We’ve had Dracula, Frankenstein, and a whole host of other monsters grace our screens recently, but it’s time to meet one from the depths of the ocean. A new trailer for Kraken, the upcoming Norwegian creature feature from director Pål Øie, has arrived, bringing back every fear you ever had about swimming in open water where you can’t touch the bottom.
From Samuel Goldwyn Films, Kraken stars Sara Khorami, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Øyvind Brandtzæg, and Jenny Evensen as a group menaced by the mythical beast. The film’s synopsis is as follows:
Unnatural behavior in wild salmon, followed by inexplicable deaths in Norway’s deepest fjord, points to the mythical Kraken. The ancient, multi-armed monster has awakened, ready to crush everything that moves or makes a sound.
Kraken is Øie’s first film since 2019’s The Tunnel, and his first proper horror film since Dark Woods II in 2015. It’s definitely not the first time we’ve seen a kraken in a major motion picture — the mythical beats featured in films as early as the 1920s (where an octopus was filmed in a bathtub attacking toy ships), and also appears in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Meg 2: The Trench, as well as its iconic appearance in Clash of the Titans, which spawned the phrase “release the Kraken.”
But given that the creature was a legend that originated from Norwegian sailors (who most likely saw giant squid on their travels), it feels only appropriate that Øie’s film is the first to feature the Kraken as its primary monster. Jules Verne might have made it famous, but the Scandinavians saw it first.
Kraken hits limited theaters and digital on June 12.
