Red Dot Parent Guide

After a good start to their relationship, Nadja (Nanna Blondell) and David (Anastasios Soulis) have hit a rough patch. David’s job is stressful and demands long hours, while Nadja feels unfairly stuck with the housework on top of her studies. Things are so bad that Nadja hasn’t even told her husband that she’s pregnant.

Realizing the marriage needs a boost, David plans a romantic retreat with a weekend of skiing and hiking in remote northern Sweden, camping out under the Northern Lights. A chance encounter with some dangerous hunters out on the road seems to add a new level of risk to a cold weather trip – but more dangerous is a dark secret from the couple’s past which has finally caught up to them.

Let me share my perspective as someone who has gone camping in a Canadian winter: it’s a terrible experience. Do you like waking up every half hour in the night because your body is trying to make sure you’re still alive? Do you like constantly chopping firewood to keep warm? How do you feel about sleeping in a tent during a blizzard at -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit)? This is an awful idea for a romantic retreat. If anything, it’s grounds for immediate divorce.

Not that the troubling issues stop with the premise. Red Dot features a whole bunch of profanity and some remarkably upsetting violence. Anything that involves torturing and decapitating a dog, even if most of that happens off-screen, is a bridge too far for most audiences. If that’s not bad enough, there’s a stomach-churning scene where a man is encouraged to perform an abortion with a hand drill which, mercifully, he doesn’t. On top of that, the movie features the usual horror/thriller classics - shootings, bear traps, kids getting hit by cars… that kind of thing. This isn’t exactly what I’d describe as a pleasant viewing experience. Now, that might be the point for a horror flick, but it doesn’t make it any more endearing.

I always hate these roadside maniac/torture-porn movies. They’re stressful and deeply unpleasant. There are so many less gruesome avenues which are just as scary and involve a lot less mess. Frozen and remote hellscapes are the setting for some of my favorite horror movies – flicks like The Lodge or The Shining. Your mileage may vary, but I think I’d rather do go camping in February than watch this again.