A Masterpiece!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

A Swedish schoolgirl has been killed, and she's just good looking enough to make people care. Who is the culprit? Nobody knows. Could it be the local dodgy geezer? Quite possibly, but also possibly not. Whatever the case, the authorities are convinced of his guilt.Can Detective Erik Bäckström reach the truth of this mystery before the police send an innocent man to prison? Will Niklas finally give up his obsession? Who cleaned out the hunting cottage of the local police chief? Why is Torsten such a dick?I rate Jägarna II at 26.64 on the Haglee Scale, which works out as a chilling 8/10 on IMDB.

FALSE TRAIL (aka HUNTERS 2) is a Swedish cop film set in the redneck- like rural part of the country where bad rock music, check shirts and alcoholism are the height of cool. When a girl is murdered a city cop from Stockholm is sent back to his rural home, where it turns out that his (widowed) sister is law is married to the local top-cop, who also happens to be city cop's prime suspect. Things are kept nicely murky for quite a while, with the protagonist's suspicions often seeming more like prejudice than fact, as the investigation twists and turns. At a certain point it becomes not so much a question of whodunnit but rather of whether the protagonist can actually pin the murder on the criminal as they brilliantly cover their tracks. Similar to many other Scandi films, this is as much a drama as a genre film, with it offering a compellingly brutal portrayal of controlling manhood. The countryside is gorgeously shot, it's packed with good actors (Stomare's beard deserves its own credit), the rural setting is unusual and atmospheric, and it slowly builds up the pace until it comes to a shatteringly savage Cain-and-Abel type finale in the woods.

There's been 15 years since the first "Jegerne" ("The Hunters), and it's very understandable that there was to be a follow up many years later. This is the finest of thrillers made by the Swedes. Kjell Sundvall has directed both, and that's probably why both th first and the second is almost equally good. The story is different, of course, but the feel and the tension is the same. The film never slips when it comes to make a tense feeling.This is the most true of sequels. We meet the same people 15 years later, where a policeman's family was involved in a murder. All these years later he is ordered back, after a young girl has gone missing.Both films is kept in the same tone. This is brilliantly done. It makes a kind of rural tension. Somewhere where bans between village people are so tight that no one dares speak up. We're in the rural North of Sweden, where hunting is an everyday event. The film depicts the nature and landscape in a beautiful way, and weaves this into the story.We feel the tension all along, and this tension is what makes the films such a treat. The actors are great, where both Rolf Lassgård and Peter Stormare are as good here as in the first. Fine actors. The first film was never forgotten. Not even outside of Sweden. That's why many also was drawn to this continuation many years later. It could've all gone wrong, this follow up. It doesn't, due to fine script writing, great acting, good instruction as well as the Swedish nature.

Jägarna 2 is a pleasant example of famous Swedish crime thrillers: a gloomy policeman with personal issues, slow pace of events, crimes/misdemeanors related to closed societies, long frames of magnificent local nature. However, I could guess the evildoer's person rather soon and, in my submission, he could have been disclosed at the later stage or even in the very beginning. The two leading actors - Rolf Lassgård and Peter Stormare - are great; I think, for me it is the first film with Stormare performing in his native language. The other actors are good as well, but not very catchy, especially the female ones. Moreover, the film could have been shorter and with more sophisticated ending, but still: it is recommended to those fond of Scandinavian Wallander and Beck types of thrillers.