We begin Mountain King (2025) somewhere in the snowy Swedish countryside: the unequivocally wholesome activity of pressing flowers may seem like an unorthodox start for a horror film, but it soon starts to make more sense, especially from the perspective of what this seems to be – a folk horror. We have, as already mentioned, the setting of the remote woods; we have a botany student (code: rational) and, oh god, oh Jesus Christ, it’s apparently the (winter) solstice. Before too long, student Rachel (Sarah Eungsung Kim) begins to have presentiments of what she describes as ‘cosmic pain’ – a tingling, she suggests, of real pain to come. That’s alarming, but perhaps more immediately alarming is that Rachel’s brother Wyatt has gone missing out of his tent, leaving his jacket in the woods, despite the freezing conditions. Finding him is key; the two remaining members of the party head off to look for him.
Paranoia begins to hold sway, and if this all feels unusually brisk, or even appears to be in medias res, then that may be because this isn’t – yet – our main story arc. As our three strangers grapple with something weird in the woods, we may first feel a thrill of surprise at the snazzy title screen and accompanying music which takes us away from them, right before we shift our focus to a young woman called Hannah (Hannah Deale). It’s not quite that the cold open is deadly serious, but Mountain King seems to be having a certain amount of fun with this new character: Hannah, an American, gets out of her rental car, slips around in the snow in her $2,000 Louboutin boots and then turns up somewhere where, it seems, she isn’t wanted.
She has travelled to Sweden to surprise her boyfriend, Gregor (Carter Sirianni). Surprised? He certainly is. In fact, he moves from shock to mild panic, keen to get rid of her before his parents turn up. Too late – here’s mother Ingrid (Irina Malygina), but rather than being angry that Gregor has apparently brought an unexpected guest, she seems delighted, asking Hannah to stay for Jul. Hannah – who has come here to declare her love and to say yes, she will marry Gregor – is delighted, seeing this as an opportunity to prove herself and her commitment. Gregor has no choice but to acquiesce, and soon he, Hannah, Ingrid and father Wilhelm (Keoki Trask) are sitting down for a traditional Swedish Jul meal together.
A large swathe of this film feels like a blend of any number of awkward-comedic ‘meet the parents’ comedies, and Midsommar (2019), albeit at the other side of the seasonal cycle (the impression I have, possibly unfairly, is that a lot of recent folk horror has favoured the warmer months, but the winter solstice makes for a great backdrop too). The mention of comedy is key here, because the film manages to play for laughs, but not necessarily by laughing at the folklore itself, or the setting, but rather at people and their foibles – albeit with a very specific lens. But then, just when you think you are settling into an engagingly awkward, if potentially escalating situation, Mountain King successfully manages a complete and unexpected pivot towards something else entirely in terms of its plot. It takes a risk, but in this last-act about-face, blending different ideas and motifs, it achieves a big payoff. Somehow it hangs onto its lighter-touch tone and its nods to fairy tales, despite getting grisly in places, and despite occasionally touching on the very biggest human issues: belonging, family, love. In short, this film – with a small cast and a ridiculously small budget – does improbably great things. Shot in Pennsylvania rather than Sweden, it’s still plausibly Scandinavian, and everything is well shot and lit throughout.
Not at all what I expected, Mountain King starts by quite cheerfully sending its characters up, with a sharp script and some charming performances (with a very special mention to Hannah Deale who, successfully steers this film into its surprise final act). The film has plenty of ideas, but ideas which it weaves together effectively. Finally to its credit, it never scrimps on the elements which will endear it to its genre film audience, and it might just be a new entrant in the beloved Christmas (or Jul) horror canon.
Mountain King (2025) appeared at this year’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2026.