Film

The Snowman

Name: The Snowman
Genre: Crime, Thriller, Mystery, Horror
Released: 2017
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jonas Karlsson, Michael Yates

Other titles called The Snowman: the 1982 film.

A Norwegian serial killer thriller where detective Harry Hole pursues a murderer who leaves calling cards in the form of grotesque snowmen. Tense and visually striking, it trades narrative coherence for mood and atmosphere. For viewers who prize craft—the cinematography, the dread—over plot mechanics.

TMDb rating

2.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love Scandinavian noir built on bleak atmosphere and a lonely detective, and don't mind a plot that feels more like a mood than a puzzle.

Skip it if you need a tidy, satisfying whodunit, since the clues here are scattered and the logic often frays under its own ambitions.

What it asks of you: Two hours and change of cold, patient unease, with the story sprawling across many characters and stretches of quiet dread before it gathers any momentum.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Insomnia2002

Also features a damaged detective chasing a killer through Scandinavian winter, with Al Pacino's fatigue and moral grey zone. Nolan understands how cold light and isolation mess with the mind.

But It's a remake of a Norwegian original, and some feel the Hollywood version softens what made the source material cutting.

Let the Right One In2008

Swedish horror that uses snow and isolation to build dread rather than action. A vampire film that's genuinely about loneliness, predation, and how we protect what we love.

But Glacially paced. The kills are sparse and clinical. If you need constant momentum, this will test your patience.

In Bruges2008

Two hitmen hiding in a medieval town face their past. Dark, funny, gorgeously shot. Guilt and violence examined with real tenderness beneath the noir swagger.

But Very talky, very self-aware. If you want straight procedural momentum rather than character excavation, it meanders.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Snowman

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Living Dead Girl1982

Both films are fascinated by death as a staged, ritualistic act; the killer as artist imposing their vision on corpses and landscapes.

A French giallo-horror hybrid about a woman resurrected from her tomb. It's visceral, strange, and obsessed with resurrection and decay in ways that mirror *The Snowman*'s fixation on death as art. The killer as perverse creator.

But Dubbed, low-budget, and deeply weird. It's not a thriller in the conventional sense—it's more tone and texture than plot.

Sicario2015

A woman drawn into a morally opaque world where she can't trust anyone. Tense, beautifully composed, and deliberately ambiguous about who deserves trust—same sense of moral vertigo as *The Snowman*.

But The female lead is often sidelined for the male characters' philosophizing. Some viewers find it frustrating rather than intentional.

The Lighthouse2019

Two men isolated in a rotting tower with something malevolent nearby. Dreamlike, claustrophobic, obsessive. Shot in B&W with a fixed aspect ratio that locks you in the dread.

But Deliberately strange and oblique. It's a folk horror film that doesn't explain itself, and that alienates more viewers than it intrigues.

Zodiac2007

Fincher's slow-burn hunt for a serial killer across decades. A detective consumed by the chase. The atmosphere is suffocating; procedural details become ritual.

But It's nearly three hours and the ending isn't cathartic. You don't get closure; you get exhaustion.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo2011

Fincher's version of the Swedish crime phenomenon. Dark, technically precise, very Scandinavian noir. Rooney Mara's performance is the spine.

But The rape scenes are graphic and brutal. Even knowing they're in service of the character arc, they can be too much.

The Killing2011

Danish police procedural. Dense, weary, methodical. Sarah Lund's investigation into a single case unfolds over twenty episodes. Patience becomes a virtue here.

But The pacing is deliberate to the point of being glacial. If you need quick payoffs, you'll rage-quit by episode three.

Possession1981

Both films use a city in transition (Berlin post-Wall, Oslo's winter) as a character. Both prioritize atmosphere and dread over narrative clarity. Both collapse personal and political horror together.

Andrzej Żuławski's Polish-German horror, surreal and violently sexual. A marriage dissolves into nightmare in a divided Berlin. Visceral, unsettling, utterly committed to its own logic. Isabelle Adjani is extraordinary.

But It's genuinely disorienting and deeply unpleasant at times. The pacing is fractured. Some see it as a masterpiece; others see pretension and excess.

The Wailing2016

Both films trust the audience to sit with uncertainty and dread. Both collapse the boundary between the supernatural and the criminal. Both end without clear answers, asking you to live with the weight of what you've seen.

A Korean mystery where a detective investigates murders in a village plagued by illness. Is it a curse, a killer, or something else entirely? The ambiguity is the point. Morally complex, visually stunning, genuinely unsettling.

But Nearly three hours. Religious mythology throughout. The ending refuses to satisfy, which some find profound and others find maddening.