David Berg's "BLACK CRAB"

May 4, 2022 Dennis D. McDonald

Charlie and I were together for our regular Tuesday Night Movie and were looking around for a decent action flick. I remembered that Darren van Dam had recommended BLACK CRAB in one of his videos. Seeing it stars Noomi Rapace (Prometheus), Charlie and I both agreed: let’s check it out on Netflix.

We were NOT disappointed.

We were both blown away by this unique Swedish production. As always, Rapace is excellent and so are the ensemble cast, the amazing production design, the special effects, the music, and above all, the night time photography.

The early parts of the story are especially unsettling. A near future land war is grinding away in Europe. Towns and civilian populations are being destroyed by incessant urban warfare, artillery shelling, and missile attacks.

The parallels with what is going on in Ukraine and with the urban deterioration of Children of Men are stark as civilians and infrastructure are ground to dust by the steady advance of The Enemy. Some of these scenes are downright scary.

Early in the film Noomi Rapace, playing an army officer with special skills, is painfully separated from her teenage daughter during an urban firefight. The next thing we know she is assigned by the remaining chain of command to a ragtag group of soldiers who have one thing in common: they know how to ice skate.

Their assignment: transport two secretive canisters across 100km of thinly frozen water at night to a remote city where the last bastion of their armed forces is stationed. They are told that what the two canisters contains will “end the war.” Then they depart for their night trek across the ice in one of the most hellish urban attack scenes I’ve ever seen. Rapace’s character is driven by the promise that once she delivers the canisters she will be reunited with her lost daughter.

Of course this is a movie. We know that problems will arise along the way, some due to ice, some to personalities, and some to the actions of the enemy. There are twists and turns and some amazing special effects, scenery, and surprises along the way.

Don’t expect a feel-good buddy movie. Rapace and company suffer. We feel it. Above all, the matter of fact way that the destruction of a beautiful country and its people is handled provides much food for thought. Recommended.