Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Escape Blu-ray Movie Review

Great or merely passable?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 8, 2013

Zooming up into the Top 5 of my personal list of favorite filmmaker names, I present: Roar Uthaug. Uthaug became something of an overnight sensation in 2006 when his horror film Cold Prey became a huge success in his native Norway and then went on to enjoy considerable worldwide acclaim (note that the Blu-ray link includes a sequel that Uthaug did not direct). Uthaug was already on the radar of the international film community due to one of his college films gaining recognition by the Academy Awards for their student fêtes, and Uthaug seems poised to become one of the few Norwegian filmmakers to stake a claim in the worldwide cinematic community, and perhaps even in the highly exclusionary and hoity toity environment of Hollywood. Uthaug’s latest effort Escape (which bears the original Norwegian title of Flukt, something I simply couldn’t help laughing at, juvenile that I am) is a visceral outing that isn’t as fully developed as Cold Prey, but which offers much the same level of well crafted filmmaking, along with some interesting performances, including by lead Ingrid Boisø Berdal, who also starred in Cold Prey and has begun to matriculate to American films in such outings as Chernobyl Diaries and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. The story of Escape is rather simple, something that gives the film a basic power and momentum but which also deprives it of much sense of connection. In mid-14th century Norway, the country is still recovering from the devastating effects of The Black Plague. A family of four is seen trekking across the anachronistically beautiful Norwegian landscape when they are attacked by a gang of marauding toughs led by a warrior goddess named Dagmar (Ingrid Boisø Berdal), The father, mother and young boy are ruthlessly killed, but the gang takes the adolescent girl, Signe (Isabel Christine Andreasen), and it soon becomes apparent that Dagmar has some unseemly plans for the frightened prisoner.

Escape actually plays its card fairly close to its tufted leather vest in the early going, for as Signe watches in horror from the tarp covered confines of her parents’ wagon as her parents are killed, we only see glimpses of what appears to be a gang of males. Signe turns to her little brother and assures him she will protect him, and the two seem to be getting away with hiding—at least for a moment, until the little boys slips and gives away their location. Signe screams to him to run while several of the men hold her against the side of the wagon. At that point a hooded figure steps forward and uses a crossbow to bring down the little boy. When this figure pushes the hood back, we’re still not quite sure whether or not this is a female we’re looking at, for the face is hard, resolute and not “beautiful” in any traditional sense. A few moments, later, though, we’re fully aware that the leader of this gang is a very violent woman named Dagmar.

Once Signe is spirited away by the gang as they make their way back toward Dagmar’s camp, things get even more disturbing. A young girl named Frigg (Mina Olin) seems to be Dagmar’s daughter, and yet the tyke also seems not to be taking her “mother”’s advice to treat Signe as a caged animal as seriously as she should. Dagmar lets Signe know that Frigg has always wanted a little sister, and that Dagmar can no longer have children, so Signe will be utilized for that purpose, with several willing males in Dagmar's brigade more than happy to provide their "services" to the project. Later, at the campsite, when Signe is tied to a tree, Frigg comes out of a tent and seems to be making an attempt to actually get to know the captive, until Dagmar intervenes. Dagmar informs Frigg that Frigg will need to cut off one of Signe’s fingers by sunrise the next day, both to teach Signe a lesson in subservience as well as to ensure Frigg’s complicity in the pecking order. Frigg does approach Signe with a knife the next morning, but she actually cuts through the girl’s tethers and the two children set off on a mad dash in an attempt to escape.

It probably goes without saying that Signe figures out that Frigg is not Dagmar’s biological child, and in a later scene once the girls have successfully evaded Dagmar and her troops and have found temporary shelter with a protective male, the man reveals what he knows of Dagmar’s past. This is an obvious attempt by scenarist Thomas Moldestad to humanize the supposed villainess of the piece, and while it succeeds a little toward that end, it also points out one of the major stumbling blocks of Escape: we’re simply thrown into this story so willy-nilly that there’s next to no connection with any of the characters. Sure, Signe is a plucky young girl out to save herself and help the obviously disoriented Frigg, but there’s no real emotional pull to her story. Similarly, Dagmar just comes off as a lunatic Amazon (or whatever the Norwegian equivalent of that tribe might be) on a mission to kill Signe and take back Frigg. Uthaug is so intent on crafting a breathless film that he eschews any proper character development, something that really would have helped create more of a bond between the audience and the characters.

Escape may not completely gel, but it’s a good sight better than might be expected. The three main performances are all quite excellent, especially the two young actors who have to carry much of the film on their slight shoulders. But Berdal is also quite commanding in her role, with a quasi-masculine physicality that finally crumbles into some touching, if kind of scary, vulnerability at the film’s climax. Escape is also implausibly scenic, given its kind of turgid melodramatic elements. Uthaug does a good job of utilizing some evocative Norwegian landscapes in both location and very artfully done matte and blue screen work. In fact the gorgeousness of the backgrounds makes for an almost intentionally ironic counterpart to the ugliness that Signe and Frigg have to experience.

Escape Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Escape is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. Though technical data on this film is a bit hard to come by, my hunch is this was digitally shot, for the film has the smooth ambience of this format as well as the above average fine object detail that usually graces HD native presentations. Quite a bit of color grading has been done to the film, leaving various segments bathed in either blue or amber. The film very artfully blends actual location work with some well done blue screen material, all of which looks quite real and does not have the relatively soft, more painterly aspect of, say, 300. Contrast is strong throughout this presentation, easily bridging the gloomy forest scenes with some of the more brightly lit open air material.

Escape Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Escape features Norwegian language tracks in both lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as a pretty abysmal English dub in Dolby Digital 2.0. My advice is to stay far, far away from the English dub, as there appears to have been little to no effort to match dialogue to lip movements. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is quite effective, especially since the film doesn't rely solely on dialogue and has a lot of ambient environmental effects dotting the surrounds. Some may find the ubiquitous music a bit annoying, but that too spills into the surrounds consistently. One really dunderheaded decision made by the authoring house here was to provide two sets of English subtitles. One translates the opening textual prologue, while the other does the dialogue. Guess what? Most native English speakers are going to need both things translated and the only way to do that is to have your remote handy and quickly toggle over to the dialogue subtitles as soon as the prologue is over.

Escape Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 3:01)


• The Visual Effects (720p; 2:40). I was quite surprised to see that at least some of this film was green screened (actually blue screened, but who's counting?), as the effects are quite seamless and look completely natural.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:41). Personally I think Uthaug made a mistake by excising some of the early scenes with Signe's family, as that helps to establish some sort of emotional bond with the young girl that is missing in the final cut of the film.


• Bloopers (1080p; 1:51)

Escape Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Escape actually caught me at least a little by surprise. I went into the film expecting little to recommend it, but I found myself unexpectedly caught up in the chase scenario as well as the gorgeous Norwegian countryside that is so remarkably on display throughout the film. This could have been a total knockout had a little more time and care been taken in developing the back stories of the characters, but what's here is often exciting, aided by good direction and some excellent acting. This Escape isn't exactly great, but it's certainly better than it has any right to be. For those looking for something a little different, Escape comes Recommended.