The Trip ★★★★

NORWEGIAN writer/director Tommy Wirkola was responsible for the great 2009 horror film Dead Snow and its equally good 2014 sequel.

I stumbled across The Trip on a streaming service before realising it was another of his films, from 2021.

It’s a terrific, horror/thriller that is stripped back to the basics with a steady ramp-up of tension in a single location.

Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie are perfectly cast as Lisa and Lars, a couple whose marriage is on the rocks.

They are heading to a secluded cabin, ostensibly for an opportunity to patch things up, but unbeknown to Lisa, Lars has enlisted a friend’s help in a plot to kill her.

Equally unbeknown to Lars and his friend, Lisa has also decided to kill her husband.

What could have been purely a black comedy, remains serious enough in tone to also satisfy fans of pure horror and violence as the estranged pair are forced to work together against three desperate fugitives on the run who stumble across their cabin.

As with Wirkola’s other films, the intensity of the characters continues to build to a sustained and gore-filled climax.

Watched on Netflix.