Kraken (2026)
Directed by Pål Øie
Sara Khorami, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes
“Norway spent five million euros to hide a monster in a fjord for 100 minutes and somehow made that your problem.”
Sally's not done with you yet.
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.
The Review
Let's be honest about what you made here. You took one of the most visually spectacular mythological creatures in all of human folklore, a tentacled leviathan that could swallow ships whole, and decided the best way to honor it was to keep it off screen. Reviewers are literally comparing your monster movie to a shark film. A shark film. Jaws had the excuse of a broken mechanical shark. You had five million euros and the entire Norwegian ocean. No receipts needed. You handed them to yourself.
The film lands in the US via Samuel Goldwyn Films on June 12, 2026, hitting select theaters and digital simultaneously, which is the distribution equivalent of a shrug. Your TMDB score is sitting at 5.8, which is the cinematic equivalent of a participation trophy. Critics are split between 'rather dull' and 'decent creature feature,' and that spread is somehow the most exciting thing about the marketing cycle. You toured Tromsø, Gothenburg, and Brussels, which is a respectable festival run, but at some point the fjord called and it wanted its suspense back.
Here is the thing though, and yes there is a thing: the bones are genuinely good. A marine biologist sent to a fish farm on the Sognefjord, written by three women including Vilde Eide, Kjersti Helen Rasmussen, and Natasha Arthur, with Sara Khorami anchoring it all. The craft is there. The atmosphere is clearly there. This is not a disaster. It is a slow burn that forgets to eventually burn. Fix the pacing, show the beast once with conviction, and this is a solid genre entry that earns its comparisons to the Troll films. Right now it earns a 5.8 and a polite Norwegian silence.
What It Nails
- +The Sognefjord setting does real atmospheric work. Cold water, isolated fish farm, creeping dread. Norway is doing the heavy lifting your screenplay occasionally refuses to do.
- +Sara Khorami as marine biologist Johanne Berge is a legitimate anchor. Casting a scientist as your lead instead of a screaming tourist is a choice that actually respects the audience.
- +Three women co-writing a monster-horror screenplay in a genre historically dominated by men who think 'female character' means 'first casualty.' That is quietly a big deal and the script shows structural competence.
- +The restraint-as-suspense approach works in stretches. When it commits to the 'what you cannot see is scariest' philosophy, it genuinely delivers unease. Some of those moments are good. Legitimately good.
What It Botches
- -You named the film KRAKEN and then hid the Kraken. The title is a promise. A 5.8 on TMDB is the audience telling you they noticed you broke it.
- -A 100-minute runtime with a creature that stays largely off screen and reviews calling it 'rather dull' means your pacing has a structural problem, not a stylistic one. Suspense requires escalation. Dull requires a nap.
- -A simultaneous theatrical and digital release from Samuel Goldwyn Films signals zero confidence in theatrical legs. You made a widescreen fjord spectacle and immediately handed it to laptop viewers eating cereal at midnight.
- -Cinematographer Sjur Aarthun co-wrote the original story AND edited the film. That is a lot of creative control in one person with a camera. Sometimes the person who shoots the film falls too in love with the shots to cut them. One hundred minutes suggests nobody said 'tighten it.'
Think your work can survive this?
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.
Who It's For
Patient horror fans who prefer Scandinavian atmosphere and slow-burn dread over jump scares, and who have already seen the Troll films twice and need something to do with their hands.
Who Should Skip
Anyone who sees the word Kraken and expects a single satisfying shot of a tentacle the size of a cruise ship making its case for existence.
Marketing Roast
Your marketing looked at a mythological sea creature capable of ending civilizations and said: cozy fjord vibes. The trailer leans on mist, whispers, and ominous water ripples, which is gorgeous and also tells potential audiences absolutely nothing about why they should leave their house for a select theatrical release. You are competing with every streaming service on earth and your pitch is 'come watch Norway be foggy.' Samuel Goldwyn Films has done what they can, but when your biggest selling point in the campaign is 'from the country that made Troll,' you are essentially saying 'we tried to do what that other thing did.' Lead with Khorami. Lead with the Sognefjord looking genuinely terrifying. Lead with anything that is not borrowed credibility from a Netflix algorithm.
Your turn. Drop something.
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.