When Women Had Tails

Just took a chance on Thale (2012), knowing pretty much nothing about it. In fact, I was tempted to just send it back unwatched - just wasn't feeling it. It turned out pretty great - an odd Norwegian folk-horror.

It starts with a tape playing, with an old man saying soothing things to his "good girl", interspersed with screams. Then we meet our protagonists, Leo and Elvis. They are both in hazmat gear. Leo is cleaning up a lot of blood in a forest cabin, Elvis is puking his guts out. Turns out Leo runs a company that cleans up messy death scenes, and Elvis is helping out. Without saying much, they show us their characters - Leo is stolid and steady, Elvis is a bit of a fuck-up.

So when Leo finds a hidden cellar, he is the one who calls for rest of the crew, and Elvis is the one that starts poking around. He finds a lot of canned goods, a bathtub full of milky fluid and some very grimy scientific equipment, including the tape recorder that we probably heard at the top. Against Leo's advice, Elvis plays some of the tape - it seems to be the notes of a scientist of some kind. 

Then a woman surfaces from the bath - a young, naked woman. Now Leo really wants to get some backup. The woman, Thale (played by singer/dancer/actor Silje Reinamo), is cold and hungry, and seemingly feral. When Leo goes out to the truck to get her some food, we see (although he doesn't), some strange creatures, like naked women with tales, flitting through the woods.

This all unfolds rather slowly until the last act, when a mad scientist and his paramilitary show up to reclaim Thale.

I'll cut to the chase here - I don't know how this played in Norway, but Thale turns out to be a hulder, a Norwegian folk creature that looks like a woman with a tail. This is only mentioned at the very end of the movie - and of course, I've never heard of a hulder. Did most Norwegians get this right away?

This is a rather sweet movie. Although it seems like the man on the recordings was perhaps torturing Thale, it turns out he was protecting her - or at least trying. Leo and Elvis are just guys, but they only want to help the poor naked girl. And Reinamo as Thale is very lovely and seems worthy of protection. There is some horror at the end, and the grimy basement has a very serial-killer vibe, but it's just a vibe.  The movie is also quite short (under 80 minutes), which fits the slight story.