A young girl with Down's Syndrome is brutally raped and murdered in the Norwegian town of Hotten. The only suspects are two brothers, but when one turns up dead and the other goes missing, Oso detective Nicholas Ramm (Reidar S酶rensen) enters the picture.
The townsfolk immediately close ranks, making Ramm feel like an outsider. Their prejudice is blatant and unmistakable, and the hostility deepens when he tries to protect the suspects' family from vicious assaults. The locals also believe the deaths are the work of angels, but when the horrifying truth emerges, it leaves Ramm having to confront his own.
"Bloody Angels" is Karin Julsrud's directorial debut. She attempts to create a surreal crime thriller, peppered with Lynchian devices, and in some ways, pulls it off effectively..
Philip 脴gaard's cinematography, with its icy blue and grey hues, portrays Hotten as a creepy wasteland. It is a town filled with unsavoury characters, while the soundtrack, with its bizarre interpretation of "When the Saints Go Marching In", maintains the eerie atmosphere.
But the film is betrayed by a predictable script, a failing enhanced by Julsrud's hesitant, if not inhibited, direction. As a thriller, it fails to enthral.
Despite S酶rensen's performance as the dogged detective, the police procedure, (the films pivotal point) is laboriously drawn out. However, the shock chain of events at the end still manages to disturb, if only for a fleeting moment.
A riveting drama it is not, but Julsrud's bleak vision on the effects of vigilantism will no doubt stir debate.
In Norwegian with subtitles.