An LP nightmare playing at low volume and blinding light even in the middle of the night. Stellan Skarsgard is a Swedish police detective who is called in the Arctic Circle to assist the Norwegian authorities who are investigating the murder of a young girl. During the time of the year that there is constant light even at nighttime, he becomes more and more sleepless, tired and at times hallucinating. In the beginning of his stay disoriented by the light and fog he shoots a police colleague dead. Self perseverance takes over and he decides to cover his guilt. For the remaining of the story he hunts down the killer of the girl making sure that he is not blamed himself for the homicide he committed. Somehow, he is able to succeed although another local detective probably suspects what it transpired.

Chilling murder mystery with a phenomenally subtle lead performance from Stellan Skarsgård. Norwegian director Erik Skjoldbjærg's Nordic noir mystery thriller Insomnia (1997) is haunting. I found the original just as eerie, atmospheric, psychological, and compelling as Christopher Nolan's underrated 2002 remake with Al Pacino and Robin Williams. Skjoldbjærg's direction is captivating with heavy fog enshrouding the detective all around Norway. The piercing white light of the endless Winter there and the isolating locale is all disquieting. The fog chase is thrilling and frightening like the disgusting conversations of a killer's fondness for underrage and vulnerable women. Insomnia will linger within you. Writers Erik Skjoldbjærg and Nikolaj Frobenius craft a stark depiction of a detective without ethics or morals anymore after all the murders he's seen. Having his lack of sleep affect his daily decisions and make his look progressively more worn until Stellan resembles a dead man by the ending is brilliant. Insomnia is all the more chilling covered in fog and evil choices in the distant shores of Norway, away from humanity. It's truly like the serial killer and the hardened detective are very similar men, interested in young women, blaming accidents and the girl's weakness, and willing to cover up any crime to protect themselves. Insomnia is a chilling tale. Editor Håkon Øverås cuts so carefully within scenes to give a dreamlike quality to each encounter. Cinematographer Erling Thurmann-Andersen shoots beautiful, icy blue wide shots of Norway to make each scene especially isolating for Stellan. How he gently pans across vast mountains and lakes or eerily lingers on Stellan eyeing a young girl is so unsettling. Insomnia is a gripping 96 minutes of shots of uneasy faces, awkward encounters, and uncomfortable conversations. Production designer Eli Bø's near empty and all white rooms make for really dissonant sets for an even creepier setting. Special effects Pål Morten Hverven makes creepy corpses, dead animals, and a foggy world all the scarier. The glowing blue eyes for Stellan in the last shot are particularly cool and haunting. Stunt choreographer Dag Eliassen makes the wooden falls or watery grave fall haunting moments within Insomnia. Swedish acting legend Stellan Skarsgård is incredibly nuanced as sleepless detective Jonas Engström. His haunted eyes show nervousness and doubt, but he also moves with determination. You can tell he wants to catch this serial killer, but Stellan plays Engström with a creepy fetish with young women, making him all the closer to the killer. Stellan is a master of subtle dramatic acting and he feels constantly paranoid, drained, inquisitive, and dangerous. You never know how far he'll go. Norwegian actor Sverre Anker Ousdal is charming as the amiable policeman Erik Vik. Bjørn Floberg is genuinely disturbing as the coldhearted serial killer Jon Holt. His deadpan manner, taunting jests, unsettling confessions, and detached manner all make him one of cinema's scariest villains. Norwegian actress Gisken Armand is interesting as fellow detective Hilde Hagen, who is always suspicious of Stellan with her expressive face. Swedish-Norwegian actress Maria Bonnevie is adorable and lovely as the welcoming innkeeper Ane. Bjørn Moan is sort of suspicious, but also just a regular guy as Eilert. He never really feels bad that Tanja has been murdered. Maria Mathiesen is eerie and sympathetic in her appearances as the murdered young girl Tanja Lorentzen. Norwegian actress Marianne O. Ulrichsen is fascinating as the scared, nervous, lustful, jealous, and panicked Frøya. I felt real sympathy for her in this awful scenario. Kristian Figenschow is amiable as the nice other officer Arne Zakariassen. Frode Rasmussen is pleasant as the unsuspecting Norwegian Chief of Police. Composer Geir Jenssen wields musical notes like knives in the dark. His chilling film score imbues Insomnia with an eerie atmosphere that keeps you on edge the entire time. Sound designers Randall Meyers, Erik S. Watland, Petter Fladeby, and Kari Nytrø do interesting sound editing for wooden planks creaking, watery splashing, or footsteps echoing out. Costume designer Runa Fønne gives everyone cozy cable-knit sweaters and dark jackets for a dark and somber vibe. They all look cozy and warm for Norway's bitter Winter. Makeup artist Veslemøy Fosse Ree neatly makes Stellan look increasingly disarrayed and decomposing. He literally looks like a corpse in Insomnia's chilling final shot. In short, Insomnia is well worth seeking out for Stellan's subtle acting alone.

I watched this years ago, and I hadn't forgotten the ambiance or the basic idea of the plot. However, I had somehow remembered this as a story of a protagonist who does one horrible thing and can't deal with his guilt, when it is really a story about a descent into guilt that makes him compound his crime, becoming a worse person and a worse policeman as the movie goes on. Skarsgard's battle with the light makes it.

I like slow narrative, it can take all the time in the world to develop its plot. Insomnia is slow...too much, and the plot isn't as interesting as could be.

Unsettling from the opening shot, Norwegian director Erik Skjoldbjaerg's debut film is a taut police procedural set in northern Norway, where the sun never sets during the summer months. Detective Jonas Engstrom (Stellan Skarsgard) and his partner are sent from the south to investigate the murder of a young girl. While the premise of the film is simple, it evolves into more than just a murder mystery when Engstrom's deeply rooted flaws become apparent. What starts as a whodunnit becomes a psychological profile on the police officer's declining mental health, triggered in part by the severe insomnia caused by the constant sunlight. Even in darkened rooms, the pervasive light seeps in through cracks in doors and gaps in blinds, shedding constant light on the deeply rooted shortcomings of the protagonist.

The first foreign film I absolutely loved. It is atmospheric with a great cast and engaging story.

The problem with Insomnia is not the purely malignant vileness of our main antagonist, but the fact that there is simply no one to root for due to the two-dimensional side character structure.

This film does a nice job of capturing the famous Scandinavian detective milieu of murder, mystery, and freezing temperatures but I wasn't that captivated by it.

Twisted, speculated, confusing and overall amazing! An absolute must see psychological thriller. Perhaps a bit too complex and pretentious at times though, therefore 4,5 and not 5.

Dark, chilling, dingy, and interesting camera work showing inconsistent passage of time (a side effect of insomnia I image). A good psych thriller that doesn't rely on jump scares or gore.

AMAZING FILM. I watched this on a whim and wow, this film is completely captivating in every way; it made me feel like I was watching something akin to Bad Lieutenant. A must watch for any film buff.

Slow paced and disturbing, this is a true psychological thriller. Great acting.

Better than the remake. Skarsgard out does Pacino. A haunting sense of dread perfectly permeates everything.

It's a fascinating film because of its transforming character Detective Jonas and it makes one happy to live in a stress free life where you can sleep off a bad day at work.

Watching the 2002 remake 1987 original was next to nothing.

Erik Skjoldbjærg's 1997 Norwegian film "Insomnia" is a tense police procedral film and a psychological thriller at the same time. Skjoldbjærg does an excellent job portraying guilt and restlessness due to the midnight sun in Northern Norway. The film follows police officer Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgard) as he is called to a city north of the Arctic Circle to investigate a murder of a 17-year-old girl. While setting up a trap for the killer that goes wrong, a chase ensues and Engström mistakenly shoots his partner. Engström attempts to cover this up by saying the killer has killed his partner. It's worth noting that Engström is Swedish and that Swedish police are armed at all times, Norwegian police are not. He brings his service pistol to Norway with him. What follows is guilt and dread for Engström. He thinks he sees his old partner while visiting another officer in the hospital. He starts to tamper with evidence of the case. He replaces the bullet from his gun with a bullet from the killer's gun he dropped. He starts drinking heavily and loses sleep because of the guilt but also because of the sunlight all night long. When he gets a break that a crime novelist named Jon Holt (Bjørn Floberg) was seen with the girl, he tracks him down. Holt then blackmails Engström with knowledge of him killing his partner. Engström and Holt then go about framing the girl's boyfriend for the murder. It's a very tense film that does much with the minimal budget most European films outside of Germany, France, United Kingdom and Italy have. The film does a terrific job of building up tension without the use of music or fancy editing. An overall near-perfect film with flashes of noir influence.

A film that utilizes sharp editing, a gritty and creepy performance by Skarsgard, a murky atmosphere, and a twisty plot into one satisfyingly chilling story.

A gripping psychological thriller with a compelling inversion of film noir motifs. Stellan Skarsgård gave a captivating performance as Jonas. The downward spiral was disturbing. I couldn't look away.

Wow. Today I wanted to watch something real. I truly got it with this stellar debut feature from Skjoldbjærg. I watched an American made film of his recently, Prozac Nation. I found the film- while flawed- slightly under appreciated. Insomnia is completely under appreciated though. One of the greatest crime thrillers ever made, the film follows a sociopath detective who makes a grave mistake by accidentally shooting his partner. Played by Stellan Skarsgård in a convincing and gripping performance. The film holds tension throughout. Every single scene, even the most uneventful are intense. And all somehow equally so. A scene where Detective Engstrom is struggling to sleep is just as intense as the scene where he meets the suspected killer he's searching for. And this is somehow despite the predictability. I knew what would happen at the end of each scene from the initial entrance, I pretty much knew how the whole film would play out after the first 25 minutes. Yet Skjoldbjærg and Skarsgård team up to make it surprisingly gripping. Proving how important atmosphere is to making a great film. The film is highly symbolic. The efforts of Detective Engstrom are bothered by the bright sun peering into his room. Unlike most horror, thrillers, and mysteries Insomnia does not rely on darkness, but instead light. Everything happens in broad daylight, and even in the final scene where everything goes dark except for Detective Engstrom eyes- the "light" in the scene is the only chilling part about it. There's one scene in particular that I think has the most symbolic image. When Detective Engstrom enters a "suspects" room to continue on his path of lies there's an image of Freud glaring next to him. "The Truth Will set you free" is a Freud quote that immediately comes to mind, and clearly the detective is not free while he's continuing his path of deceiving those around him. I don't think I'm over analyzing this either, because in this film every prop is important and has some reference. I have not seen Nolan's remake, nor do I plan too. I'm much more likely to just rewatch this film. As I mentioned I was looking for something real, and I believe that's much more achievable with a cast of nobodies compared to a star studded cast of Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hillary Swank. I think I will stick to Skarsgård, Mathiesen, and Bjørn Floberg. In this cold, extremely graphic yet tasteful, thriller in a Norwegian town where the sun never sets- which I now realize is terrifying.

Much more economical than the North American version. Really neat to see the stark scenes from Norway...which is really refreshing for a change. Really cool techno-pop music at the end. Much too short.