Skjelvet [The Quake] (2018)

(In French, On TV, June 2020) It’s not that surprising to see the same producer-writer team behind Norwegian disaster film The Wave going on to produce an equally suspenseful disaster sequel. What is more surprising in The Quake is that it features the same main cast, back for a city-destroying earthquake after experiencing a deadly tsunami. What are the odds, right? Appropriately enough, the accumulation of trauma does form an integral aspect of the film… perhaps a bit too much, in fact. Still, the centrepiece here is the quake itself—a bit restrained compared to similar American films (I’m thinking of 2012, notably) but still effective thanks to a handful of long shots that sell the mayhem. While the earthquake only hits an hour and a quarter into the film, the last half-hour has a lot more action than the rest of the film, as the high-rise hotel in which the characters are stuck is gradually destroyed by the aftermath of the event. There are some solid suspense sequences here, notably in a penthouse restaurant that keeps tipping over when the floors below are destroyed. But you do have to be patient: it takes more than an hour of various portents for the action to begin, and the film is a bit cruel in killing off one returning character. It’s also noteworthy that The Quake doesn’t play the same refined playbook as other Hollywood disaster films: There are few action scenes before the main one, and the film does not set up an aftershock of some sort to present a renewed danger in time for the third act. It makes The Quake feel more focused, but also emptier than other similar films. Still, the Norwegian setting does add a lot of interest and you can enjoy the film as one of the few modern disaster films that’s not a hyperactive mess from beginning to end.