False Trail is named, and put under the heading, of a thriller. Because of the lack of actually thrilling thrillers, this title didn't mean much to me. But Kjell Sundvall's movie really does as it says on the tin.
In this Swedish sequel, we follow Erik Bäckström, an aging policeman called down to his old home town where a young woman has gone missing. Here we watch a murder case unfold, and are not only confronted with Erik's painful past, but are lead into a deeper, more sinister mystery than we initially imagined.
What first hits you about this movie is the dark, dense setting. Set in the picturesque woods of Norrland Sweden, you're struck by wintry lakes and friendly faces. In the beginning, the characters seem like boring, basically normal people. But when we delve into the mystery, and the first inklings of doubt and suspicion creep in, things begin to escalate, and our opinions change at every twist.
This movie really kept me alive and thinking. Its plot twists were calculated and realistic, and the acting was superb. Peter Stromare's character was fantastically played; everything we once thought we knew about him is warped and distorted until we see the character that he is. Through tongue-in-cheek gore and unprecedented acts of violence, this story will make you jump in your seat and question every motive.
Without giving too much away, notice Sundvall's directing; cutting into the truth like a fly on the wall, and letting the chaos run wild around him, until the characters realise the daunting reality just a step too late. Excellently done. In total, a well thought-through movie that did indeed thrill.
