''Berserker'' (also known as ''Berserker: The Nordic Curse'') is a 1987 American

slasher film A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...

written and directed by Jefferson Richard. The film centers on a group of campers who are stalked and murdered by a

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word '' berserk'' (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers ...

Plot

According to an old Nordic legend, a

Berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word '' berserk'' (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers ...

was a bloodthirsty warrior who ate human flesh, was forbidden a restful death and fated to be reincarnated in their blood kin. A summer camp accidentally stumbles across the Berserker legend when it arises in Rainbow Valley, an area settled by Norwegian immigrants. The camp is abuzz with rumours of a wild

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

killing people in the area, including speculation about an old couple who get lost. But is it really a bear?

Cast

* Greg Dawson as Josh Winter * Joseph Alan Johnson as Mike Stone * Rodney Montague as Larry Fishman * Valerie Sheldon as Kathy * Shannon Engemann as Kristi *

Beth Toussaint Elizabeth Toussaint (born September 25, 1962) is an American former actress and model. She is best known for her television performances. Life and career Before television roles, Toussaint worked as a model, and appeared in the 1984 music video ...

as Shelly * Mike Riley as Berserker * John F. Goff as Officer Walt Hill *

George "Buck" Flower George Albert "Buck" Flower (October 28, 1937 – June 18, 2004) was an American actor, writer, producer, assistant director, production manager, and casting director. He was sometimes credited as Ernest Wall, Buck Flower, George "Buck" Flower ...

as Pappy Nyquist * Oscar Rowland as Homer Roberts * Beverly Rowland as Edna Roberts

Production

Parts of the film were shot at

Big Cottonwood Canyon Big Cottonwood Canyon is a canyon in the Wasatch Range southeast of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The -long canyon provides hiking, biking, picnicking, rock-climbing, camping, and fishing in the summer. Its two ski resorts, Brig ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

Release

Home media

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

by Quantum Leap on October 22, 2001. It was later released by Hollywood DVD on August 2, 2004. Vinegar Syndrome released the film on Blu-ray in 2019.

Reception

Andrew Smith from ''Popcorn Pictures'' awarded the film a score of 3/10, writing, ''Berserker'' sounded great and could have become a little slasher gem but the lack of the berserker on-screen is disappointing and ‘Gentle Ben’ the bear doesn’t have any need to be in here. One to avoid unless you have a burning desire to see every 80s slasher film". Todd Martin from ''HorrorNews.net'' offered the film similar criticism, calling it "a boring, confusing, hokey, mess of a film". Will and Roni agreed that the Viking angle was underplayed.

References

External links

* * * {{Rotten tomatoes, berserker_1987, Berserker 1987 films 1987 horror films 1980s slasher films American slasher films American supernatural horror films Films shot in Utah Backwoods slasher films Films set in forests Supernatural slasher films Films set in Utah 1980s English-language films 1980s American films