When you don't see certain things coming and you know that the writing has outsmarted you, you've got to admit checkmate from them towards you. An international cast of mostly Swedish and British actors gives stunning performances in this film that while often slow uses that pacing to bring you in subtly and by the time you realize that you are hooked, you are far too stunned to remember even being briefly bored.
It's a cold and windy atmosphere for the setting of a mental health hospital and its surroundings where a patient escapes and seeks revenge on those they blame for their being locked up. The cast includes the terrific Max Von Sydow as the mental patient who escapes in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt in the frigid cold, managing to get back yet find his way out again and again.
Liv Ullman and Per Oscarsson are members of the targeted family and Trevor Howard is the local inspector investigating the case, frazzled by the hints that someone has made their way through the very secure building and down the tall walls. But how Von Sydow does it is ingenious as we see through the game he plays of chess with the elderly caretaker and how he manipulates his way out.
As the credits are in Swedish, it's obvious that this was filmed both in Swedish and English, the actors really deserve credit for keeping it fresh and chilling. Everyone is very understated so this is one of those thrillers with aspects of a horror film that makes the viewer think about every move as if it was a chess game. Von Sydow's board is quite unique. The thriller part is in watching Von Sydow make his next move, and the horror comes from guessing what he's going to do when he arrives.
It's a cold and windy atmosphere for the setting of a mental health hospital and its surroundings where a patient escapes and seeks revenge on those they blame for their being locked up. The cast includes the terrific Max Von Sydow as the mental patient who escapes in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt in the frigid cold, managing to get back yet find his way out again and again.
Liv Ullman and Per Oscarsson are members of the targeted family and Trevor Howard is the local inspector investigating the case, frazzled by the hints that someone has made their way through the very secure building and down the tall walls. But how Von Sydow does it is ingenious as we see through the game he plays of chess with the elderly caretaker and how he manipulates his way out.
As the credits are in Swedish, it's obvious that this was filmed both in Swedish and English, the actors really deserve credit for keeping it fresh and chilling. Everyone is very understated so this is one of those thrillers with aspects of a horror film that makes the viewer think about every move as if it was a chess game. Von Sydow's board is quite unique. The thriller part is in watching Von Sydow make his next move, and the horror comes from guessing what he's going to do when he arrives.