- Accidental Innuendo: Harry Hole's surname is pronounced like "hole" rather than the proper Norwegian "HOO-lah".
- Awesome Music:
- The use of Massive Attack's "Voodoo In My Blood
" in the first trailer is incredibly eerie, and helps set the tone for the entire trailer. - The final film's score by veteran composer Marco Beltrami is fittingly haunting and eerie, especially in the scene where Sylvia Ottersen gets decapitated by the killer.
- The use of Massive Attack's "Voodoo In My Blood
- Bile Fascination: The film was a critical and financial bomb, but periodically gets the interest of audiences due to its infamous history of Troubled Production, primarily the fact that by the director's own admission, 10-15% of the script straight-up wasn't shot, with many coming in to see what exactly an incomplete big studio film looks like.
- Memetic Mutation: Multiple:
- Quite a few jokes have been made in the YouTube comment section for the trailer about Olaf being the killer.
- The snowman on one poster became a popular meme, and it has been compared to the Hot Choclety Milk spider by a few people.
- The "Mister Police" tagline has been widely parodied, especially once the film itself came out and it turned out that, contrary to the advertising, the killer did not actually give any clues.
- Narm:
- The infamous snowman drawing◊ on the main poster is supposed to come across as the drawings of a disturbing Psychopathic Manchild, but the total lack of any other menacing elements and the snowman's dopey, wall-eyed stare just makes it hilarious. The fact that it's an element original to the film doesn't help.
- In the books, it's mentioned numerous times that Harry's name is actually pronounced "HAH-ray HOO-leh" in the original Norwegian—and since his surname is derived from an Old Norse word for a type of hill, the closest English equivalent of his name would be "Harry Hill". In the film, however, it's pronounced exactly how it's spelled, resulting in numerous serious scenes becoming unintentionally hilarious as soon as someone says Harry's name. It's hard to take a murder mystery seriously when the protagonist's name sounds exactly like "hairy hole".
- The rock concert Harry and Oleg went to. In the novel, they were going to a Slipknot concert while in the film, it felt like a bizarre indie rock group who made a novelty screamo song.
- The infamous snowman drawing
- Narm Charm: This exchange could have been ridiculous, but there's something both sad and sweet about it:Harry: Why did he call you Cloudberry?
Katrine: *tearing up* Because I... like cloudberry jam on ice-cream. - Nightmare Retardant: Some reviewers pointed out that, try as they might in this movie, snowmen aren't scary, particularly ones that for some reason are shown with either a frown or no expression at all. It doesn't help that the source material played this aspect of the plot for Black Comedy rather than for drama.
- Paranoia Fuel: The killer reports one of his future victims missing before he kills her and he does so shortly after Harry and Katrine meet with her, leading Harry to realise that he was watching them and waiting for them to leave. He also breaks into Harry's home in disguise as a mould remover without Harry realising.
- Questionable Casting: Val Kilmer was cast in a speaking role, despite being unable to speak due to cancer treatment and looking very sickly.
