Here we travel back to early 1970s Norway, and a long-forgotten horror anthology program. Lasting from November 1973 to January of the following year, A LITTLE SHUDDER? (Et Lite Grøss?) only yielded four episodes (it was evidently supposed to continue much longer), none of which can be called a masterwork, but the program yielded some memorable elements.
Norwegian television (as exhibited on the NRK TV archival website) is an interesting, and very distinct, entity. TV series made in Norway tend to have short (as in 2 to 3 episode) lifespans, while the telefilms rarely exceed 30 minutes, and favor the work of famous international authors. Examples of the latter include Ray Bradbury, whose 1951 Mars set story “The Visitor” was dramatized in 1970 as AREA 618—THE EXILES; John Collier, whose fantastic 1940 tale “Evening Primrose” was the source for the 1970 telefilm NATTMAGASINET (THE NIGHT MAGAZINE); and Roald Dahl, whose macabre 1954 tale “The Way Up to Heaven” was memorably transposed to the small screen in 1976.
The director of the two latter films was Bob Williams, who also helmed two episodes of A LITTLE SHUDDER?, starting with “Edderkoppen” (“The Spider”). Hailing from November 1973, it’s a 25 minute adaptation of Hanns Heinz Ewers’ 1915 story “The Spider.”
Presented is a stark and atmospheric account of an overly inquisitive student (Jan Erik Berntsen) who unwisely elects to stay in an apartment whose previous tenants all committed suicide. The place initially seems unremarkable, with Berntsen’s attention drawn to a building across the street, and a strangely alluring woman (Marit Hamdahl) residing within. The student quickly grows besotted with the woman, which has a deleterious effect on his psyche, as he’s afflicted by nightmares involving invasive spiders and finds himself unconsciously imitating her every action.
“Edderkoppen” marked a terrific start to what appeared to be shaping up as a true program for the ages. It certainly helped matters that Ewers’ tale (also the source of the 1970 French TV movie LA FENETRE, the 1995 Croatian feature NAUSIKAJA and the 2018 Italian short DIE SPINNE) was one of the foremost horror stories of the past century, and that Williams brought it to the screen largely intact.
Following in December 1973 was “Vertinnen” (“The Hostess”), based on “The Landlady” by Roald
Dahl, evidently a favorite author of Bob Williams (in addition to this film and the abovementioned “Way Up to Heaven,” Williams also adapted the Dahl tale “Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat” for Norwegian TV in 1974). It’s a two character piece involving a young drifter (Oddbjorn Hesjevoll) attempting to settle into a bed and breakfast run by an old woman (Lillebil Ibsen) with proclivities that grow increasingly unpleasant as the night stretches on.
I found the episode a bit too drawn-out for its own good (with lots of footage of the protagonist walking), and further weakened by the simple fact that the Roald Dahl source text isn’t nearly as strong as “The Spider.” Still, the lip-smacking malevolence displayed by Ms. Ibsen, who conveys untold depths of evil with an outwardly cheery air and ever-present smile, is priceless.
Helmed by Kent Nilssen, “Skrittene” (“The Steps”) was based on a novella by LAKE OF THE DEAD’s Andre Bjerke. It’s a slow burner about an exhausted composer (Espen Skjonberg) who moves into a secluded Oslo based apartment. His quiet sojourn, however, is disrupted by the footsteps of the unseen tenant above him—despite the fact that, as is made clear early on in the episode, nobody actually lives in the upper apartment. The man gradually goes mad, conveyed by filmmaking that grows increasingly phantasmagoric and psychologically oriented, and in so doing abandons any sense of narrative progression, leaving us with an episode that’s not entirely satisfying.
A LITTLE SHUDDER’s final segment “Inntrengeren” (“The Intruder”) was directed by Henning
Mankell and Bernt Christian Middelthon, and based on an original script by Ole Paus. After “Edderkoppen” it’s the finest of the show’s episodes, and also the longest, being a low key yet potent study of a couple (Ane Hoel and Rolf Arly Lund) irked by an apparently haunted car. They dismantle and abandon the thing in a snowy bluff, only to have the stripped parts, and eventually the entire reconstituted vehicle, turn back up in the couple’s garage.
Amid haunted car narratives, “Inntrengeren” doesn’t quite rank with THE CAR (1977) or CHRISTINE (1983). It does, however, have a unique sense of horrific frisson, with bleak snowbound locations that enhance the sense of strangeness and otherworldly menace suffusing the episode, and the series overall.