Klabautermann

Aboard the bloody, corpse-lined corridors of a Norwegian freighter, M/S Somgårder, a mountainous brute of a sailor, AKSEL (40) encounters a sinister humanoid creature lurking in an industrial freezer, who has killed several of his fellow crew members. Aksel bolts and locks the freezer door in the last moment, successfully confining the murderous being… ADAM BELKER (27) and his fiancée, EMMA MORGAN (25) are savoring their last moments alone, before a week at sea await with his parents, the prim and proper SUSAN BELKER (55) and sober alcoholic FRANK (60), who will meet Emma for the first time. Starting off on a good note, the family sails off for a pleasant memorial cruise in their luxury yacht, the Tempest. Eventually, Emma learns that the family and their ship have a dark past, as 15 years earlier Adam’s disabled, wheelchair-bound sister, AVERY (7) was mysteriously washed overboard. Guilt is still palpable, and the family struggles to keep it together. Cracks of dysfunction begins to surface in earnest, when Susan and the ship’s captain, SKIPPER (45) flirt openly. Frank, mad about their affair, gets drunk and takes the helm, promptly blowing out the engine. In addition to the propulsion, the ship has suddenly lost electricity and comms. The food in the fridge has inexplicably gone rotten. Suddenly, a mysterious freighter appears and drifts towards them. Unable to avoid a collision, the family and the crew depart in Zodiac boats. After they have boarded the abandoned freighter, they split up in search for supplies. Ship hand ELI (25) finds the kitchen and the freezer, but gets brutally murdered by Aksel, before Skipper manages to kill him. Hearing faint scratching inside the freezer, the survivors open the door and find a naked, emaciated man seemingly frozen to death, but he still has a pulse … As they give him water and try to resuscitate him, the man is revealed to be an amphibious sea creature with malevolent intentions. This is the KLABAUTERMANN (KB), a sinister incarnation of evil which according to maritime lore enacts vengeance on the guilty. The KB suddenly comes to life, and bloody mayhem ensues. Despite being badly hurt, the creature manages to flee. The escalating situation drives Frank to start drinking again and picking a fight with Skipper. Afterwards, Susan, wandering around the freighter in panic, gets killed by the creature in a grimy communal bathroom. In her final moments, the KB makes her remember the night of Avery’s death. She was having sex with Skipper while Avery drowned 15 years earlier. The others find Susan in the bathroom, horribly butchered by the KB. In the container maze of the cargo hold, the survivors realize that the ship has a long gash on its side, causing the freighter to sink sooner than later. The ship has also been rigged by explosives by the crew. They also find the KB’s container lair. DUTCH (50), a gruff old salt, tells the group about the legend of the Klabautermann, but ends up stealing some of the creature’s belongings and gets killed by it in the container maze. Meanwhile, the inebriated Frank has wandered elsewhere, now separated from the rest of the group. Adam, Emma and Skipper decide to put the monster ”back in the box” – creating an elaborate mechanical trap. The elaborate ”mouse trap” for the monster is built, but in their attempt to catch it, Skipper gets accidentally killed by the trap’s lethal mechanism. Adam and Emma find Frank, who is entrapped by fallen pipes in the water. He doesn’t have much time left – the water is rising – and it’s clear he will drown. Adam and Emma can’t save Frank, but Adam gets to say goodbye to his father. Angry with his son, Frank makes sure that his son remembers what really happened on that fateful day 15 years ago: Adam killed his CP (cerebral palsy) afflicted sister. After Adam and Emma leave Frank with a harpoon gun, the KB appears and drowns Frank. Riddled with guilt, Adam reveals the truth to Emma: He killed his sister all those years ago. Emma and Adam find a detonator for the various explosives planted by the doomed freighter crew. They also learn about the origin of their mysterious nemesis – the KB was an illegal Asian immigrant, who was buried at sea, but returned from his watery grave to wreak vengeance on M/S Somgårder’s crew. As the freighter becomes ever more flooded by sea water, Adam and Emma must fight to stay alive in the treacherous corridors … whereupon Adam is entrapped inside a comms cabin with a barred door. Emma sends out a mayday via the ship’s radio and locates Skipper’s zodiac boat in the water-filled corridor. In the boat, she locates a flare gun and a machete. As the KB attacks Adam, she shoots the creature with the flare gun, inflicting severe damage on its head. When Emma manages to spring Adam free, she hands him the explosive, but he betrays her by locking her inside the same room, leaving her to drown. The KB attacks her from outside of the room, but Emma manages to fight back successfully and escapes through a narrow hatch by dislocating her shoulder. Trying to navigate the flooded corridors in the zodiac boat, Emma gets attacked again by the KB. She manages to damage the resilient creature even more, this time with the boat’s outboard motor. Meanwhile, Adam is busy in the cargo hold connecting a C4 timer with the various explosives planted on the ship. The former lovers engage in a vicious hand-to-hand combat, but the KB saves Emma by killing Adam. In a tense, claustrophobic fight inside the KB’s partially submerged container lair, Emma manages to trap the monster inside and escape from the sinking freighter just before the explosives go off and sink the ship. Emma, the only survivor of the Tempest and M/S Somgårder, swims towards an approaching rescue ship. Justice has finally been served. For all.