Review #50: The Snowman (2017)


This review was originally written in October 2017.

Horror Movie October day 24: The Snowman

First things first: This isn't really a horror film. I thought it was but it turned out to be more of a suspense/mystery movie instead.

This film is based on one in a series of swedish crime novels about grizzled detective Harry Hole (another contender for worst protagonist name ever). In this story, he is investigating a series of disappearances primarily consisting of mothers from unhappy marriages (or something?). And- this part isn't really commented on in the movie and doesn't really amount to anything tangible- each disappearance is marked by the presence of a misshapen and rather awkward-looking snowman outside each person's home.

While watching this film, I really enjoyed it. It's got a lot of things going on, a lot of subplots that all seem to be connected, and you're constantly kept wondering how it all fits together and who the killer is. Vague spoiler alert: You'll still be wondering how it all fits together by the end. Like I said, I like it while I was watching it, but once my wife and I were in the car on the way home, she brought up some things she was confused about, and the more we kept talking, the more I realized how I had no clue how anything in the movie made sense. There's several plotlines that feel like they're reaching towards a single conclusion, but once the big reveal happens the movie kind of forgets about them. There's also a couple really awkwardly-edited action sequences in the film (some of which use some really dodgy and frankly unnecessary CGI for mundane things) that only served to muddle things even further.

And this has little bearing on the plot but I feel it has to be mentioned: Val Kilmer is in this movie and the years really haven't been kind to him. All of his dialogue is dubbed in and I don't even know what purpose his role served in the movie so it just made the experience really awkward.

Anyway, this movie was a fun watch but the more you think about it the less sense it makes.

Final Rating: 4/10 Incorrect IMDB Synopses

Best Game to Play While Watching the Movie: Spot the Ikea

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