User reviews

SHADOW ISLAND tells the story of a Swedish meteorologist who barely remembers his father due to apparent suicide who, based on instinct and newly discovered evidence, decides to investigate what his dad was doing on a small secluded island on his last assignment. Once there, he finds a lot more than expected.

There was enough material here to turn this into a top notch thriller. The movie had genuinely unexpected twists and turns, and ultimately an interesting plot, but somehow it all added up to less than than the sum of its parts.

Early scenes in which a background radio mentions the accession of Sweden to NATO due to Russian aggression against Ukraine foreshadow that eventually the story will take on a geopolitical dimension, but even that ultimately serves just as background for a tale of unexpected family connections.

The criticism at the shortsightedness of each generation of people who do the dirty work for their governments, and thereby burden the next generation with painful memories and guilt is right on point.

So the film does a lot of things right. However, the dreamy filming style with flashbacks, flash forwards and dream sequences does not really mesh well with the plot as it sucks out most of the tension and suspense. Also, there is a slightly confusing point on whether the story alleges that the Swedish government or just a Swedish rogue group was secretly cooperating with Russia to spy on NATO. Finally, the assassination scene at the end leaves the movie on a weak note, since it is not entirely clear whether it succeeded and the assassin was unexpectedly clumsy, apparently.

All in all, a thriller that fell short of its potential.

Two weeks ago, I saw Cold Skin: about a British guy going to live/ study on an island where he finds a crazy lighthouse guy and "creatures".

That was interesting and not too bad.

THIS was about the same in quality.

Only all too human are the monsters. Too human & close to home. This has subtitles but any horror fan avoiding films for THAT reason its time to get used to them!! You're missing on an absolute mammoth amount of cool international fare! Having said that, some aren't as memorable as the best Swedish German, Korean etc horrors.

I can usually rely on the Swedish to have a unique simple story at first, only to grow into wildly crazy adventures with great acting, cinematography, music to create a weird oddly creepy horror. Even their action is great. Think Tattoos Girl films.

The setting is lovely like beaches are!

This one is ALL business about a meteorologist (David) who followed in his much exalted father's footsteps. He's headed to an island that has apparently only one other resident; the lady lighthouse keeper.

There's also a father figure named Björn and he along with our David's mother keep trying to avoid too much focus on the father curious death. There's a well done, if immediate relationship w coupling of David and Sarah (the lighthouse lady) and books with Cyrillic writing that his father left him. Theres a mystery and there are places to find as the film becomes increasingly more tense. Its well done if totally out of nowhere. Perhaps I missed the technical storyline bread crumbs that lead to a culmination of discoveries. I'm sure I did. I think for some this will be a slow burn without a big enough payoff but it WAS ENOUGH for me. Its a pretty good story. I feel like we've seen these tropes before BUT at the same the ending is pure SWEDISH WINTER!!

DARK & depressing....well not to ALL veiwers. Its better than so much content on Prime.

I thought the realistic portrayal of text-addicted teen girls not knowing the first clue about survival from mindless, heartless, motiveless killer was actually smart.

TOO MANY movies with a mostly female cast tend to turn the girls into Rambo or some more mature capable version of who we were introduced to; its unearned.

The first part I thought was really well done as cell phones may one day be seen as sinister as far as apps go. And in THIS FILM the phones cameras etc are all taken away by the psychologist adult woman running this GETAWAY PROGRAM RIVERBOAT& CAMPING trip (for internet addicted teens). We even see one girl do an ista-cyber-bully move as she records how another girl does her hair. Bully!! LOL If NO TECH RULE hadn't been part of this program they are in- I'm sure that service wouldn't be there anyway. That's what EVERY OTHER film does to remove the usefulness of cell phones in emergencies. But once they set up camp things go from unsettling when 2 methhead hicks/ murderers lay anchor right beside their cruiser boat, to terrifying in good speed.

I could not believe the adult left after seeing what was/who in that boat! Let alone leave ALL the girls alone for most of the day to leave fix the ailing vessel. THEN TRUST ppl she shouldnt to give her a tow. Yeah people ofyen ignore their instincts when their inconvenienced AT OUR PERIL!!

Sure if the methheads are with HER they cant possibly hurt the girls so WHY not?! Wow.

They are in a much faster vessel and of course they show their work to the girls so there's no doubt that the ONE adult is not useful. This is when the annoying screaming begins. I realise its trying to show how horrified they'd be but they all made SO MUCH noise that half of them caused their own fates. I liked the explanation for the girlfriend of the mansonish ex-con. It made more sense she was turned into a wraith. Meth teeth were well established. I was mostly annoyed with the girls screaming but then I overall was tense enough despite there being 40 of this type of seek & destroy campers/ hikers/ car breakdown victims horror.

If you dont watch lots of these THIS MAY really creep you out! Also never scream while running!! And shhhhhhh.

No pun intended - and I had to really think about that one to be honest. Well who am I kidding? Most of the puns are sort of intended. Anyway back to the movie that has a son looking for answers - answers concerning his father and what he was working on (or for?). He even risks his marriage and his job and lies to people near to him to go to an island ... well he finds quite a lot of things there.

Apart from items and maybe some answers .. also living things. Living things that we would call human of course. A woman to be more precise is one of the first he gets in contact with. And well they are both good looking ... but that will not take too much away from the movie and the story ... it will actually add to the story - more layers, more secrets to be uncovered.

It is best to watch this without much knowledge - so you discover most of it alongside our main characters ... and there is much to discover ...