If fellow Movie Ramblings scribe Rhian Morgan is to be believed, Lars Kepler is the future when it comes to Swedish crime novelists.

The strange thing is, Lars Kepler is actually a pseudonym for Alexander and Alexandra Ahndoril, a Stockholm husband and wife team that have joined forces to churn out three impressive, brutal thrillers to date.

With The Hypnotist, The Nightmare and Fire Witness clocking up some impressive sales figures, and critical responses, it seemed only a matter of time before one of these novels, all featuring detective Joona Linna, hit the big screen.

Well, here it is – with renowned director Lasse Hallstrom taking a crack at the former.

Tobias Zilliacus takes on the role of Linna in a suitably dark caper that sees the detective team up with a famous psychologist in a bid to unravel the brutal murder of a family, with a badly injured teenage boy being the only witness.

With Hallstrom having overseen some wildly differing fare, from the likes of Chocolat to Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, we’re interested to see how he copes with this sort of material, with the film screening at Frightfest on Saturday, August 24.

About The Author

Avatar photo

Simon is a journalism tutor in London, who also just happens to be a movie fanatic, with a craving for the darker side of cinema. He has written three books - on the horror films of director Bob Clark (2014), the history of the character Norman Bates (2015) and the work of British exploitation director Pete Walker (2017). He is currently working with director Richard Loncraine to explore all avenues in a bid to orchestrate the re-release of 1978 Mia Farrow chiller Full Circle