Category Archives: foreign film

The Real EVILS of Ice Road Truckers! “Black Snow” reviewed! (Rising Sun Media / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Black Snow” Available on Blu-ray at Amazon.com!

A Siberian truck driver named Gosha delivers knockoffs booze and other materials to the remote towns across the frozen tundra.  Though not recommended to drive alone on the remote truck routes, Gosha travels eventually bring him back home where he unloads cases of cheap vodka and where he can lay his head down to rest for a short period of time before heading back on the road.  While his sister is overenjoyed with his return, Gosha receives a cold shoulder from his father due to Gosha’s unscrupulous and dishonest deliveries of counterfeit products to earn a living.   He’s ready to depart on a multi-day journey with a new load of deer meat, traded for extra cases of Vodka to the local drunkards many from the town blame Gosha in supplying their rabid alcoholism.  On his journey, his truck breaks down in the remote with a flat tire with no signs of civilization for miles.  When he attempts to change the tire, the jack gives way and the truck’s brake drum on the axle falls on his hand, trapping it painfully underneath. 

Yakutian films are a little known, independent cinema industry from the Northeast of Russian Siberia, the land also known to the Yakutian people, known as Sakha, as the Republic of Sakha.  “Black Snow” is one of those obscure films that flies way under the cinematic radar for most.  The 2020 drama-thriller is helmed by writer-director Stepan Burnashev who followed the film after a four-year stint of horror, producing a pair of horror films with the wooded folklore of “Evil Spirits” and a nomadic, zombie-through-the-woods with “Republic Z.”  Burnashev retains the darker, mysterious tones but keeps the narrative grounded in reality with a practice day-in-a-life of a real-life Ice Road Trucker and the suffer in silence after a traumatic accident while coinciding with earning a living that makes one do irritational, unsafe decisions.  Burnashev also self-produces the film under executive producer Saidem Baryl’s productions. 

If you’re ever considering a career change as a stubborn, immoveable truck driver carrying cargo in Siberia, then this is your warning urging you against it.  “Black Snow” follows around Gosha (Fedot Lvov), introduced through a candid conversation between other truckers going over the job’s dos and don’ts at a truck stop and dip into Gosha’s troubled past with a previous partner that led him to drive solo.  His story brings him home where he unloads contraband vodka for the smalltown residents and either is embraced by family and friends, such as his sister (Ekaterina Khoyutanova after a long time away or hit a roadblock with those within the same groups that either goes unchanged or causing strife with families of drunkard supplied by Gosha’s return.  Eventually, all that negative energy Gosha puts out into the world, or mostly in his home village, brings with it bad karma when he breaks down in the middle of nowhere and subsequently crushes his hand under part of an axle while changing a tire.  Ivan Popov, Vladislav Portnyagin, and Alexandra Sofroneeva costar as characters who bring more aggravation to Gosha’s already dispirited existence and further pushing him away to do the wrong thing. 

With that negative character push, the blame isn’t entirely all on external factors that shape and mold his stern standoff-ish but Gosha is too part to blame as the stuck-in-his-way truck driver has no zero desire to compromise, doesn’t do the job for less, and doesn’t back down.  We see this when a friend of his sister’s asks him to bring a handbag to the city to handoff to someone and since he was already headed that way anyway, the task would be no big deal, but Gosha profusely refuses as carrying a handbag just to hand off to someone else is beneath him and not worth his time without a price.  All the aloof stubbornness and arrogant indifference Gosha dishes out, radiating like a radioactive glow, in reaction to the environment around him has full blown karma attached to it that comes in the form of his own truck, his means of livelihood, betraying him and, in an instant, drains him of all that he possess as it comes crashing down onto his hand, ironically bringing his time as a truck driver to an end as he can no longer steer a wheel or take care of it’s maintenance.  The third act takes a drastic turn of events that flees from melodramatics of family dysfunction and lands into a fight for survival in one of the coldest of territories on Earth and while Burnashev manages to make compelling scenes of body injury and life struggle, the steps that follow leave audiences hanging, wanting more, in Gosha’s snowy survival escape as his story strangely trails off with unfinished business of Gosha’s fate. 

Rising Sun Media releases “Black Snow” on a high-definition Blu-ray home video through FilmFest Distribution.  The AVC encoded BD-R 50 is presented in 1080p and in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  With a writable Blu-ray disc with the purple underbelly and despite the large disc capacity, the codec isn’t perfect and shows signs of decoding misfires with the details not being as sharp as possible but the issues are kept down to a minor blockiness, and the delineation is good and color saturation is good as it’ll exact a drab color scheme of white, black, and brown for a sense of cold bleakness as well as show off the snowy, isolated terrain that provides little contrasts.  The film’s graded naturally and the digital image does a fine job reproducing an organic quality.  Although the Yakutian people are Asian descent, the culture speaks in a mixture of Russian-Yakutian that’s presented in LPCM stereo with a tense and folkloric orchestrated score by Andrey Guryanov.  Dialogue comes over clear and prominent and carries with it levels of depth.  English subtitles are available and synch fine with no signs of spelling errors or incorrect syntax structures.  Extras include a commentary track with Soho Cinema Club, including Miles Flanagan, Sean Sardi, and Jared Carlson.  Also include is a making-of featurette and the international feature trailer.  The traditional Blu-ray Amaray case houses shoddy photoshop art that conveys the right film narrative problem and on the inside is an advert card for another Stepan Burashev film, the Yakut horror of “Cursed Land.  Fate.”   The not rated release has a runtime of 84 minutes and has region A encoding for playback. 

Last Rites: My first go-around with Yakutian cinema doesn’t disappoint nor does it leave a satisfying, lasting taste for more but “Black Snow” has all the seedlings of a solid drama-survival thriller, it just needs to truck it down the icy path a little bit more.

“Black Snow” Available on Blu-ray at Amazon.com!

There’s Nothing More EVIL than a Brother’s Revenge. “Dead Man’s Shoes” reviewed! (Second Sight / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Richard, a former special forces soldier, returns to his hometown to exact revenge on a gang of townie drug dealers who teased and tormented his younger, simpleton brother Anthony.  Unawre of Richard’s return, the local drug runners find vandalization of their property and even of their person as they slept through the night, a playful jest of threats send pointing fingers at each other rather than an outsider looking in to destroy them.  When some drugs go missing and one of them recognizes Richard as Anthony’s brother, the recollection of what happened to Anthony sends them into an anxious state that Richard may want retribution for his little brother’s pain and suffering.  Pranks and thefts are only a prelude to the pain and suffering Richard seeks to unload onto them with plans of snuffing them out one-by-one but beating them at their own game of fooling around but with the intent to kill.  How far will Richard go before he succumbs to the level of those who fed into his wrath? 

“Dead Man’s Shoes” is a very meat and potatoes, independent revenge thriller from cowriter and director Shane Meadows that features the dangers of the bullying against those not able to withstand the mental capacity to absorb such unprovoked abuse and brutality as their unable to process and comprehend what that looks like. The story is also a relatable to the siblings having experienced a brother or sister at the receiving end of the abuse and wanting to do something extreme about it, and those who have done something extreme about it, with the retribution acts swallowing the soul. Paddy Considine debuts as cowriter on the UK production under the Warp Films, Big Arty Productions, and Film4 collaboration. Mark Herbert and Louise Meadows coproduce the film in the rolling hills and low agricultural landscape of Derbyshire that feature small English towns and skeletal abbeys.

Cowriter Paddy Considine stars as Richard, the former soldier and older brother deadest on avenging his brother’s honor.  Considine has that 1000-yard stare with a stoic, emotionless expression of a man who masks his hurt with murderous action that speaks louder than words.  Garbed in a long green, military fatigue-like coat, a short, boxed beard, and his military duffle, Considine set himself to take on rinky-dink drug operation of a smalltown in the English countryside.  Richard control leaves gang leader Sonny (Gary Stretch, “Mega Shark Vs Crocosaurus”) at a disadvantage by dropping in unexpectedly with erratic behavior and not hint a plan against his crew made up of mostly bumbling and bickering buffoons, played by Stuart Wolfenden (“The Eschartrilogy:  Book of the Dead”), Neil Bell (“Dune Part I and II”), Paul Sadot, Seamus O’Neill (“Attack of the Adult Babies”), Paul Hurstfield (“The Spell”), and George Newton (“Creatures of the Night”).  However, one of the men are not like the others, carrying a different vibe from the rest of the hyena-rowdy drug pushers that puts Richard in a predicamental position of with how rapidly h’s succumbed to violence to the likes of those he’s toying with and dispatching that makes him reflect and be more contemplative with his brother.  We don’t get much time with little brother Anthony (Toby Kebbell, “RocknRolla”) who mentally handicap and follows his brother around to point out who wronged him back when, being exploited for the amusement of Sonny and his men, but Anthony puts into question older brother Richard’s sanity and motivational drive that continues a downward spiral of apathetic derangement.  “Prevenge’s” Jo Hartley and “Butterfly Kiss’s” Emily Aston are the only two female actresses in the film but the story’s nearly completely male centric that leave Hartley and Aston’s characters in the dust of minor support rather than significantly operating in the narrative. 

For a revenge thriller, Shane Meadows doesn’t dress up the violence. There are no extravagant shootouts, prolonged chases, explosions, surviving by the skin of your teeth, or anything of that nail-biting, edge-sitting, hair-raising tension to raise the stakes and create the anxiety of a live or die moment.  Instead, “Dead Man Shoes” carries out like any premediated murder would with an unexpected calmness in handing down wrath with a touch of class.  The bells and whistles are saves for the cast to portray a raw sliver of life in crime and the shared blood between two brothers with nothing in common and on opposite ends of the spectrum. Anthony was a deep shame from within Richard and that shame converts to violence in an afterthought of atonement for his own feelings about his brother.  He must run through a slew of bad guys who abused him to see his own faults in their relationship. As Richard and Anthony walk through the countryside on their way to town, there’s hardly a word or two between them but their proximity to each other is relaxed, comfortable, and without sibling difficulty that initially will have audiences believe a strong bond but the twist ending sheds a different, more problematic connection of poignant regret and disgrace that puts a good soldier on a downward path.  While the rest of the cast, mostly the gang, are petty shallows of people with no depth of character, only one other character rivals Richard’s complexity and it’s the one who’s left standing after Richard’s steamrolling, yet quiet as a church mouse, dysfunctional onslaught. 

“Dead Man’s Shoes” receive new life with a Second Sight Films Blu-ray release.”  Second Sight’s Blu-ray is AVC encoded with high-definition, 1080p resolution onto a dual-layer BD50.  Shot on Super 16mm film and then blown up to 35mm for theatrical exhibition prints, Meadows’ film doesn’t look like a Super 16mm shot production with the appears of more a 35mm detail.  The natural grading doesn’t add any pizazz but that was not Meadow’s goal with heavily stylization.  Details are still touch and go, mostly leaning toward the lesser defined aspects of texture as some aspects of the Midlands are lost in the background and in the rolling foliage Richard treks, but delineation and contour check out okay.  No blatant or obvious issues of compression pains.  Second Sight presents the film in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  The UK English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is more firepower than it needs but definitely is a solid sound design that levels the three major aspects:  dialogue, soundtrack, and ambience.  Dialogue is clean, clear, and prominent while the environment and action subside to fit with exact dynamics to scene.  The various indie-folk soundtrack wanders with Richard and Anthony across the land, also providing a prologue and epilogue bookend of resonation that connects with the tale tattering themes of loss of one’s physical and mental self.  There are English subtitles available for selection.  Second Sight provides plenty of special features with a raw, bare, indie production with a new audio commentary by director Shane Meadows and producer Mark Herbert, a second audio commentary by Andrew Graves and Jon Towlson, and a third audio commentary with director Meadows, lead actor Paddy Considine, and producer Herbert.  Also included is a new interview with Meadows and Herbert Quite a Journey, a new interview with actor Toby Kebbell A Very Fine Line, a new interview with Gary Stretch The Right Horse, an interview with director of photography Danny Cohen Made an Impact, deleted scenes, extended scenes, the short film “In Shane’s Shoes,” the short film “Northern Soul,” and the music video from Danger Mouse and Jemini.  The release comes in a smokey gray Amaray Blu-ray case with an uncredited new artwork on the single sided sleeve.  There are no other tangible features included.  The UK certified 18 film contains strong language, strong revenge violence, and hard drug use.  The region B encoded Blu-ray has a 90-minute runtime shelf life. 

Last Rites: “Dead Man’s Shoes” is quaint, hyper-local, and simply vengeance. The Second Sight Films Blu-ray is a great celebration of Shane Meadow’s tiny but tenacious thriller.

It’s in Human Nature to be EVIL! “Cradle of Fear” reviewed! (Unearthed Films / 2-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Cradle of Fear” Available on a 2-Disc Unearthed Films Release!

Occultist and hypnotician Kemper has been locked away in a criminal asylum for years for a gruesome series of murders, involving not only men and women but also some children.  Kemper seethes against the arresting and prosecuting team who = put him away.  Able to sneak out a list of targets and their addresses, Kemper uses his black magic lineage to carry out revenge on his behalf, a violent revenge on the loved ones of who incarcerated him to a life in imprisonment.  Four gruesome assassins through Kemper’s supernatural means leaves a body trail for eccentric Inspector Neilson whose unusual investigative methods has him highly sensitive to the case and his temper has him in the crosshairs of his commanding supervisor.  With no leads on how Kemper is committing a new string of gruesome crimes, Neilson pieces together that all the victims are related to the case that put Kemper away and when his son becomes the last target, Neilson goes to extreme lengths to see the serial killer is put down for good. 

A gory and cynical narrative of indelicate irony, “Cradle of Fear” is the British, anthological horror that speaks to the insidiously widespread evil that courses through the inevitable fallible and immoral side of human nature, leaving no good deed unpunished in its circumference of supernatural punitive karma.  The early 2000s anthology is written and directed by Alex Chandon, director behind the 1980s sex comedies “The Perv Parlor” and “Pervirella” as well as directing select music videos for the UK extreme black metal band Cradle of Filth, whose Goth-cladded lead signer Dani Filth stars in the film and is the poster boy for film art, hence the title’s similarity to the band’s name.  Eddie Kane, Ciska Faulkner, and Nico Rilla produced the film with Paul Luke and Andy Skivington serving as executive producers for the Pragmatic Pictures production. 

Aforementioned, Dani Filth stars as the ghoul with the ultimate evil of transforming his human form into a demonic creature that can rip to shreds those unlucky to be in his path, the opening gives us a glimpse into his power by viciously terminating two would-be, back-alley muggers.   From there, the story goes into the gruesome crime scene of two young women (Emily Bouffante, “Evil Aliens,” and Melissa Forti) laid strewn with their innards outwards and inspector Neilson (Edmund Dehn, “The Containment”) copping a feel as his way of rain-manning the scene.  Their end first storyline begins the moment the two goth club women were fated for untimely demise when they spotted Filth’s more-goth-then-they-are The Man.  Eventually, Inspector Neilson figures out the victims are connected by their last names and those related to trial participants with the next tales of sharing ill-fated death in the ghastliest and most gruesome ways, anthological style.  Another two women (Rebecca Eden, “Pervirella,” and Emma Rice) try to nick an old-timer of his bed stashed savings but find there is no honor between the combination of friends and thieves, an amputee (Louie Brownsell) murders an acquaintance to use his leg for longshot transplant only to have his leg reject in the most horrifying way, and a officer man (Stuart Laing, “Lie Still”) risks everything in life to get his rocks off gawking at online snuff films only to find himself in one!  There’s also the wrap around story that peppers transition scenes in between to bridge gaps and bring the short stories together into one long feature.  Kemper is the story’s chief antagonist but isn’t the only bad guy in the narrative but is our resemblance of a hero Inspector Neilson’s force to stop as the inspector doesn’t really just how purely symbolizing the embodied of pure evil Kemper really is perhaps even the Devil himself, as the orchestrator is the marionette pulling the strings that leaves Neilson chasing his tale.  Performances all around are gritty, apathetic, cynical, and mean that leaves no ounce of hope or feel-good intentions.

The early short films are not set up with Kemper as the man behind the curtain and this can put some confusion into the mix with seemingly rough transitions from one story to the next.  Plus, the non-linear first film isn’t mirrored into the other three, leaving the first third of the movie wandering, or grasping, to cling to something whole.  By the end of the second short, “Cradle of Fear” levels and becomes clear that an anthology is playing out with each tale containing a formula narrative:  a setup, the rising action or transgression, a brief, jovial high, and then it all comes crashing with gory horror.  The gore is a blend between practical and composite VFX that gets away with a range of simple stab wounds to more complicated head popping deaths while the visual effects has obvious green screen incongruity but dishes some devilish effects from deformed spider-like legs sprawled out from a half-severed head to some shoddy-level effects like a European car flying through and crashing through traffic.  What’s ingrained in the gore and horror is the sex, an element that’s immensely weighed in “Cradle of Fear’s” content that showcases scenes of sensual romance, to gratuitous nudity, to tasteful moments but keep the skin touched upon at least once in every episode.  “Cradle of Fear’s” circulated theme speaks toward the persistence and ever-present evil that’s within us all and from within it can’t be contained as human nature is ultimately fallible and every soul can be conditioned to expel the verhy worst in us all. 

Unearthed Films “Credle of Fear” arrives onto Blu-ray home video with a new 2-Disc, limited-edition collector’s set release encoded with AVC onto a BD25 and presented in an European widescreen of 1.66:1 aspect ratio with 1080p, high-definition resolution.  The 2-Disc set has for a long time seemingly vanished out of Unearthed Films’ newly released lineup, aside from the dual-format releases but it’s nice to see a comeback that’s more special features driven rather than playback format.  The dark grading leads to plenty of finer detail loss but the film has clear delineation and when it is key lit, textures flourish.  With a color scheme of mostly darker shades, keeping in line with its bleak noir tone and the gothic model, this early 2000’s horror fashions a polished veneer as one of the earlier pioneers of digital capturing.  The CGI is not at its finest being that it’s early early 2000’s VFX tech and on a budget too nonetheless and you can the shift in reality whenever the effect is composited into a scene.  Depth is mostly retained for closeups and medium closeup shots as Chandon’s does stylize quite a bit with fade in and outs, negative images, lighting, slow-motion, and various edits to make a swirl of designer continuity.  The British English audio is encoded with an uncompressed PCM 2.0 stereo.  Strong dialogue track doesn’t clash with the imposed, arterial soundtrack comprised of industrial goth and rock bands including Cradle of Filth, for obvious reasons, and The Dark Poets, Jezebel, Slacker, Lungworm, Intense, Quicksilver, and Crotchet.  Often, the ambience and Foley has chaotic aversion to one another that disrupt the audiological flow of the film, except for a few excellently crafted scenes such as Mel’s walk Emily Bouffante’s walk through the downtown area and see demon faces is harmonized very well.  The Foley can be slapstick at times with hits to the body being overexaggerated with cartoonish tones.  English subtitles are available on the feature disc. Disc one contains some ride-along aspecial features, including a brief making-of, a second behind-the-scenes Important Words that has direct Alex Chandon and cast members rambling about other topics rather than being topically relevant to the film, the German DVD making-of the feature, a behind-the-scenes gallery, and three original trailers for the film.  Disc two is mainlhy comprised off Alex Chandon’s short films – “Chainsaw Scumfuck,” “Bad Manor,” “Bad Karma,” “Drillbit,” “Night Pastor,” “Bullshit News,” and “Borderline.”  Also included is a promo for Film Extremes 3, outtakes for the shorts, a behind-the-scenes gallery for the shorts, and their trailers.  Packaging includes a traditional Blu-ray Amaray with new composition cover art on a one-sided sleeve.  The limited-edition O-ring slipcover contains the same primary image.  The discs are held in place on the inner layer of the Ameray with snaplocks and pressed with controversial and provocative imagery including a bloodied baby head and an illustrated eviscerated naked woman.  The region A locked film has a runtime of 120 minutes and is unrated. 

Last Rites: “Cradle of Fear” rocks the anthological horror subgenre not to sleep but to give rise to the killer instinct from within and to show the self-inflicted suffering from the innate debasement in the dark recesses of our soul.

“Cradle of Fear” Available on a 2-Disc Unearthed Films Release!

The Mountains Are Alive With the Sound of EVIL! “Cold Prey” trilogy reviewed! (Second Sight Films / 3-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Cold Prey” limited edition trilogy set! Get it while it lasts!

Five snowboarding friends travel to a remote mountain to shred the best scenic power Norway has to offer.  When one of them hurts their leg, the group hunkers down in an abandoned hotel for the night, a hotel with a horrible history of a child and his parents who went mysteriously missing decades earlier.  As the night carries on, a mountain man living underneath the main floor hunts them down.  A lone survivor of the night is taken to a closing down hospital with a skeleton crew.  The mountain man had followed her, prolonging her ordeal of terror, and continues his murderous killing spree through a new batch of medical staff and police officers.  Decades earlier, the mountain man’s abused backstory sets a coming-of-age path of homicidal tendencies as he lives in the woods 12 years later after departing his parents and the hotel.  A group of hikers wander into his woods where he can’t differentiate man from animal game and begins his thirst for the kill that would claim the lives of many years to come.

What I’ve just given is the three basic plotlines for all three of the Cold Prey films, a trio of Norwegian-made slashers with a murderous mountain man at the center of it all.  Including a sequel and a prequal, the films were all produced in a relatively short amount of time of four years between 2006 and 2010.  For the original film, Thomas Moldestad (“The Conference”) wrote the script based off a story he wrote alongside Martin Sundland (“The Wave”) and Roar Uthaug, the latter directed the film and would later go on to direct the 2018 reboot of “Tomb Raider” with Alicia Vikander in the Lara Croft role.  The sequel, “Cold Prey 2,” directly follows the first film but helmed by a different director in Mats Stenberg with Moldestad returning to pen the project.  The prequel innately disconnects the continuous nature of Cold Prey I and II for more history on the homicidal mountaineer with Sundland taking a backseat story idea role to Peder Fuglerud and Lars Gudmestad with Mikkel Braenne Sandernose bringing up the rear in the director’s chair.  The real-world location used in all three shoots was the Jotunheimen mountains and the studios connected to each project are Helgeland Film, SF Norge A/S, Norsk Filmstudio, Film i Väst, Storyline Studios and with the Norsk Filmstudio subsidiary, Fantefilm, involved in all three as the movie’s presenting studio. 

Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (“Chernobyl Diaries”), Thomas Alf Larsen (“Troll Hunter”), Viktoria Winge (“Inside the Whore”), Rolf Kristian Larsen, and Endre Martin Midtstigen play the five friends venturing to the mountains to shred some nice powder but wind up finding themselves stranded with a madman in their company.  That madman is played by Rune Melby, not to be confused with Sweden’s national hockey team player of the same name, to impose his large stature and husky look to be a formidable, silent antagonist that doesn’t need vocals to be threatening.  Surface level inspect of “Cold Prey” has it pegged as another typical slasher but this slasher rolls back the tropes, desaturating the themes and motifs to a reasonable amount and in a more realistic approach rather than having established personas, such as the nerd, jock, slut, etc., having gratuitous sex scene moments, and reduce the bonehead moves that ultimately result in their demise.  The sequel houses a new cast apart from Ingrid Bolsø Berdal making her return as a survivor recovering in a soon-to-be-closed hospital following the events of the first film.  She’s joined by Martha Snorresdotter Rovik, Fridtjov Såheim, and Johanna Mørck as the skeleton crew hospital staff, Kim Arne Hagen as Camilla’s boyfriend and utility emergency service person, Mats Eldøen, Per Schaanning, Andreas Cappelen, and Mads Sjøgård Pettersen as the limited bandwidth local law enforcement, Vetle Qvenild Werring as a boy patient, and Robert Follin replaces Rune Melby as the killer.  A larger cast equates to a larger body in this direct story follow-up and really capitalizes on the killer’s brute force and unstoppable grit that sets up a delusion of him against the world as a misanthropic maniac with some underlying superhuman force, like we see with Michael Myers. Berdal takes on the true survivor and heroine role helping those unaccustomed to the fight and even takes the fight to her tormentor, solidifying more of the final girl trope.  The rest are stuck in the middle as potential kill fodder and support to provide emotional capital as lives hang in the balance in their various relationships, which reminds me one relationship that’s hint at but never explored is the seemingly undercover or seedlings of affection between two medical staff that is quickly squashed by the rise of a killer in their midst.  The scene interaction would have stirred up controversy wither another involved character but never had a change to be problematic.  The prequel doesn’t involve any returning characters and really invests into the mountain man’s background more.  Played by a different actor in Endre Hellestveit and having an appearance more akin to the WWF Undertaker instead of a pelt and parka-cladded mountain man, each filmic version has varying style that almost feels heavily contrasted to the previous one and that can be jarring to that connective tissue for some.  A new band of friends become the hunted prey as they stumble into the mountain man’s forest home under the rough tutelage of illegal game hunter Jon (Nils Johnson) whose brother, police officer Einar (Terje Ranes), pieces the puzzle together the disappearance of the backpackers and Jon’s involvement in something more than poaching.  The backpackers play more into conventions without many complexities in their depth chart with Ida Maria Bakkerud, Julie Rusti, Kim Falck, Pål Stokka, Arthur Berning, and Sturla Rui are put into the mountain man’s crosshairs.  

As you’ve might have noticed, the prequel doesn’t receive high marks but it’s an entertaining bloodbath nonetheless, overshadow by the predeceasing counterparts because of the developing characters and the more interesting story that plays to a similar tune of the first two “Halloweens” and even more so with the continuation storyline between the first and second film with the latter set inside a sparsely populated hospital that definitely gives off “Halloween II” vibes.  That’s not to say the “Cold Prey” films are a carbon copy of notable classics and their sequels as “Cold Prey” brings a Norwegian staple into play with the summitting Jotunheimen mountains and their existence within that snowy terrain and mountain air, building a story around a mountain code that’s often spoken of, a code about safety that goes in deadly contrast toward the inexperience and nativity of youth believing they’re invincible to their surroundings when in reality mother nature, a natural evil within the mountain man living off the land, leaves more than a dent into their humility.  “Cold Prey” will often feel unoriginal with a severe lack of gore as that has almost become intrinsic to contemporary slashers but it’s refreshing to see a step back in the violence, though it’s nonetheless harsher.  Audiences will not be treated to impact violence that creates squeamish reactions and ghastly shock.  Instead, implied violence is the name of the game that results in the same blood-spattered crime scene look without the initializing, violent show of the blade sliding into the sternum.  These stylistic choices, executed perfectly by DoPs Daniel Voldheim (“Cold Prey”) and Anders Flatland (“Cold Prey 2”) in their camera work and expertly cut by Jon Endre  Mørk, are sold convincingly to ensure death is impenetrable when the pickaxe strikes while still flaunting a good amount of practical effects in makeup wounds, prosthetic props, and gallons of fake blood.  “Cold Prey III” dabbles in the same inferences and off-screne violence but shows a lot more too as we see a machine pierce and then slice away the insides of man and that knife going right int between the rib cage of a poor young woman, keeping up with the times of a modern slasher.  

The three film, Blu-ray set comes from Second Sight Films.  The UK label rolls out the red carpet with their high-definition release that’s an AVC encoded BD50, presenting each film with 1080p resolution and in a compressed widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 to capture the majestic Jotunheimen mountains.  Despite having three different directors of photography in Daniel Voldheim, Anders Flatland, and Ari Willey, each “Cold Prey” entry has the same gray sepia grading with a solid reducing of color saturation in attempt to harness cold and bleak surroundings of a harsher landscape.  IN the same breath, each DoP also tries to make the mountains and forest feel awesome and breathtaking while coursing its perilously imposing strength in size and, ironically enough, confining isolation.  You may find the Blu-ray details and textures on “Cold Prey” and “Cold Prey 2” not to be a sharp as expected for an early mid-2000s slasher as both were shot on 35mm for a better film cell texture rather than a captured texture to accentuate the landscape in a cinematic view rather than the digital polish that often downgrades pictures with a one-note aesthetic.  Since the snowcapped mountains were not used in the prequel, replaced with a forest setting, digital film was used to flesh out more raw textural details amongst the dense foliage and in the midst of a dilapidated mountain property.  No compressions issues in the codec to note.  Each film is fitted with a Norwegian language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound, suited to bring the soundtrack and the directional tension to the frontlines of the sound design to setup an impacting impression when the action saunters into frame.  Diffused nicely throughout, depth and direction of sound creates not only the atmospheric of a malevolent presence, it also creates environmental anxiety when sounds go bump in the night or just in the abandoned motel or echoing forest setting.  Dialogue is crystal clear and the English subtitles pace well with the speed and have no noticeable grammatical errors.  Each disc comes with its own special features:  “Cold Prey,” Disc one, has a new audio commentary with Director Roar Uthaug and actress Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, a new interview with Uthaug This is the Vibe, a new interview with Ingrid Bolsø Berdal Draw the Process, an alternate ending shown in storyboard that extends the final cut ending, a behind-the-scenes look at the visual FX of the film, additional car scenes, blooper reel, two short films: “Mountain Rose Run Amok” and “An Evening in the Green,” and Bloodlights’ music video for their hit “One Eye Open.”  “Cold Prey 2,” Disc Two, has a new audio commentary with director Mats Stenberg, a new interview with Stenberg A Blessing and a Curse, new interview with actress Berdal Dissociation, a new interview with fomer director turned solely producer Roar Uthaug Stepping Aside, behind-the-scenes, blooper reel, and extended and deleted scenes.  “Cold Prey 3,” Disc 3,” has a new commentary by Christer Andresen and Phillip Escott of an outsiders’ perspective looking in on the film prequel and a behind-the-scenes featurette.  The limited-edition rigid slipbox is massive and perhaps one the biggest physical copies for a 3-disc production.  James Neal provides new artwork for the front cover that truly represents the story as well as the aesthetic to expect.  The trifold jewel snapcase holds all three discs and have dramatic character portrays from all three films.  Also inside are 5 collector art cards and a 120-page book with new essays from Matt Donato, J.A. Kerswell, Just LaLiberty, Paul Le, Ariel Powers-Schaub, and Nathaniel Thompson, plus the book comes with new artwork, stylized stills, cast and crew acknowledgements, and Blu-ray production acknowledgments and thanks.  The Blu-ray holds a UK certified 15 rating for strong horror, bloody violence, language, sexual threat, injury and abusive behavior.  This particular release is region locked on B and has a total runtime of 278 minutes.

Last Rites: The “Cold Prey” trilogy doesn’t flash new spins on the slasher genre that’s as old as horror itself. Instead, “Cold Prey” a satisfactory slasher that scratches the killer maniac itch with its mountainman maniac!

“Cold Prey” limited edition trilogy set! Get it while it lasts!