another young boy went missing decades ago, and was never found. The blending of so many oddities would be more than enough for Freyr to deal with, but for some reason, the elderly seem to have some knowledge of what Freyr’s son Benny who has long been missing and presumed dead had gone through.
Meanwhile, married couple Garðar and Katrín (Thor Kristjansson and Anna Gunndís Guðmundsdóttir) are traveling to a remote part of the country with the intention of converting a run down hut that sits in a deserted whaling town, into a livable home.
Katrín’s friend Líf has come to help and on the surface, they look like a happy trio willing to do the work that lies ahead. According to Katrín, there’s money to gain from tourism which summer will bring. But the motivation for this is quite different and relates to a lost child. Only recently, Katrín gave birth to a stillborn son and the pressure that arose from the marriage pushed them apart, a rift which is only just healing. Nonetheless, everything is not as promising as it may seem and there is little doubt the cracks are set to show. In any case, she appears to be somewhat of a supernatural buff, which is always worrying. The more issues there seem to be between her and Garðar, the more problems there seem to be; is her trauma causing her to see the ghost of a little boy on the property?
With low-key scares from the different stories, of course, you can tell that it will probably overlap in the end, and the cinematic presentation makes it clear it’s hard to guess so props to Óskar Thór Axelsson for making it so enjoyable.
Regardless, it seems a lot of effort has been put into getting to this point at 105 minutes, the film is not that long by today’s standards, but with the pace and care of I Remember You, it does feel quite longer. If you’re the kind of person who has a little bit of patience when it comes to slow-burn thrillers, then I am sure there is more than enough to reward it with, but if your preference lies with tightly wound narratives, then you may feel that this film also drifts in some areas.
Surely, what a place to walk around part of the appeal (if that is the correct word) of so much of this noir is derived simply from observing the Scandinavian landscapes where these different slices of hell are taking place. Like all its neighbors, Iceland is both pleasant and orderly, while at the same time, it is stark, desolate,e and strangely colorless these places do not look like anywhere else on Earth. In fact, it’s astonishing there is no more specifically supernatural cinema coming out of Scandinavia, as the very essence of something glorious and frightening bending so much order is right there in the landscapes and the towns in equal parts. I Remember You also features decent acting performances across the board which supports the deeply unsettling horror at the heart of the story of lost dead children and the weight it bears on their surviving relatives, particularly the parents.
Nonetheless, this has been executed in other places in the past several years the stunning settings are all different, but I Remember You shares a theme with The Orphanage where the exquisite blend of mystery and supernatural elements (thankfully, brought to the screen with as little jump scares as possible, although a few black-eyed child ghosts which seem irresistible to filmmakers everywhere). One catch here is, that once you identify this linkage, several of the mysteries may lose a little intrigue, but this is understandable, particularly when there are so few modern ghost stories that have this type of mystery-solving emphasis.
In any case, though, I Remember You is a well-shot film that conveys that ghosts lurk in deep corners. It lingers over its exposition in ways that may overly challenge the patience of some viewers who enjoy the leisure of simply taking in the story, but those who enjoy things to step and move a little quieter will find plenty here. Perhaps not an instant classic, but an aesthetically pleasing, slow-burn chiller.
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