Playful, chaotic and consistently entertaining, The Storm is an ensemble comedy that embraces its madness while delivering genuine insight beneath the laughter.

Welcome to our The Storm Netflix review. Directed by Josephine Bornebusch, this chaotic Swedish ensemble comedy follows a group of former business school friends whose high-stakes reunion quickly devolves into hallucinogenic mayhem.

The Storm Netflix Review: A High-Stakes Reunion Devolves Into Chaos

Josephine Bornebusch’s The Storm opens with one of the funniest mission statements of the year. Against a bright blue screen, the gleefully inappropriate strains of Ylvis’ “You’re Fucked” set the tone before we meet Filip (Gustaf Skarsgård), trudging through fresh snow in a torn velvet dinner jacket, dragging a sword behind him. He looks exhausted, bewildered and defeated. The image raises a simple question: how on earth did things get this bad?

Structured in six episodic chapters, The Storm follows a group of former business school friends gathering at a lavish Swedish estate to celebrate Filip’s birthday. Filip and his wife Caroline (Aliette Opheim) desperately need wealthy businessman Henrik Müller (Christopher Wagelin) to invest in their ambitious hotel, restaurant and spa venture, meaning the evening carries the pressure of both a birthday celebration and a high-stakes business pitch. Hovering over everything is the promise of an incoming snowstorm that threatens to trap the guests together.

Before everyone arrives, Bornebusch spends time introducing the various attendees in their everyday environments, revealing that beneath their polished exteriors none of them seem particularly content. By the time they converge on the estate, it becomes clear that they are all performing versions of themselves. Even their clothing speaks volumes. Guests appear dressed as though attending entirely different events, sporting everything from leather and denim to Fendi furs and wildly impractical Gucci loafers. It is a wonderfully visual indication of a group who share a history but no longer have much else in common.

Gustaf Skarsgård Leads a Standout Swedish Ensemble

The dinner itself initially appears warm and inviting. Golden, almost sepia-toned lighting fills the room, candles flicker beneath an imposing chandelier and the atmosphere feels cosy enough to feature in a luxury interiors magazine. Yet beneath the surface, tensions are already bubbling away. Caroline’s obsession with perfection borders on mania as she attempts to control every aspect of the evening. Meanwhile Ninni (Sara Shirpey), Henrik’s glamorous, Fendi-clad partner, is visibly starving for affection and validation, her increasingly desperate attempts at intimacy met with indifference. Elsewhere, Jacob (Jonas Karlsson), sporting a facelift, a sensible new partner and a commitment to sobriety, struggles to reconcile his reinvention with the expectations of old friends.

Bornebusch demonstrates an impressive talent for ensemble filmmaking, balancing a large cast while ensuring even minor characters leave an impression. Caroline’s visibly bored assistant Siri (Nicole Levin), Nicholas (Johan Rheborg), whose dry observation that “evenings like this make you wish you drank” lands perfectly, and the well-meaning but dim taxi driver all contribute to the sense that everyone inhabits their own bizarre orbit.

Then, naturally, everything begins to collapse. A chef with a penchant for dramatic butchery and a suspiciously large jar of magic mushrooms inadvertently sends the dinner spinning into chaos. As hallucinogens make their way into selected plates, reality starts to bend. Speech becomes distorted, edges blur and the eclectic score, which shifts between jazz piano, synth and pop influences, amplifies the growing sense of disorientation. Conversations descend into surreal debates about whether a person can identify as a horse. Henrik ends up smashing his head against a bathroom mirror before arguing with both paintings and a taxidermy bear.

What makes these sequences work is that Bornebusch never loses sight of character. The mushroom-induced mayhem is undeniably funny, but it also strips away the carefully maintained personas the guests have spent years constructing. Old grudges resurface, buried insecurities emerge and long-standing friendships are tested against uncomfortable truths. Nobody is quite who they claimed to be.

The performances are uniformly strong. Skarsgård, often associated with more serious roles, reveals excellent comedic instincts. His physical performance is especially effective, whether Filip is carrying himself with forced confidence, attacking a block of cheese in frustration or screaming into a bowl of ice. Filip Berg, as Ossi, proves equally impressive, demonstrating impeccable comic timing through nervous energy, awkward dancing and mounting panic. Together, they provide much of the film’s biggest laughs.

Verdict: A Perceptive and Hilarious 4-Star Comedy

The film also benefits from Bornebusch’s confident visual style. Tight close-ups capture every flicker of embarrassment, fear and irritation, while wider compositions showcase the increasingly chaotic state of the dinner party.

Just when events seem incapable of becoming more ridiculous, Bornebusch finds another way to surprise. Whether it is Mochi the dog being blown away into the storm, a hallucinatory confrontation with woodland décor or one character’s sudden emotional breakdown, the film constantly keeps audiences off balance. Your eyes may widen, you may cringe, you may laugh out loud and, occasionally, you may do all three simultaneously.

By the time Filip exhales, “These absolute fucking lunatics,” near the film’s conclusion, he has effectively summarised the entire experience. Yet beneath the absurdity lies a perceptive examination of ageing friendships, social performance and the exhausting pressure of trying to maintain control when life is rapidly falling apart.

Playful, chaotic and consistently entertaining, The Storm is an ensemble comedy that embraces its madness while delivering genuine insight beneath the laughter. Josephine Bornebusch orchestrates the mayhem with impressive confidence, resulting in a film that is as unpredictable as the weather system bearing down on its characters.

The Storm is available on Netflix globally