FrightFest 2009: Millennium review

It begins with Robbie Williams’ hit-single belting over the credits…

Nah, it’s not that kind of film.

Millennium: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a bleak, uncompromising murder mystery, its gripping investigative sequences punctuated by gruelling executions that remain stapled to the back of your eyelids.

Part thriller, part horror movie, almost a Swedish giallo but not quite, this magnificent movie is hard to categorise – and yet it’s our tip to become the new Let The Right One In , a genre film that transcends genre to announce itself as a must-see mainstream hit.

Based on Stieg Larsson’s bestselling novel, Millennium opens with disgraced financial journalist Mikael (Michael Nyqvist) landing a strange-but-enticing assignment: to dig into the disappearance of a teen heiress.

Why so strange? Because the heiress disappeared 40 years ago and the man paying the cheques to reopen the case is her uncle, Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube), an ageing patriarch who suspects foul play from somewhere within his fractured, odious dynasty.

It is sponsored by – and will be introduced by – Total Film. To get tickets for Millennium or any of the other 30-odd horror movies showing at FrightFest, go to http://www.frightfest.co.uk/tickets.html

Editor-at-Large, Total Film

Jamie Graham is the Editor-at-Large of Total Film magazine. You'll likely find them around these parts reviewing the biggest films on the planet and speaking to some of the biggest stars in the business – that's just what Jamie does. Jamie has also written for outlets like SFX and the Sunday Times Culture, and appeared on podcasts exploring the wondrous worlds of occult and horror.