Blackwater (2023, Sweden)
Original title: Händelser vid vatten
mysterious deathmystery movies
Running time: 60 minutes per episode
Language: Swedish
Blackwater 2023 Swedish mystery thriller review
During a midsummer day, a single mother, Annie Raft, and her 7-year-old daughter Mia get off the bus in a small town in northern Sweden. She expected her boyfriend to pick them up, but there was no sign of him, so Annie tried to find a way towards a commune she was about to join. As she quickly learned, the commune is in a very secluded place and the locals tried to persuade her not to go on foot with her young daughter. The shop owner gives them a lift part of the way and draws them the map for the rest of their journey, but soon after they are left alone Annie losses the bearing, and they end up on a riverbank. While trying to find the way to the commune, Annie stumbles upon a small tent, in which she discovers the bodies of a young couple, who were stabbed to death. Traumatized, she returns to the town to inform the police. The local doctor, Birger Torbjörnsson, and the new area police officer, Åke, were planning to spend the midsummer night on fishing down the river, but the murder case brings them down to Earth.
A Swedish TV series based on a crime novel by Kerstin Ekman, has all the elements of Nordic-noir: grizzly murder, several people linked to the story, each of them more or less suspicious, the small town with its not so small secrets, trauma that haunts people even years after. The atmosphere around the story was quite unique, different lifestyles and approaches to life that were present in the 1970s create a mix of mystery with complicated human nature. However, they one thing that is clearly missing in the story is any sort of tension. There are tensions between the characters, but nothing major, there are suspicions surrounding each of the people involved, but even though among them could live someone who kills in a cold blood in the middle of nowhere for no clear reason, the people seem fine about it. It is more of a puzzle for them than a reason to be afraid. And the whole story, unfortunately, leads to a really disappointing ending, which proves that about 90% of the events in the series were just a huge waste of time that had not much to do with the main plot.
Overall: interesting setting, interesting atmosphere, but the story would be much better as a short film and not a 6-hours-long TV series.
Do you like unsolved mysteries?
Our rating |
4 / 10 |
Movie value |
3 / 10 |
Realism factor |
4 / 5 |
Adventure factor |
1 / 5 |
Story complexity |
2 / 5 |
9 |
Creators of Blackwater
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director | |
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screenplay | |
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screenplay | |
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screenplay |
Cast of Blackwater
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as Annie Raft | |
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as Annie Raft | |
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as Mia Raft | |
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as Birger Torbjörnsson | |
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as Dan Ulander | |
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as Johan Brandberg | |
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as Birger Torbjörnsson | |
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as Björne Brandberg | |
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as Petrus | |
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as Ylja Happolati | |
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as Johan Brandberg |
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