 |
Cold Prey
Directed by: Roar Uthuag Starring: Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Viktoria Winge, Tomas Alf Larsen
Synopsis: In Cold Prey, aka Fritt Vilt, five young friends - Jannicke and Eirike, Mikal and Ingunn and Morten Tobias - all head out to a deserted mountain region for some private snowboarding fun. When Morten takes a nasty tumble and breaks his leg, the gang realise they won't be able to get him to the car before nightfall and can't get a cellphone reception. Luckily, Jannicke spots an old hotel in the distance, to they make their way over, not knowing that it's not as deserted as they first think...
Review: Whilst mainstream US horror seems to be stuck in a rut of scraping the bottom of the J-Horror barrel and overindulging in ADD-style choppy editing, Europe is starting to make some serious waves and garner some big kudos by not only giving us scary movies, but also scary ideas and images that really stick in your mind. Having said that, I think most will agree that Norway is probably the least likely country to put together such an entertaining slasher pic that will play well just about anywhere.
Director Roar Uthuag has basically taken the classical elements of slasher movies - oppressive, isolated location, iconic and very scary killer - and makes it all seem fresh. Must be the mountain air... There is a refreshing attitude about the teens in this movie. They have a sort of laid back, adventurous spirit and take their current predicament with quite good grace (until of course they learn they aren't alone). A lot of different elemenst come into play to enhance the atmosphere - sound of freezing winds blowing through broken windows, the sense of decay, the use of darkness - which help ratchet up the tension.
The young cast fares very well as I mentioned earlier and the killer retains an iconic detachment - very little exposition to explain who he is or what he is doing there, but we find out everything we need to know in a couple of well executed flashback scenes.
Verdict: Lookout Hollywood, the Euros are beating you at your own game. 8 out of 10 (Review by MikeOutWest)
|
