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@picturesinflow
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Black Crab (Svart Krabba) is a Swedish action thriller film about a country left almost beaten in a war and with their last option deployed, will they even manage to beat out the odds at the end. I found it in the deep library of Netflix of foreign films, offering at times more interesting stories (not in only Netflix foreign films, but all foreign films in particular) than their more popular American counterpart. Black Crab is a solidly made film in almost every aspect. Beautiful cinematography, unnerving atmosphere, interesting characters and much more can be said for this one, and with little to no expectations attached to it, it doesn’t need to reach any grandeur heights. One letdown would be that the plot outgrew the film and sadly, many films try to do particularly just that, I do understand why, but if it’s not needed or done badly then it’s plainly better to leave it out.
Let’s start off with the good and that would be atmosphere and cinematography. Being set in the absolutely freezing cold of Sweden with a slight but noticeable blue tint over everything is great and adds to the already overwhelming dire situation. Adding to that would be the frozen over ocean and how calming, and at the same time, how dangerous it can be, each light source can become the thing that ultimately ends you. Just like in the film Wind River (with Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen) and how due to the abundance of snow each person with full camouflage or with a white cloth over him/her can just become invisible was unnerving. The same thing is true in Black Crab and that is you need to watch where you’re going, but at the same time hope that there is nothing watching back.
Overall story is set up and plays off great with a divisive main plot point. In the midst of being overrun by attacking forces a squad of highly trained soldiers, and with all of them being perfect for this specific job, are sent to deliver a package to a faraway place. Now, if it was just them traversing forests and villages it would have worked too thanks to their specific world views and previous experience, but they have to traverse the ocean by skiing. The ice is very fragile, you are in the wide open just begging to be shot by a sniper, each bigger sound can be heard from a very far range, each of these specifics up the ante and will test each character’s nerves.
Thanks to it being a slow film and with just a few characters we get to know how each one thinks and how they react when something comes up. Their psyches quickly break down giving way to something primal and that is the urge to survive no matter what, even if it means sacrificing someone. Thanks to the urgency that the film creates, they have to be on the run almost at all times. From time to time, they get a few moments to rest but before you can really catch their breath, before something that requires fast reactions and, on the moment, critical thinking has to happen, and with less and less time to rest, that becomes something hard to achieve.
Black Crab is a great film nonetheless in almost every aspect, but for me, in the last half-hour it transforms into something that it shouldn’t have. Stakes are high as it is, tension is breathtaking at times and the onset of immediate urgency is rapid, a dire but fun 2-hour adventure through the frozen landscapes of Sweden. I do recommend it either way even with me not liking the end, it’s still a fun ride.
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