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Black Lake
Series 2 Title Card
Original title	Svartsjön
Genre	Thriller
Created by	Ulf Kvensler
Written by	Ulf Kvensler Moa Herngren Peter Arrhenius Jonathan Sjöberg Richard Jarnhed Per Simonsson Peter Lindblom Lovisa Milles
Directed by	Jonathan Sjöberg David Berron Richard Jarnhed Per Simonsson
Starring	Filip Berg Sarah-Sofie Boussnina Mathilde Norholt Philip Oros Aliette Opheim Valter Skarsgård Anna Åström Victor von Schirach Hedda Stiernstedt Daniel Larsson David Nzinga Bahar Pars Alida Morberg André Eriksen
Country of origin	Sweden
Original languages	Swedish Danish Norwegian
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	16 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Mikael Newihl
Producers	Emma Nyberg Lotta Westberg
Cinematography	Johan Helmer
Running time	45 minutes approx.
Production company	Jarowskij
Original release
Network	TV3 (Denmark) TV3 (Sweden) TV3 (Norway)
Release	20 October 2016 (2016-10-20) – present

Black Lake (Swedish: Svartsjön) is a Scandinavian thriller television series, devised by Ulf Kvensler and co-produced by TV3 Sverige, TV3 Danmark, TV3 Norge, Viaplay, and Jarowskij, that first broadcast in Sweden and Denmark in October 2016. The first eight-part series, which also alludes to hints of the supernatural and horror genres, is based around a disused ski resort in the north of Sweden, and was written by Kvensler, Moa Herngren, Peter Arrhenius, and Jonathan Sjöberg, and directed by Sjöberg and David Berron. The first series broadcast on BBC Four in the United Kingdom from 16 September to 7 October 2017, with two episodes broadcast back-to-back each week. The first series was later released on Region 2 DVD on 9 October 2017.

A second series was announced in 2017, serving as a prequel to the first. The main characters were Filip Berg, returning from the first series, joined by Hedda Stiernstedt, Daniel Larsson, David Nzinga, Bahar Pars and Alida Morberg. The second series follows Johan (Berg) as he and five other participants take place in a rehabilitation programme on the island of Kallskär. The second series broadcast in Sweden and Denmark from October 2018, followed by a BBC Four broadcast commencing on 29 December 2018. A Region 2 DVD release has been set for 18 March 2019.

Plot

Series 1 (2016)

Johan takes his brother and six friends to the north of Sweden because he is thinking of purchasing a disused ski hotel close to the border with Norway. It never officially opened because a family of four was murdered in the hotel's cellar shortly before it was due to open twenty years earlier. Johan's girlfriend, Hanne, who suffers long-term guilt over the death of her younger brother, quickly comes to believe that the building is possessed by the spirit of a dead child (a myling). At the same time, the surly caretaker, Erkki, is trying to scare them away from the property, with assistance from two Norwegian brothers who run a nearby snowmobile business. Having accepted Johan's marriage proposal, Hanne becomes friendly with Jostein, the younger of the brothers.

Hanne has found a series of child's drawings and these seem to become reality during the stay. Sami words written on paper and walls around the hotel mean "kill or be killed". The group holds a seance where the ghost of a boy named Mikkel seems to be trying to contact them. Jessan, one of the women, gets a red eye, and starts to behave strangely. Hanne speaks to the detective who investigated the first murders. He tells her that he thinks Helgesen, the resort's previous owner, was not convinced he had done the killings despite confessing to the crime. When Jessan tries to kill her boyfriend, Frank, she is subdued and tied up. Hanne discovers from talking to her that Jessan has been having nightmares. Jessan then discovers her bindings have become loose and hides in the toilet. When the police break down the door, she is found dead with a frozen scream on her face.

Osvald, who is secretly dating Johan's brother, gets a red eye and disappears in the cellar. Hanne finds the cellar door open and goes in to investigate, but is attacked and has to flee from the unseen attacker. In the cellar, she finds a secret room that contains medical files, relating to an earlier period when the hotel was a sanatorium. Hanne, her sister Mette, and Frank decide to leave, but Hanne thinks she sees a child in the road, and grabs the steering wheel, causing the vehicle to crash. Lippi is injured in the cellar after finding Osvald's dead body there. Mette, who is a doctor, returns just in time to save Lippi. Meanwhile, Elin, an old flame of Johan's, has a red eye and starts to walk around in a trance. Under the influence of the "kill or be killed" words, she strangles Lippi. When Johan finds her bracelet and realises she has killed his brother, he strangles her to death.

Mette discovers that Erkki wants them gone because he has allowed Dag and Jostein to use part of the cellar for growing cannabis. Johan and Frank confront the brothers, but Dag stabs Johan and slits Frank's throat. When he attempts to kill Hanne, Jostein shoots Dag dead. Hanne walks into the mountains and communes with her dead brother, Jacob. During another seance, Hanne is attacked by something and gets a red eye. All three go to Erkki's house. He eventually admits that he and his half-brother Mikkel lived with their doctor father at the sanatorium. Erkki's mother was a Sami who had a relationship with his father. But because he believed in Aryan superiority he saw Erkki as belonging to an inferior race. After Erkki beat his brother in a fight, his angry father strangled Mikkel for being weak.

After returning to the hotel, Hanne notices that one of the child's drawings shows the bed in the cellar's secret room with a space underneath. Climbing under the floor, she recovers the body of Mikkel. Before they can give the body respectful funeral rites, Erkki stops them. Johan, who now has a red eye, has survived the stabbing; he returns and shoots Erkki. However, outside the cellar Hanne kills Johan when he attempts to kill Jostein. Hanne, Mette and Jostein burn Mikkel's body on a traditional funerary pyre. They then pack their things and leave. However, on the drive back to civilisation, Jostein removes his sunglasses to reveal he now has a red eye.

Cast

• Filip Berg as Johan Cedar; a wealthy Swedish businessman; Hanne's boyfriend (Series 1) and participant of the rehabilitation programme (Series 2)

Series 1 (2016)

• Sarah-Sofie Boussnina as Hanne; a young Danish woman, still haunted by the death of her younger brother in a boating accident many years ago
• Mathilde Norholt as Mette; Hanne's older sister, a doctor
• Philip Oros as Frank; a friend of Johan's
• Aliette Opheim as Jessan; Frank's new girlfriend
• Valter Skarsgård as Lippi Ceder; Johan's younger brother
• Anna Åström as Elin Hubinette; an old flame of Johan's
• Victor von Schirach as Osvald; a friend of Johan's, in a secret relationship with Lippi
• Odin Waage as Jostein; a local Norwegian
• Anderz Eide as Dag; Jostein's older brother
• Nils Ole Oftebro as Erkki; the resort's caretaker
• Henrik Schyffert as Broman; a retired detective living nearby who investigated the Helgesen murders
• Christian Skolmen as Helgesen; the former owner of the resort, who supposedly murdered a family there

Series 2 (2018)

• Hedda Stiernstedt as Minnie Karlsson; a single mother fighting for custody of her daughter
• Daniel Larsson as Oscar Leander; a former participant of the programme, returning to participate for a second year
• David Nzinga as Vincent Manucho; an ex-con recently released from prison following a two-year sentence
• Bahar Pars as Amina Herlitz; a recovering sex addict and adulterer
• Alida Morberg as Isabelle 'Bella' Berglund; a former employee-turned-participant of the programme
• André Eriksen as Uno Lejon; leader of the Kallskär rehabilitation programme
• Ester Uddén as Agnes Linder; Uno's assistant and second-in-command
• Anja Landgré as Gittan Manheim; childhood inhabitant of Kallskär
• Valter Skarsgård as Lippi Ceder; Johan's younger brother (brief appearance)
• Anna Åström as Elin Hubinette (brief appearance)

Episodes

Series 1 (2016)

Series 2 (2018)

Reception

Karolina Fjellborg of Aftonbladet wrote that she felt that the characters in the first series were "predictable" and that the series "added nothing to the horror genre", but that she enjoyed Henrik Schyffert's performance and that his casting as the police officer Broman was an "inspired decision". She concluded that the series could "work for younger viewers who might be unaffected by the series' lack of originality".

References

1. Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor, BBC Four (31 March 2017). "Four acquires new Swedish thriller Black Lake - Media Centre". BBC. Retrieved 30 April 2017. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
2. digiguideTV (5 September 2017). "BBC 4 HD Listings for Saturday 16th September". digiguideTV. Archived from the original on 5 September 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
3. "Black Lake (Svartsjon) [DVD]". Amazon. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
4. Paul Hirons (5 October 2017). "Series two of Black Lake will be prequel". The Killing Times. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
5. "BBC Four - Black Lake, Series 2". BBC. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
6. "Black Lake: Season 2 [BBC] [DVD]". Amazon. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
7. Barney Harsent (8 October 2017). "Black Lake, Series Finale, BBC Four review – Nordic noir comes to an unsatisfying end". theartsdesk.com.
8. ^ "Weekly Top 30 Programmes". BARB. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
9. "Recension: Snövitt snygga men klyschiga "Svartsjön" funkar bäst för en ung och grön publik". TV-Koll. 19 October 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2019.

External links

• Black Lake at IMDb 

• Swedish crime television series
• Television shows set in Sweden
• 2016 Swedish television series debuts
• Swedish-language television shows
• Multilingual television series