The Lost House

The Icelandic village of Bitfröst contends with two crimes, 40 years apart, in this atmospheric outing from Larsen (Shutter). In 2019, software developer Agnes Glin is nursing a broken leg in California when she accepts true crime podcaster Nora Carver’s invitation to come to Iceland for an interview about Agnes’s grandfather, Einar Palsson. Four decades earlier, Einar was accused by Bitfröst gossips of killing his young wife and their baby daughter. Though he was never charged with the crime, his move to California shortly afterward was considered proof of his guilt by locals. Now, Einar has died, and Agnes must once again try to reconcile the sweet man she knew with the monster his neighbors saw. Shortly after Agnes arrives in Bitfröst with ambitions of clearing Einar’s name, a young woman from the village goes missing. Suddenly, Agnes and Nora have a new case on their hands—and the more they dig, the more Agnes suspects the mystery is linked to her grandmother’s death. Larsen seamlessly interweaves Agnes’s path toward self-discovery with her and Nora’s investigation, deriving satisfying emotional beats from somewhat familiar Scandi-noir parts. The result is sufficiently chilling. (Jan.)