It would be wrong to say that The innocent has ended up completely in the shadow of The world’s worst human being – Eskil Vogt has, after all, been involved in writing the script for the latter. But it is interesting to see how different fates the two films have had in Norwegian cinemas. Men The world’s worst human being for a long time has rounded 200,000 in cinemas, became The innocent seen by just over 15,000 before it was taken off the poster. Both films were touted with superlatives from critics when they attended Cannes. Yes, you have to look long and hard for a movie in Cannes that garnered as much praise as Vogt’s film.

It was not enough to give it a boost in cinemas here at home. Nevertheless, the film has won victories at international niche festivals and has received distribution agreements in unusually many countries. After the film’s premiere in Cannes, it has been sold to major cinema distributors in the United States and Canada, all countries in Europe, all of Latin America and large parts of Asia. It achieved success at the world’s biggest horror film festivals, Sitges Film Festival and Fantastic Party in the United States, and contributed to prices to Gisle Tveito and Gustaf Berger (for best sound design) and producer price for Maria Ekerhovd below European Film Awards.

I Denmark the film has become something far more than a niche phenomenon. By the end of the year, the film has ended up on most of the leading charts. Dagbladet Information has the film at the top of its list, while both the policy and Jyllands-Posten has it on its best lists of the year. Also the film publications The film magazine EKKO, Sound location and Filmmaniac have it on their lists, sir Danish TV2 has it among its three biggest movie experiences.

As if that’s not enough, Eskil Vogt ended up this week on Hollywood Reporters’ European breakout list for 2021. Everything is thus in place for 2021 to stand as Vogt’s major international breakthrough.

The weak cinema visit here at home probably had several reasons. It took time before the cinema audience returned to the cinema this autumn (the film premiered on 27.8). Nor is the local audience’s potential for such a unique horror hybrid so more than 15,000 as we might think.

But Vogt has no reason to hang his head. The film will get more attention as it hits theaters in many countries through the winter and spring. The film’s Norwegian distributor, Øistein Refseth in More Distribution, tells in an email that the film has just begun a major journey.

“The film has large and broad distributors in many countries, so the campaigns we have drafted are aimed at an urban horror-interested audience, with Hereditary and Let the right one in as comparable titles. Of course, it will be especially exciting with the USA and England, but France and Spanish-speaking countries are also betting a lot. “