The new Swedish-language survival thriller, Red Dot, starts out as a tense ride but ends up feeling about as empty as its barren scenery…
Director: Alain Darborg
Starring: Anastasios Soulis, Nanna Blondell
Running time: 86 minutes
Swedish writer-director Alain Darborg’s new feature has just hit Netflix, about a young married couple whose romantic camping trip in the Swedish countryside quickly becomes a fight for their lives as they realise they are being tracked by a sniper. But, for all its formal aspiration, it never quite sticks the landing.
It’s been a big year for David (Anastasios Soulis) and Nadja (Nanna Blondell, who is set to appear in Marvel’s Black Widow later this year). They’ve got married, David is excelling in his academic career, and now Nadja is pregnant.
But, the slowly worsening issues in their relationship make her hesitant to tell David. The few hours of the day he isn’t working he sits around playing Battlefield, leaving her to do the housework. She realises that, once the baby arrives, she’ll be further resigned to her life as a housewife and her slim aspirations to be a doctor will disappear completely.
Looking to rekindle their relationship, David surprises Nadja with a hiking trip in Northern Sweden. On the way they encounter some of the locals, and it’s clear they don’t fit in. A tavern owner refuses to speak to Nadja due to her race, and some local trappers harass them at a gas station.
It’s a tried-and-tested formula: educated city people go into the wilderness and clash with small-town prejudices. Think John Boorman’s 1972 thriller Deliverance, only with steely-eyed Swedish hunters instead of bloodthirsty bluegrass killers.
The people seem as unwelcoming as the hostile land around them. Cinematographer Benjam Orre’s camera captures the desolate Swedish countryside in prowling long-shots, putting an effectively eerie distance between us and the young couple.
The couple try their best to put the unpleasantness behind them and enjoy their time together, but things go from bad to worse when they spot a red laser sight on their tent. It could be some kids messing around, but they’re in the middle of nowhere, and they begin to realise that someone is out for blood. But what they can’t work out is what they’ve done wrong.
Darborg’s script never goes anywhere with its ideas and it becomes a chore to stay invested
Both Soulis and Blondell do a good job making their characters feel believable, and there’s a lot of great grunting and writhing in the snow - it won DiCaprio his Oscar! - but they struggle to elevate the film’s clunky writing.
Their performances are plagued by generic banter and some pretty hollow character development. They both start out with a lot of potential, but Darborg’s script never goes anywhere with its ideas and it becomes a chore to stay invested.
Some of the twists are obvious, and some are slightly less obvious. While they try to crank up the tension, most of them are absurd and feel as if they’re being made up as they go along.
At least they make sure the film never stays in one place for too long. One particularly thrilling sequence sees the couple struggling across a frozen lake, trying not to fall through into the icy depths. It’s in simple moments like this where Red Dot is at its best, and it’s a shame they’re so few and far between.
The real star of the show is Swedish composer Carl-Johan Sevedag, who provided the music for the 2017 tennis biopic Borg McEnroe. His sparse yet ethereal score perfectly compliments the vastness of the landscape with haunting strings that tighten the atmosphere.
Red Dot is only really saved by the fact it’s 86 minutes long, but to say its saving grace is that it isn’t too long hardly speaks to it being any good. Both actors are watchable, setting up the characters for their inevitable battle against man and wilderness, but you may find it a struggle to remain invested.
It’s not going to be a hit with people who like happy endings - or, for that matter, comfy films about camping. For an easy weekend watch, you could do a lot worse, but you could do a lot better.
Did you know? According to Netflix’s public ranking system, Red Dot was the third most popular film on the streaming service during the week of its release.
Red Dot is available now on Netflix
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