THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE (15).

Thriller/Drama. Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre, Peter Andersson, Georgi Staykov, Micke Spreitz, Johan Kylen, Hans-Christian Thulin.

The late Stieg Larsson’s best-selling Millennium trilogy, which began with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, continues with this gritty descent into the sickening world of sex trafficking.

Set one year after the events of the first film, The Girl Who Played With Fire is another lean, muscular thriller that pulls no punches in its depictions of the violence and cruelty meted out to the morally conflicted characters.

Audiences who teetered on the edge of their seats in the opening chapter will be just as enthralled by Daniel Alfredson’s film that holds us in a vice-like grip from the opening nightmare sequence to the heart-stopping finale.

Crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) has not heard from computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rapace) for a year.

He has ploughed his energy into Millennium magazine, edited by Erika Berger (Endre), who is also his on-off lover, and together they are working on an explosive story about a sex trafficking ring with gossamer-thin ties to the upper echelons of power.

Days before publication, young writer Dag Svensson (Thulin) and his girlfriend Mia, who brought the story to Millennium, are slain and the murder weapon is tracked back to corrupt lawyer Nils Bjurman (Andersson), who is Lisbeth's guardian.

When police inspect the gun, they discover Lisbeth’s fingerprints.

The Girl Who Played With Fire opens with Lisbeth in a gorgeous villa by the sea, where she has been laying low, then plunges her and the other characters into a waking nightmare.

Alfredson’s film is every bit as dark, brooding and unsettling as its predecessor, with scenes of gruesome and graphic violence that are never gratuitous.

The director doesn’t waste a single frame, concealing the twists in Larsson’s novel until the last minute for maximum impact.

The tightly wound narrative ensures the 129 minute running time passes all too quickly, powered by an electrifying performance from Rapace as the avenging angel, who looks at herself and doesn’t like what she sees after she is told in no uncertain terms: “You treat your friends like dirt. It’s as simple as that.”

Supporting performances are equally compelling.

It will be an agonising wait until November 25 and the release of the concluding chapter, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest.