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Cool down with Michael Fassbender and the murderous trailer for ‘The Snowman’

It’s been roughly six years since we heard from Tomas Alfredson, the brilliant cinematic mind behind such classics as the original Let the Right One In and the 2011 adaptation of John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and he’s been sorely missed by cinephiles the world over. Today, that silence is broken, as he’s returned with a new film, an adaption of Jo Nesbø’s The Snowman, and even though the trailer kind of sucks we’re excited to see what he’ll do with it.

Yes, that’s right: We didn’t really like this trailer, and we’ll explain why that doesn’t mean very much in this specific case right after you watch it:

See, there’s some great little touches there — we really like the pairing of Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Ferguson for one, and touches of Alfredson’s chilly and interesting style pop up here and there, especially in the last shot of the decapitated man with the snowball on his head — but we don’t really think this captures the aesthetic of the movie all that well, or it’s an attempt by the studio to try and bait and switch the Halloween audience into seeing it around then.

There’s a lot of movies that have this specific problem that are normally saved by creative advertising. Remember how crazy that first teaser for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was? This is the bland opposite of that, and it’s kind of reminiscent of how Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners was advertised back in 2013, where everybody thought that looked like dogshit until we walked into the theater and discovered otherwise.

Anyways, we don’t think this is a really bad look for the film, but it’s sort of unappealing generic coming from such a fascinating filmmaker. Who knows what it’ll end up being?

Here’s a synopsis from Tribute.ca: Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) is the lead detective of an elite crime squad that’s investigating the disappearance of a woman whose pink scarf is mysteriously found wrapped around an ominous-looking snowman. While uncovering information about the case, he begins to suspect that an elusive serial killer may be at work again. He comes to the realization that if he wants to prevent another murder from occurring before the next snowfall, he’ll have to connect decades-old killings.

The Snowman hits theaters October 20.