Film Review: COLD PREY (2006)

A weekend snowboarding trip between five friends turns deadly in Cold Prey (2006).  Jannicke (Ingroid Bolso Berdal) and her friends (Rolf Kristian Larsen, Thomas Alf Larsen, Viktoria Winge, and Hallvard Holmen) venture into the Norweigian mountains for a quiet vacation snowboarding when one of their members injures himself.  With no way to get him to a hospital in time they take refuge in an abandoned hotel until they can get to help.  They soon discover that the hotel isn’t as abandoned as they thought as they begin to be hunted one by one.

Director Roar Uthaug has crafted an exciting and engaging film that while it follows your typical slasher tropes is actually quite entertaining due to the cinematography and editing which creates suspense.  Most of the cast is very likable and the kills are very effective so horror fans will be very appeased.  Now this isn’t something you haven’t seen before (especially if you’re a fan of the Wrong Turn franchise) but the use of location and the cinematography do set this above your standard straight to DVD/Streaming fare.

It’s also of note that there are two sequels to this film as well (which I didn’t know before watching the film) and if they are as good as this film then that will make for one of the better franchises of films out there in this backwoods-killer genre.

Film Review: MADISON COUNTY (2011)

It’s hard to describe the film Madison County (2011) without also describing a whole lot of other films just like it.  A group of college kids travel to an old mountain community called Madison County in search of the truth about a killer based on the account of a writer from the town.  The moment they arrive they realize that the town is a place they would rather keep their secrets secret as they have no idea who the writer the kids are looking for is and they claim that there never were any killer or murders.  What they do get is a warning to get out of town as soon as possible.

The group don’t heed the warning and upon further investigating they soon come across a killer wearing a pig’s head who starts to knock them off one by one (or capturing them for later).  There is a subplot involving the writer who has to bring sacrifices for the pig killer but little really makes much sense in this film that strives to give a little more plot to the tire “Wrong Turn” story yet never actually accomplishing it.  The death are pretty gruesome and effective and the film is well filmed but there isn’t anything that really differentiates it from the countless (and endless) Wrong Turn sequels and its brethren.  The characters are not at all that interesting and neither is the killer for that matter.  It’s a pretty dull affair from beginning to end.

Written and directed by Eric England the film tries to bring something new to the backwoods killer film but fails to deliver on the goods.

Film Review: SUMMER SCHOOL (2006)

Anthology films are very hit or miss, but more often than not they are miss.  The same can be said for the film Summer School (2006) which suffers from being an anthology with a unique premise that is destroyed by subpar acting and production values and weak and uninspired direction (from all the directors).

It’s the first day of summer school and Charles (Simon Wallace) just wants to get through the day without any problems because he just spent last night watching a lot of B-level horror films.  Today will be anything but normal as Charles soon discovers that he is living a nightmare within a nightmare of different style horror films.  The only way of escape is when he dies at the end of the nightmare and wakes up but what is a nightmare and what is the real world?

The film has a great concept behind it as the short films contained within are from different genres from a vampire film to a mutant infestation film to a hillbilly “Wrong Turn” like film to more.  This is an excellent idea for a horror film but the overall film is hampered by a weak lead in with Wallace who cannot carry the film and seems out of place in many of the shorts (his performance is very inconsistent).  His co-stars all seem to be having more fun as each short has the same actors portraying different characters from one story to the next.

Most of the direction is pedestrian and lacks imagination and causes the film to drag especially when you’re stuck in scenes with just Wallace.  The low budget (or no budget as it looks) aesthetics of the film hamper it at every turn leaving nothing in the film to actually enjoy.  This is a shame since the film’s concept is its driving force and allure.  This is one of those independent films that could do with a remake that had a budget to do the story justice.