20/07/2015 - Pål Øie’s Villmark 2 will open the Norwegian Mountain Film Festival at Gjendesheim on 11 September

Norwegian director Pål Øie’s Villmark 2 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – the sequel to his 2003 horror-thriller hit Dark Woods (Villmark) - will open the Fjellfilmfestivalen - Mountain Film Festival at Gjendesheim, the largest (and only) Norwegian showcase specialising in mountain films, which runs between 11-13 September.

“The ultimate venue for the world premiere of the film - an outdoor midnight screening in the festival's wonderful surroundings, then back to your tent somewhere in the wilderness: all the ingredients you need for a creepy night on the mountain,” said the film’s Norwegian producer, Bendik Heggen Strønstad.

While Øie co-wrote Dark Woods with Christopher Grøndahl, he has scripted Villmark 2 with Kjersti Rasmussen. For the location, he found an old, deteriorating sanatorium in an isolated mountain forest.

In the film, five contract workers are canvassing the huge building for hazardous waste before it is demolished. When they learn about the history of the building, they realise that their job is more than a search for asbestos and mercury – and when an attempt to close a water leakage from the pipelines leads them to a dark cellar, they discover horrible secrets from the sanatorium’s past, which will not disappear when it is knocked down.

Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen, Renate Reinsve, Tomas Norstöm and Baard Owe play the leads in Øie’s third horror-thriller (he also directed Hidden [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2009), which Strønstad and Einar Loftesnes have produced for Bergen’s Handmade Films in Norwegian Woods.

Another World Entertainment Norge has scheduled domestic release for 9 October. International sales are handled by Los Angeles-based Epic Pictures.