I really love lots of foreign films these days. Love how out of the box they roll, and how they turn film on its head. At least for me anyway. Well, today I have the joy of bringing you the movie Red Dot – which is a 2021 Swedish drama thriller film written by Alain Darborg with Per Dickson and directed by Alain Darborg. Alright, let’s do this one, Swedish Movie Red Dot Recommendation Walkthrough:
Movie Red Dot Recommendation Walkthrough
David (played by Anastasios Soulis) proposes to his girlfriend, Nadja (played by Nanna Blondell) after his university graduation. And it’s all peaches and cream …. on the surface. David’s studying to become a doctor, and Nadja is pregnant… WOOT! But underneath the surface, things are definitely not fine. Things are really tense, not great at all. But, in an attempt to reconnect with Nadja, David surprises Nadja with a chance for a weekend away. You know, the normal outing-weekend that we all hope for, a weekend in Northern Sweden for skiing and sleeping outdoors under the northern lights. Magical! Or not.
On the way up to their vaunted weekend, David meets a couple of locals, two brothers, Jarmo and Rolle, who have a truck bed full of animal carcasses. Well, when David accidentally hits their truck while backing up, instead of telling them he scratched up their truck, David books it. Can’t say I blame him much, but… this is the beginning of a wild downward ride of one horrible life choice after another. (Sort of reminds me of that amazing film, House of Sand and Fog – you know Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly – yes, 17 years ago. But it was a very similar movie in that it was one grudge after another, and one horrible life choice after another. Man, I love that movie. If you haven’t seen it, check it out.)
Well, after heading to an Inn, the staff treats the interracial couple horribly, and refuse to serve them. The couple discover that Jarmo and Rolle are also there, and that their car has been keyed. (Tit for tat… maybe we can stop with the escalations? Call it even? Oh, no.) They also discover that there was a rude racial epithet now on the back of their car as well. So what does Nadja do? She hauls a screwdriver along the side of their truck, and is caught in the act and has to make a run for it. And obviously, the couple decide, you know what… maybe this weekend isn’t for us. Let’s just punt, and try it again another weekend in the future. But no. That isn’t how this particular slice of Cinéma vérité is going to go.
Finally, out under the northern lights, David learns that Nadja is pregnant. Normally, this would be a moment of celebration and excitement, but learning this makes David extraordinarily nervous. Which is when a red laser dot is spotted on the canvas of the tent. But it’s a prank. You know. One of those funny laser pointer dealios. Sure. That’s what it is. Soon after though, they begin to surmise that maybe it is the two hunters, hellbent on revenge for the keying chaos earlier. Boris, the couple’s dog eventually makes a mad dash into the night as the couple are packing up their things to move camp. And soon after they hear the sound of gunshots and Boris crying. After that, the two begin getting shot at themselves, and so they run off into the forest, and ultimately find a small shelter to hide in. In the morning they return to their campsite and they find their dog’s head in the tent. (What is this, the Godfather?) And escalating their troubles, David’s arm gets caught in a hunting trap and he’s also shot in the shoulder as they were trying to find any of their possessions that had all gone missing. (Because really… that’s what you care about right now… is your backpack, and clothes that have been stolen.) In the panic of the chaos, Nadja and David are separated, and worse? a storm is coming in. Throw in an escapade on a frozen lake where David falls in (how is Nadja unscathed at this point?) and you can see that this film isn’t going to end well. But they are able to make it to an emergency cabin where they are able to call out. But with the coming storm, their rescuers aren’t going to be able to make it to them until after it passes.
And this is where the Spanish Soap Opera vibe goes off the charts. Jarmo… remember him? One of the two guys with the truck full of animal carcasses? Well, apparently he happens to be one of the enlisted mountain rescuers. Well, he arrives at the shelter, but not before the duo can run for it and hide in a cave. A den of a hibernating bear sort of cave. Well, Jarmo finds them there, but before he can shoot at them, Nadja shoots him with a flare gun she found in the cabin. Meanwhile, David isn’t doing well at all, and the boy that he has been hallucinating about returns – at which point he starts mumbling about guilt for some reason. Why is David talking about guilt? Regardless, as the two run for it, they stumble upon a confused and startled Rolle. You know, of the Jarmo and Rolle duo? Well, not wanting to be shot and decapitated like their dog was, David knocks Rolle out with a rock. Coming to Einar’s cabin, they are finally safe, with both of their chasers subdued. PHEW. Hehehehe. Oh, how cute you guys all are.
Well, Einar, being ever so helpful, calls for help. Except that Nadja realizes he’s calling someone else. And when Einar flips completely out on them both and locks them in a room, they find photographs of the two of them taken previously. Oh. SNAP?! Were Jarmo and Rolle innocent?? That’s right my intrepid Red Dot watchers! And Thomas arrives with a rifle in hand. But you know who isn’t innocent? Nadja and David. Why? Because that boy that we’ve seen coming and going through David’s subconscious is extraordinarily relevant to this entire escapade.
Flash back to the day of Nadja and David’s engagement. While David was driving, Nadja, attempted to – uh, how shall we say – give David some lap hugs while he was driving. David, distracted, swerves and kills the boy he’s been having hallucinations about. And instead of calling the police like Nadja wanted him to do, David drove off and made a run for it. But, that isn’t all of this particular story. On the day that the boy was hit, the boy’s father, Thomas, and the kid were having fun together with a drone. Their play caused the boy to run into the road and get hit by David. But the drone was able to video the car’s license plate, which allowed Thomas to hunt the couple down, and move in to a nearby home and watch them. Thomas is hellbent on horrible revenge for his son, and even enlisted his brother for help.
Thomas tries to get David to kill their unborn child with a drill – but David refuses. After which, Thomas shoots David in the knee. Thomas, who is sort of done with the messing around, decides he’s just going to kill the couple. But Jarmo arrives – a really mad Jarmo arrives – who has tracked the couple to Thomas’ cabin. In the melee of it all, Thomas kills Jarmo by shooting him. And simultaneously, Jarmo shot Einar, the boy’s uncle. Which allowed Nadja and David escape. Nadja eventually finds Rolle’s unconscious body, and his rifle. As she is coming back to David, she sees Thomas, and his wife Mona, who we met earlier at the inn. Mona doesn’t hesitate, she shoots Nadja in the head, killing her instantly. And when David begs to be killed as well, they refused, so that he can also know what it feels like to have a loved one die, and to grieve like they did for their son.
Movie Red Dot Recommendation Walkthrough
The movie is easy to understand, once you realize that this is a family affair. That, and the fact that Rolle and Jarmo were a complete distraction. The chaos that Nadja and David had with them in the parking lot, etc., and the car scratching escalations? All of that was random, and totally irrelevant. Jarmo and Rolle had nothing to do with the deeper story happening here.
So to spell it out for the little slower among us… David and Nadja are a little distracted in their car. Meanwhile Thomas and son are having fun playing with a drone. The boy runs into the road, and is hit and killed by David. David drives off, but not before the drone captures the license. Thomas, an enraged father, enlists his wife, Mona, and Mona’s brother Einar, to go after David and Nadja. Renting a home near theirs, Thomas watches. And when the two head up into the woods for a northern lights trip, the trio decide to exact their revenge. The red dot? That was Thomas and Einar, not Rolle and Jarmo. Eventually, Nadja and David run to Einar’s cabin for safety, not realizing they were running in the wrong direction. When Thomas decides to torture them, everything goes sideways when Jarmo and Rolle accidentally arrive into the chaotic mix.
This was a feud between David and Thomas. No more. No less. The problem? David had no idea he was feuding with anyone. Nor did we either. It just sort of seemed like maybe he needed to chillax a bit. Calm down. Stop hitting stuff with his car accidentally, and not reporting it… yeah, that would be good. But ultimately, Red Dot took on the normal pattern and equation of a standard horror movie, wherein the protagonist has allowed the evil in some how. He allowed them to cross the door frame. He committed some sin of arrogance, pride, or avarice and allowed the evil in. Here, David committed a horrible sin by running over a child and not stopping. Yes, we are all capable of this particular sin. Accidentally running someone down. Horrible. Awful. We could all accidentally do this if the sun was in our eyes just right (or just wrong), or if we weren’t paying attention because our wife was giving you a bejowski. Or what have you. IT COULD HAPPEN TO ANYONE. What doesn’t happen to everyone is the compelling urge to drive away. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN TO EVERYONE. And it shouldn’t be a thing at all. David did a horrific thing in that he bailed on his moral responsibilities to get the boy help, to inform his parents, etc. He did nothing. Zero. And that was not okay. Now, should it have turned into a blood feud? No. Sort of reminds me of the movie Big Bad Wolves. Everyone in that movie was wrong. Everyone. Everyone was wrong in this movie too. Everyone. And horribly wrong. Not, whoops, ALMOST. They weren’t even playing the right game. This was a horrible movie when everything is revealed from beginning to end. I don’t know, what did you think of it?
If you are looking for other movies like this – like I said, Big Bad Wolves, or maybe Hard Candy? Oh no, better yet, The Ritual. The Lodge? No, the perfect analogy is Calibre. Done. That’s the right movie. Similar tone, similar chaos and downward spiral.
Edited by: CY
