Ole Bornedal Movies

Inspired by Los Angeles Times writer Leslie Gornstein's article "A Jinx in a Box," this horror film from Ghost House Pictures and director Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch) tells the tale of a broken family that comes under attack from a malevolent supernatural entity of Jewish folklore. Shortly after her parents (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick) divorce, a young girl purchases an ornate antique box at a yard sale. In the weeks that follow, the young girl forms an intense fixation on the box, her behavior growing increasingly bizarre as she falls into the grip of a diabolical apparition. When the girl's father discovers that the relic is in fact a holding cell for the disconnected soul of a deceased person who has been denied entry into the afterlife and needs a human host to inhabit, he fights to rid her of the evil that threatens to consume her body and soul. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Nightwatch director Ole Bornedal returns to quicken the pulse of thriller fans with this genre-bending tale of a crime scene photographer and family man who is violently shaken out of his suburban malaise following a fateful car accident. Jonas makes his living by capturing gruesome crime scenes in all of their lurid detail, yet lately the beleaguered shutterbug has grown increasingly despondent in both his career and his personal life. One day, while driving through the city, Jonas is involved in a car accident with a young woman named Julia. Unconscious due to the impact of the crash, Julia is rushed to the hospital. Later, a concerned Jonas makes a special trip to check in on Julia, and finds her comatose in her hospital bed and surrounded by loved ones. Having never actually met her boyfriend Sebastian, Julia's family immediately assumes that Jonas is the man they've all heard so much about as of late. While Jonas is all too willing to step into the role for the time being, his ruse grows complicated when Julia awakens with amnesia, and the real Sebastian begins to grow curious about the intruder that has stolen his identity. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Ole Bornedal directs the drama I Am Dina, based on the novel by Herbjørg Wassmo. In Northern Norway during the 1860s, a little girl named Dina accidentally causes her mother's death. Overcome with grief, her father (Bjørn Floberg) refuses to raise her, leaving her in the care of the household servants. Dina grows up wild and unmanageable, with her only friend being the stable boy, Tomas (Hans Matheson). She summons her mother's ghost and develops a strange fascination with death as well as a passion for living. Family friend Jacob (Gérard Depardieu) encourages Dina's father to hire Lorch (Søren Sætter-Lassen), a tutor who introduces her to the cello. When Dina is old enough (played by Maria Bonnevie), she marries Jacob and moves to Reinsnes, a port he runs with his mother, Karen (Wenche Foss), and his stepsons Niels (Mads Mikkelsen) and Anders (Jørgen Langhelle). Niels doesn't like Dina's wild ways, or the fact that she has taken over accounting duties at Reinsnes. Dina's eccentric tendencies become even stronger, eventually leading Jacob into an accident of his own and bringing Tomas back into her life. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

While one would imagine that the average New Yorker would be used to dealing with bugs after years of apartment dwelling, a scientific experiment gone wrong results in an insect that even Raid can't handle in this sci-fi/horror thriller. In Manhattan, cockroaches are spreading a deadly disease that is claiming hundreds of the city's children, so entomologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) uses genetic engineering techniques to create what she and her colleague (and husband) Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) call the Judas Breed, a large insect that will feed on the disease carrying roaches. Since the Judas bugs have been designed so that they can't breed, the mutated species should die out in a matter of a few years. However, Susan, Peter, and their staff severely underestimated the cockroach's ability to adapt to its conditions. The Judas Breed has indeed found a way to reproduce itself, but more importantly, the insect has grown remarkably large (sometimes reaching six feet in length), has developed a taste for meat, and can mimic the appearance and behavior of other creatures with uncanny accuracy -- including humans. Susan and Peter have learned that huge swarms of the Judas Breed are living beneath the city in the subway system, and with the help of Leonard (Charles S. Dutton), a transit system employee who knows the labyrinth of subway tunnels like the back of his hand, they search out the humanoid insects before they can take over the city. Mimic also features Giancarlo Giannini, Josh Brolin, and F. Murray Abraham. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The debut feature from Danish director Ole Bornedal, Nattevagten is a psychological thriller starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. While a serial killer is on the loose, brutally murdering several prostitutes, college-student Martin (Coster-Waldau) takes a job as the night watchman at the local mortuary in order to pay his law-school tuition. As it turns out, the bodies of the victims are being stored at that very mortuary. When Martin takes a bet that involves tampering with the bodies, he suddenly finds himself a suspect in the case. Bordenal, who also wrote the script, later remade Nattevagten in Hollywood under the title Nightwatch. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi