No Rest for the Wicked is a subversive and haunting vampire film (Fantasia 2026 review)

The 1884 German short story "Manor," by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, is a pioneering work of LGBTQ+ literature for the way that it uses vampirism as a metaphor for homosexuality and how society reacts to it. Director and co-writer Kasper Kalle's No Rest for the Wicked is a visually arresting adaptation of the story with moving performances from its leads. It's also a smart and subversive vampire film with themes that still resonate today.

Like the story, the film is set in 1862 on the isolated Faroe Islands. The young Baldur (Egor Venned), a fisherman like his deceased father, meets the more experienced and well-traveled Helge (Pilou Asbæk), a whaler. Baldur has a mishap early in the film that nearly kills him and almost destroys the small fishing boat his father built. Helge saves him, and initially, Baldur is reluctant to make friends with him (or something more), maybe because he first wants to deny his attraction to another man. However, it doesn't take long for the men to strike up a romance. They just need to do it away from the oppressive eye of Baldur's remote village where Christianity factors heavily.

From the outset, this movie really has some stunning cinematography that resembles the haunting Gothic atmosphere of a lot of Robert Eggers' work. Additionally, Kalle makes clear from the outset that while the islands and sea can be beautiful, they're also deadly. After all, the sea nearly kills Baldur in the opening minutes, and though his mom, Asla (Sofia Nolsøe), never says that the sea took her husband, it's certainly implied. It's also why she's protective of her only son and why she doesn't want him to leave with Helge for a whaling job. She knows how dangerous it can be, and she pleads with him to stay behind in the village, noting that he's all she has left. Not only do the leading men give really compelling performances in this film, but so does Nolsøe, who plays a loving and protective mother, as well as a strong woman who's managed to survive following her husband's death.

This film takes its time to fully establish the dynamic and attraction between Baldur and Helge, allowing their relationship to develop and grow. Helge helps Baldur to become more comfortable with his emotions and sexuality. Yet, the danger is ever-present, as underscored by frequent shots of the sea, heavy and oppressive fog, and waves crashing against jagged shores. It's a threat to the men, considering their jobs, just as the rural community is a threat in the sense it doesn't allow them to fully be who they want to be, at least not in the open.

There are plenty of horror elements in this film too, though they're steeped in the Gothic tradition and combined with slight folk horror aspects. This isn't a jump scare-type of movie, and instead, it's a brooding slow burn. Once tragedy strikes, the vampirism really ramps up with a fiercely queer bent. Like the story, it's a good metaphor for the men's repressed feelings, Baldur's especially, and a means to explore how a close-knit and sometimes close-minded society reacts to it. All of this leads to a hypnotic last act that proves these men will be together, one way or the other, even if others condemn it. Kalle and his co-writer, Rasmus Birch, handle the adaptation's themes quite well with a stunning Gothic spin.

No Rest for the Wicked is a mesmerizing queer vampire movie that proves how and why the 19th Century source material's themes are still so relevant today. This is a movie that will pull you under where you'll get lost in the engrossing natural imagery and a landscape that's both gorgeous and perilous.

No Rest for the Wicked just screened at the Fantasia Film Festival.

https://youtu.be/U4g4iDkSTl8