The Trip

A black comedy by the Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola. Lars and Lisa are married and hate each other. They go to a cabin in the mountains for the weekend, and it emerges that both have the same plan: to kill the other. This is out in the open within half an hour, and from there the film goes somewhere unexpected; three escaped convicts break into the cabin and the couple's plan turns into a fight to survive. Wirkola had made the Dead Snow films about Nazi zombies, and the humour comes from the same vein: extreme violence, absurd timing, and characters responding wrongly to their situation. What works is the parallel between marriage and survival: the couple only learn to cooperate properly while trying to kill each other. Noomi Rapace plays Lisa and Aksel Hennie plays Lars. Before you watch, know this: the violence is extreme and showy, presented as comedy, and it is not for anyone with a weak stomach. It also falls into repetition in the second half and the last section runs longer than it needs to.