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Cold Prey
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Cold Prey - Hot Blooded
Review date: 2008-07-03 Rating: 8 out of 10
Collecting slasher films isn't like many other vices; in the realm of the teen-kill completist, the good stuff is popular for a reason and afterwards there's a barren landscape of trash, crap and pond-scum horror. Every now and then, you'll come upon a film that makes it all worthwhile: Cold Prey is one of them.
The American approach to 'improving' the cut-and-dried stalk n' slash opus is to make it gorier and funnier (see: Hatchet) and self referential (Behind the Mask). Fun as those films are, they do little to involve the viewer any more in what's going on, concentrating too much on the effects work to bother carving out good characters who the audience might, God forbid, care about!
In Cold Prey there are no obnoxious teens with 'Please Kill Me' stamped on their foreheads, no explicitly dumb behaviour and a restrained level of bloodshed. This latter point may disappoint some horror fans but then the more cineliterate/mature viewer will find a lot to like about this bleak, gloomy festival of tension.
The relationships between the characters are more complex here than found in most genre examples and it all feeds well into their eventual fates, as the hulking Jason-like killer (equipped for his snowbound living arrangements) skulks the halls of the abandoned ski-lodge, attacking those who think they are alone. This is a film that maximises the tension of the situation with simple set-ups and realistic reactions as escape plans are thwarted and numbers dwindle until only likeable heroine Jannicke is left.
The finale is great, if not reminiscent of a scene from Hostel, and a 2008 sequel should hopefully recapture some of the edge-of-your-seat nail-biting on parade here. A proper horror film from a genre that's been saturated by comparative rubbish over the last decade, Cold Prey shows us that excellence can be found in simple storytelling.
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Reviews
Superior slasher pic.
Review date: 2008-05-10 Rating: 10 out of 10
I watched this back to back with "Frostbite", so had a fine old time with the subtitles of both movies! Funny thing is, when remembering the movies afterwards, one tends to forget about the subtitles, in fact I enjoyed this one so much, I have to keep reminding myself that it really did have subs.
It kept me absorbed throughout, rare for any movie, certainly so for one of this type. It may seem like you're going to get the typical format slasher movie, where group of youngish people, (not exactly teens I didn't think) get stranded in abandoned house, even better that in this movie, it's an abandoned ski motel place on a snow covered mountain! Great. And no silly humour to annoy me when it crops up in silly places, (ok, "Frostbite" had humour, but at least it was reasonably clever humour, but I'm not reviewing that one, but I did enjoy it too, but not as much as this one) unusual also, that in "Cold Prey" one could really care about the characters and want them to get away, unlike in some of these movies where you don't care one way or the other and might even sympathise with the killer. In this movie, you don't really get the chance as the motives are not clear, but anyhow I shan't go into details of anything more cuz don't want to risk spoilers. The group of people who are stranded are one reasonably pretty blonde girl and a plainer girl and three guys, one a bit macho and the worst looking one of the lot, not my type at all, one who got injured and was quite cute and then there was the boyfriend of the blonde girl, and he was quite cute too, but sadly none of them exceptionally cute, (it may sound unimportant, but people do like to see pretty people in movies, whether they admit to it or not!) but at least they weren't silly macho stereotypes which spoils things when uninspiring one dimensional characters are trotted out, at least these all seemed to have proper well rounded personalities and as I already mentioned, you could care what happened to them and root for them and be dismayed when they were in danger. Very original for this type of movie and no-one should be put off by the subtitles, if you are, then you're probably better off watching rubbish like the "Scream" movies instead.
chilling & atmospheric.
Review date: 2008-03-29 Rating: 8 out of 10
when this movie arrived i couldnt wait to watch it,but i realised id goofed, the movie was in norwegian ! but it had english subtitles so i thought ,what the hell? five young people enjoying a break miles from anywhere in the snow-shrouded wilderness are faced with one friends accident & what to do? they find a seemingly abandoned hotel,but all is not as it appears. an unknown terror is waiting & kills them one by one.
the dvd cover suggests the films like "halloween?" no! more like "i know what you did " in the snow. the film was full of doom & scares but my main criticism was those bloody subtitles destracting me away from the action! i know bad dubbing would have annoyed some but i am sure more can
speak fluent norwegian rent it.
Cold it certainly looked
Review date: 2008-03-06 Rating: 8 out of 10
Just rented this.
Good characterisation, excellent spooky setting-cross between the arctic station in "The Thing" & The Overlook in "The Shining". Its obvious low budget does not detract from the overall feel and pace of the film. Why do we need gore and guts when suspense and terror are the key ingredients in this genre? How much gore was in "Psycho"? Cant deny Hitchcock his masterpiece.
It was most refreshing to see a Norwegian film maker out-flank Hollywood, for a fraction of the cost. 4 not 5 stars because I figured out the baddie fairly early on and because of the need to read subtitles, which detracts from the action. Not that I care for dubbing. Rent not necessarily buy!
same old 'stalk 'em slasher' but without the slash
Review date: 2008-02-14 Rating: 4 out of 10
i was surprised at how much i was dissapointed in this flick,given the 3 five star reviews i eagerly anticipated it to drop on my doormat. what a pity,anyone with their eyes open can spot the hints at who the killer is once they get into the 'creepy abandoned ski lodge', and once the killer does arrive on the scene im given dull,unorigional stalking killing scenes where you dont see anything. No proper blood,no gore, no action. ok so we must be going for the intense, chilling kind of thriller, but it fails. please someone back me up on this, my other film buddys agreed with me when i lent it to them without saying how i rated it. avoid.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Tomas Alf Larsen
Rolf Kristian Larsen
Ingrid Bolso Berdal
Viktoria Winge
Director(s):
Recording label: Metrodome Video
Manufacturer: Metrodome Video
EAN: 5055002553370
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2007-10-29
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 97 minutes
Language: Norwegian (Unknown)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Norwegian (Original Language)