Twisted Dreams Film Festival Review: “To Freddy” 

Norwegian feature To Freddy (original title Til Freddy; 2020) finds the titular character, one of a group of friends planning a final camping trip after graduating university and heading into the workaday world, becoming increasingly paranoid after a box found randomly in the woods predicts that he will be killed by a member of their group. The film is a well-crafted thriller with horror overtones.
Freddy (Nicolai Narvesen Lied) is worried about his future, and more than a little distrustful of social media, having recently abandoned it altogether after receiving targeted ads after a phone call. His friend Viljar (writer/director Viljar Bøe) finds a box containing birthday cards and messages anonymously addressed to Freddy. Curious, Freddy reads one that says one of his friends will kill him at a precise date and time during the camping trip, and that the trip cannot be cancelled. To prove the validity of this prediction, Freddy has instructions to perform specific games of chance that show his future is already certain.
How this box and its contents affects Freddy and his friends is what drives To Freddy. A sense of dread and the threat of imminent danger kick off with the discovery of the box, and build steadily throughout the film, thanks to taut direction from Bøe and the mystery he builds around the circumstances in his screenplay.
The ensemble cast — which also includes Simen Stensheim Jørgensen, Nicholas Vedi, and Peter Emong — is solid, with Lied giving a stirring performance as his character goes from a confused young man to someone driven to the edge and Bøe giving a gripping supporting turn as his best friend.
To Freddy screens as part of Twisted Dreams Film Festival, which runs online as a virtual event from June 4–13, 2021. For more information, visit https://www.twisteddreamsff.com/.