[Cold Prey]
Plot:A group of friends on a skiing trip in the Norwegian Mountains seek shelter in an abandoned hotel when during the trip, one of their friends is severely injured. Soon they discover they are not alone.

Cast:Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Tomas Alf Larsen, Endre Martin Midtstigen, Viktoria Winge.

My Thoughts:50/50

Review:As far as slasher films go, here in america we most of the time get the same recycled stuff over and over again. But lately, foreign filmmakers are taking their shots at doing some new and interesting things with the slasher film genre. Case in point, "Fritt Vilt" aka "Cold Prey", a Norweigan film where a group of teens go on a snowboarding trip and end up crossing paths with a mysterious killer. If there's one positive thing that can be said for Roar Uthaug's horror pic, it's that it takes itself seriously, which is indeed a plus. However, on the negative side...the film spends too much time trying to establish it's young characters, by telling us things we really don't need to know nor care to know.

Granted, in slasher movies most horror fans are always craving some depth to the characters, but depth is one thing..."The Hills" on MTV-esque drama is another. I really, as a viewer do not care who likes who, or who has a crush on who, or who is having relationship problems. Maybe it's just me, since I get enough of a steady diet of this crap on every freaking reality tv show under the sun...and have become a bit jaded by it, but in a horror film, it's best to move ahead with the splatter stuff and touch upon the love-drama as little as possible. That is, unless you're gonna deepen the story to where the relationship issues go beyond goes beyond just typical "Dawson's Creek" type stuff.

"Cold Prey" takes a long time before it gets to any death scenes, and the first one, while it's filmed and set up to look very realistic, it still does not deliver considering it took so long to happen, and really doesn't deliver anything amazing. This is one of those straight-forward slasher films where the killer really doesn't get creative, but instead is more of the "dead them as quick as possible" type, and opts for more bashing and flesh puncturing methods of death with his huge ice-picking axe, instead of any other methods. The killer is a pretty fearsome character, and holds a deep connection to the films setting which is an old abandoned hotel where the kids are forced to stay after one of them breaks his leg while snowboarding.

Seems the place was closed down back in the day due to the managers son disappearing. Of course per usual, once one of the characters discovers this bit of news in some old clippings, they still fail to leave the hotel or even consider it. And as usual, this does not bode well for them. Trespassing on a psycho killers territory is always a big no-no in films like this, and from this point on...you can pretty much figure out how things break down as the movie goes on.

The body count isn't very high considering there are only a few teens, and not a large group of 10 or more, and most of the chase scenes...with the exception of one aren't really that many in number, nor are they very thrilling. However, while this film disappoints in many ways, it also does an excellent job with a few things as well. Like using it's setting to it's advantage. The creepy old hotel is definitely a very nice set piece, with it's creaky floors, dimly lit corridors, and dingy walls. Having it sit out in the middle of an icy Norweigian mountain top was also a very good decision, as it gives the film a "Misery" and "The Shining" kind of feel.

A feel of hopelessness, and isolation...two things which work really well in a film like this. The movie also delivers a menacing looking killer as I stated earlier, and the final battle between the killer and his final victim is certain to keep the viewer on the edge of their seats. "Cold Prey" isn't a total failure as a horror film, nor a slasher movie...but had it gotten to it's "havoc wreaking" stage just 20 or so minutes earlier, and switched up a bit on the death scenes to make them a little more original, I probably would've liked it alot better than I did.

Positives:A very manacing looking killer, great setting, excellent final 15 minutes.

Negatives:The film takes too long to get going, and the deaths are too repetitive. How many times can a person get smashed in the ribs with an ice-picking axe before it gets old?

Overall:Decent slasher movie.





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)