I dont think I've seen any Norwegian movies before this one. I won a copy for £2 including postage on Ebay at the weekend after reading some good things about it over the past year or so.
Its your standard stalk and slash movie - a bunch of winter sports fanatics head to the slopes and go off piste in search of something more extreme. One of them gets injured, and so miles from their car or the nearest village, they head to an abandoned hotel for the night to get out of the blizzard.
No surprises so far - and no surprises throughout, in truth, but despite that, I really enjoyed this. Theres very little in the way of gore, instead theres lots of atmosphere and suspense, which better matches the environment we see on screen. All the actors were likable. The killer is a huge mountain dwelling man dressed up in winter gear. We dont see anything of him for the first half of the movie as the story builds, and then only see him from the back or waist down until the last 10 minutes.
I love films which feature old, abandoned places, so this was right up my street. There were some very good scenes in this one, and I got a feeling of hopelessness for the five snowboarders. I always think that if you can forget a subtitled film is subtitled and get lost in the story, then its a great watch, and thats the case here. My one complaint - and it might just be down to my terrible colour vision - is that I found the subtitles hard to read in the first 15 minutes or so - white subtitles against a white background had me straining my eyes, but once we get inside its not a problem anymore.
So - nothing new or groundbreaking, but very effective non the less. Theres a sequel on the way later this year, too.
Cold Prey:
amazon.co.uk |
amazon.com