Ghost stories around the world, andinternational horror cinemahas fed into this hunger with classics likeKwaidanandThe Orphanage. If you want your supernatural horror icy and atmospheric, then look no further thanRift(Rökkur), waiting to haunt youon Tubi.It’s a 2017 Icelandic queer horror slow-burn that turns a stunning landscape into a place of danger for two exes. Along with some big influence the director took from ahorror film of the 1970s, this 2017 supernatural film forces you toconfront the horrors that a breakup can unleash.
What Is ‘Rift’ About?
A few months after Gunnar (Björn Stefánsson) has ended things with Einar (Sigurður Þór Óskarsson), a troubling phone call reunites the exes at a cabin in the countryside they used to visit when they were together. Whilethey struggle with post-breakup painand frustrations, strange incidences have the exes wondering if they should fear something otherworldly or someone of flesh and blood.Fans of atmospheric horrorwill love the eerie vibes that accumulate inRiftas the intense seclusion the men find themselves in captures the beauty of the environment along with its bleak isolation.
If You Love ‘The Shining’ and ‘The Thing’, You Have To Check Out This Bleak, Snowy Horror
Things get very snowy and very suspicious.
The cabin is Einar and Gunnar’s own little world, a shelter in the middle of barren land. But it’s not just arguments over their breakup that can drain the place of its warmth. The front door has some difficulty staying shut, a problem that brings further unease when there are late-night knocks – with no one seemingly outside. It’s a trick audiences will be familiar with, butRiftis smarter than just relying onghost story tropes.The Icelandic setting quickly becomes the perfect environment for a horror film, with Einar and Gunnar exploring a black sand beach and a dilapidated apartment building that makes the two feel even more closed off from society. The countryside is as depleted of life as their old romance. Instead of a classic viewers might expect to be a source of inspiration, the director revealed inaBloody Disgustinginterviewthat it was an underrated ‘70s thriller that helped him createRift.
‘Don’t Look Now’ Inspired the Relationship Fallout of ‘Rift’
BeforeErlingur Thoroddsenwrote theNew Year’s slasherMidnight Kiss(2019),Riftwas the second film he wrote and directed, pulling inspiration fromNicolas Roeg’sDon’t Look Now(1973). In that stylish, creepy thriller, a husband (Donald Sutherland) and wife (Julie Christie) attempt to heal from the accidental death of their young daughter by having a new start in Venice. But it fails when the husband becomes obsessed with trying to find the small figure he sees, dressed in a red coat similar to the one his dead child wore, while a serial killer is at large in the city.The disturbing endingconnects these two seemingly unrelated plot points with a blood-stained tragedy.
The use of color inRiftis a direct callback toDon’t Look Now: the red jeep Gunnar keeps noticing and isn’t sure if it’s following him and the red coat Einar wears makes him easy to spot in the distance. Just as important is the mainfocus on a fractured relationship.While a married couple struggles after their child’s death in Venice, ex-boyfriends in Iceland deal with the unresolved issues of their dead romance. The performances by Björn Stefánsson and Sigurður Þór Óskarsson portray the complex emotions in this queer horror story, where Gunnar has tried to move on and Einar has been stuck in the past.
The tension between them is as palpable as the dread that mounts when they realize they aren’t safe. They are both angry at each other, yet they can slip back into how they were when they were in love. One was the cook and the other initiated conversations. Although Einar is an important character, this is Gunnar’s story and he isan unreliable narrator.Because of this,Riftbecomes an unsettling watch by having viewers unsure if they can trust what they are seeing,without too much goreor too manyear-piercing jump scares
‘Rift’ Is a Queer Horror Film That Will Mess With Your Head
What Gunnar sees or what he thinks he sees makes you wonder what is happening in reality, in his dreams, or from his memory. Driving to the cabin at the movie’s start, he spots a hooded figure on the side of the road. Further down the road, he sees the same figure again.There is a recurring image throughout where Gunnar is standing outside, with a bloody head woundand looking dazed, but it’s out of place in the linear timeline the story is following. Thoroddsen explained in his interview that viewers should, “watch the movie less focused on understanding the logic, and more focused on understanding the emotions. Breakups are illogical and messy things, and the film takes its cue from there.”Riftis a moody ghost storywhere post-breakup fears are as haunting as the otherworldly things that can go bump in the night.
