There are many sequences that left me going, "Wait, what?"

This film may well be the last gasp of Scandi-noir for the international market...this phase of Nordic has gone from original to dutiful emulation to dreary self-parody.

What to make of a film that introduces Chlo Sevigny happily beheading chickens with an axe, has her beheaded herself by the killer, then immediately produces a twin sister to deliver a single item of exposition before never being seen again?

Alfredson does seem to prefer mood and atmosphere over clarity and coherence, but we can also blame the trio of screenwriters, Peter Straughan, Hossein Amini and Søren Sveistrup.