The Snowman
Universal Pictures | Release Date: October 20, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
23
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
12
Negative:
27
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyOct 19, 2017
Director Tomas Alfredson and cinematographer Dion Beebe have given The Snowman a gloriously subdued look. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 12, 2017
It’s a serviceable, watchable thriller, with very gruesome images. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 19, 2017
It’s “Dragon Tattoo” complicated, without that one writer who could thin the material out, discerning between what is important and what should be treated as subtext, and cast accordingly. Read full review
45
The AtlanticChristopher OrrJan 9, 2018
Ultimately, The Snowman is that most frustrating of film types: You can picture the good movie that it might have been; it’s just not the movie that’s up on the screen. For a while, it sinks into your bones. And then it just sinks. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyDevan CogganOct 20, 2017
The Snowman is completely bereft of either style or emotion. Read full review
42
IndieWireEric KohnOct 11, 2017
Alfredson’s direction proves yawnsomely methodical, ticking off surviving plot points as though filling in some I-Spy Book of Scandinavian Crime Cliches. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczOct 19, 2017
Roll The Snowman to the top of the ever-rising mountain of lousy movies with good trailers. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonPhil de SemlyenOct 18, 2017
In short, the raw materials are there for a fun – if throwback – genre piece of the kind that kept ’90s cinema stocked with stiffs. Alas, the tension dissipates in a tangle of muddled subplots, sluggish pacing and some strange decisions from director Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). The result isn’t a Bone Collector, never mind a Se7en. Read full review
40
EmpireJonathan PileOct 12, 2017
A case of a missed opportunity. It references all the right films, but The Snowman comes off as a pale imitation. Read full review
40
Total FilmMatt MaytumOct 12, 2017
All the signs pointed to a hit chiller: great cast, a director with fantastic form and a celebrated Jo Nesbø novel to draw from. So it’s a huge shame, then, that The Snowman is a bit grey and slushy when it should have been cool and crisp. Read full review
40
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganOct 11, 2017
Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series is comprised of page-turning, airport-blockbuster Scandi crime potboilers; Alfredson scorches the seventh, The Snowman, with such art-house intensity that it eventually melts into an exhausted puddle. Read full review
40
VarietyGuy LodgeOct 11, 2017
There’s a lot happening on the surface of Alfredson’s perplexing winter wonder-why, but considerably less going on inside. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonOct 11, 2017
For all its high-caliber talent mix, The Snowman is a largely pedestrian affair, turgid and humorless in tone. The cast share zero screen chemistry, much of the dialogue feels like a clunky first draft and the wearily familiar plot is clogged with clumsy loose ends. Read full review
39
IGNWilliam BibbianiOct 19, 2017
The Snowman is a detective vs. serial killer thriller devoid of any thrills. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshOct 20, 2017
A jumbled nonsensical mess. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldOct 19, 2017
Sometimes, all the pieces are there, but it just isn’t worth putting the puzzle together. Such is the case with Tomas Alfredson’s The Snowman. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyOct 19, 2017
To top off all of the ineffective weirdness, the movie ends on a tone-deaf “got a sequel if you want it” note. Read full review
33
ConsequenceBlake GobleOct 20, 2017
The end result is a finished product which smacks of Universal optioning a hot Scandi novel, losing enthusiasm for it during development and production, and leaving audiences with the remaining carrots and coal. Read full review
30
UproxxAmy NicholsonDec 4, 2017
There’s a frozen loogie at the heart of The Snowman. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghOct 19, 2017
The Snowman is like if aliens studied humanity and tried to make their own movie in an attempt to communicate with us. This simulacrum contains all the requisite pieces of a movie, but humanity got lost in translation. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 21, 2017
Apparently, someone turned up the heat because The Snowman is a sloppy mess. Read full review
25
Rolling StoneDavid FearOct 20, 2017
Well, it's a little confusing. And slightly incoherent in terms of how it lays out the book's narrative about a serial killer who is targeting mothers and whose calling card is a snowman. And sort of not very good overall. It's bad. Read full review
25
The Film StageDan MeccaOct 19, 2017
Something happened here, and the full story of the making of this movie will surely be far more interesting than the movie itself. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 19, 2017
An awkward, needlessly dark, atrocious mess whose visual tics courtesy of director Tomas Alfredson amount to, basically, snow. So. Much. Snow. Shockingly, a fetish for the white stuff in no way overcomes any clunky narrative obstacles here – and they are legion. Read full review
25
New York PostSara StewartOct 19, 2017
This adaptation is so sloggy it feels like wading through thigh-deep snowfall, stained scarlet from all the gratuitous gore. Read full review
25
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonOct 19, 2017
The Snowman is reminder that movies are hard to make, highly collaborative, often chaotic, and hundreds of things can go wrong. Here, everything did. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineJake ColeOct 19, 2017
The Snowman is missing so much basic connective tissue as to be rendered almost completely inexplicable. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeOct 19, 2017
The film, a slow-motion car crash of a cinematic mishap featuring terrible performances from normally good actors and a bafflingly half-baked script, delivers tenfold on the poster’s promise. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 19, 2017
The Snowman is ugly and nasty, but that’s not the worst of it. The worst is that it’s boring and makes no sense. Read full review
25
TheWrapJason SolomonsOct 11, 2017
The glaring inadequacies of The Snowman are the only things shocking about it. Harry Hole’s film career could not have gotten off to a more inauspicious start. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 25, 2017
Despite the game cast and some marvelously atmospheric cinematography from Oscar-winning DP Dion Beebe, The Snowman is a slog. Read full review
20
Paste MagazineWill LeitchOct 20, 2017
The real problem with The Snowman is that no one involved seems to understand how movies work. There is no setup, no character development, no suspense, no mystery, no suspects, no payoff. Read full review
20
ScreenCrushMatt SingerOct 19, 2017
The Snowman Killer is one of those ludicrous movie bad guys who is both supernaturally smart and conveniently stupid. Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 11, 2017
The Snowman goes wrong quickly, permanently, and in a spiral, turning into a nonsensical nightmare of Scandi-noir howlers from which you sometimes feel you may never awaken. Read full review
10
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 23, 2017
I figured the film would have an off-the-charts creepy quotient (the novel is chilling) and gobs of atmosphere. I could never have predicted it would turn out to be such a shambles. Read full review
10
VoxAlissa WilkinsonOct 19, 2017
Watching The Snowman keeps you so thoroughly occupied with trying to figure out why the movie itself exists that all other questions become irrelevant. Read full review
10
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 19, 2017
A leaden, clotted, exasperating mess. Read full review
10
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 19, 2017
A wretched waste of time and talent. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedOct 24, 2017
A benign thriller that fails to thrill is like a wet match that fails to light: frustrating and pointless. Read full review
0
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthOct 19, 2017
With some films, you can tell where one or two things went wrong — perhaps a decision in script, or a performance that’s off base — but The Snowman is the rare movie where for every choice, there was a better way to go. Read full review
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