NO REST FOR THE WICKED

The Faroe Islands are a hard place to live. Daily life is a struggle, and everyone knows each other and their business. A young man, Baldur, chafes against the restrictions of his religiously conservative community, particularly when he is saved from a drowning accident by a very scruffy, intense stranger named Helge. Their burgeoning relationship is cut short by Christian judgment and tragedy, and all hope appears to be lost. A blood sacrifice to the unknown being who dwells beneath the waves brings renewed hope in this doomed, eldritch romance.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED begins as many an indie gay romance does: a period piece, repressive religiosity, and lingering stares. Once the isolated, 19th-century community has been established and our two leads have begun to open up, the film takes a turn into unfathomable horror. It’s a refreshing shift in genre, emphasizing the mysteriousness of the ocean and the power of queer transgression.

Fantastic Fest is a particularly unique festival where our audience can ignore standard models of morality and root for the gay man who makes a supernatural deal permitting possession and blood sacrifice. Egor Venned plays the young, inexperienced Baldur, and Pilou Asbæk (GAME OF THRONES’ Euron Greyjoy) is the confident, older sailor who helps Baldur to accept himself. NO REST FOR THE WICKED revels in unspeakable horror as a metaphor for the resistance to heterosexuality and the destruction of societal norms. If that sounds too heavy, have no fear; there's also a lot of hairy, sea-soaked chests and eldritch, bloody nipple play. (AUSTIN KING)