Even The Snowman‘s Director Thinks The Snowman Is Bad

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Even The Snowman‘s Director Thinks The Snowman Is Bad

No one likes The Snowman … not even its director, Tomas Alfredson.

The forthcoming crime thriller, adapted from Jo Nesbø’s novel of the same name and starring Michael Fassbender as a detective who’s hot on the trail of a very silly serial killer, has already been reviled across every corner of the internet: The film is currently sitting at a piteous 16 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (just six percentage points above The Emoji Movie), it’s being savaged on social media, and now even Alfredson has joined the dogpile on his own film.

Speaking to Norway’s NRK (via Vulture), Alfredson said, “Our shoot time in Norway was way too short. We didn’t get the whole story with us and when we started cutting we discovered that a lot was missing.” The director estimated that 10-15 percent of what he wanted to shoot was ultimately left out of the film, adding, “It’s like when you’re making a big jigsaw puzzle and a few pieces are missing so you don’t see the whole picture.”

Alfredson also noted that the film’s production got off on the wrong foot: “It happened very abruptly—suddenly we got notice that we had the money and could start the shoot in London.” But for all his filmgoer-repelling honesty, Alfredson made it crystal clear that he wouldn’t hear any nitpicks about the film’s geographical inaccuracies (because of course it has those, too). “It’s not a documentary about the geography of Norway,” the director said. “I wanted to make a fictive thriller. So even if not everything is geographically correct, I don’t give a shit.”

Alfredson is an objectively talented director, with a pair of gems on his resume in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Let the Right One In, so it’s a shame The Snowman didn’t come together the way he’d envisioned. Here’s hoping the director’s next film is one he’ll actually be proud to promote.

The Snowman arrives in U.S. theaters tomorrow, Oct. 20. Subject yourself to the trailer below, but only if you really deserve it.

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