The Snowman is a 2017 British[2] psychological thriller film directed by Tomas Alfredson and written by Peter Straughan, Hossein Amini, and Søren Sveistrup.

The film stars Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Val Kilmer, and J. K. Simmons, and follows inspector Harry Hole as he tracks a serial killer who builds snowmen at his crime scenes.

At a remote cabin, a boy and his mother, Sarah, are visited by his abusive biological father, a police officer named Jonas.

After receiving a mysterious letter signed with a childlike drawing of a snowman, Harry meets new recruit Katrine Bratt and accompanies her investigation into the disappearance of Birte Becker, a woman with a husband and daughter.

Traveling to Bergen to investigate further, Harry runs into Rakel's new boyfriend Mathias, a cosmetic surgeon, and realizes he forgot he had promised to take Oleg on a camping trip the same day.

Katrine goes to arrest Vetlesen herself but finds him dead of a gunshot wound to the head, along with the remains of Birte Becker and another missing person, Hegen Dahl.

He invites her to his hotel room where she sets up a hidden camera but to no avail; she is attacked and drugged by a masked figure who severs a finger on her right hand.

Following a lead left behind by Katrine, Harry reinterviews Birte Becker's husband Filip and finds out he met with a hormone specialist and visiting consultant who ends up being Mathias.

In response to the negative critical reviews, Alfredson blamed the heavily condensed pre-production and rushed filming schedule, in which 10–15 per cent of the screenplay remained unfilmed.

This led to narrative problems when editing commenced: 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.

[20][21]Alfredson also stated that he had a lack of time to prepare the film properly: It happened very abruptly, suddenly we got notice that we had the money and could start the shoot in London.

[20][21]Actor Val Kilmer suffered from an enlarged tongue during filming due to recent treatment for throat cancer.

The poster, featuring a child-like drawn doodle of a snowman and a note to the police, became a popular Internet meme shortly after its release.

[29] The Snowman was panned by critics, who derided what they saw as the film's scattered and incomprehensible plot line, as well as a lack of direction for its main cast members.

The website's critical consensus reads, "A mystery that feels as mashed together and perishable as its title, The Snowman squanders its bestselling source material as well as a top-notch ensemble cast.

"[32] Variety's Guy Lodge also called the film a disappointment, saying: "If The Snowman were merely a chilly, streamlined precis of a knottier page-turner, it could stolidly pass muster.

The sad surprise here, considering how deftly Alfredson and Straughan previously navigated the far more serpentine plot machinations of a John le Carré classic [Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy], is the snowballing incoherence of proceedings.

[34] Alison Willmore of BuzzFeed News said that the film was "an inept misfire — the kind of entrancing train wreck that makes you long for a behind-the-scene tell-all to explain what, exactly, went so wrong.

[36] Geoffrey Macnab of The Independent also gave it 3/5 stars, saying that it was "a very slick slice of Scandinavian noir but one whose plot slaloms become increasingly preposterous.