Cold Prey

Director: Roar Uthaug

Writer: Thomas Moldestad

Starring: Ingrid Bolsø Berdal

Released: 2006

Cold prey is a Norwegian slasher movie (released in 2006) about a group of friends on a snowboarding trip. When one of the group breaks his leg, they find an abandoned hotel where they decide to stay until the weather clears and they can get help.

This of course is the perfect set-up for a slasher film. A remote location with no chance of help from outsiders, no communication with the outside world...

As the group search the hotel, which seems untouched since the 1970s, they find evidence in the cellar that someone is living there, and who appears to have collected jewellery and other personal items from people by nefarious means. It's around this time that the killer emerges and starts to pick off the group one-by-one...

I have to admit I'm a fan of slasher movies, and of setting films in remote, snowy loations (mainly because of John Carpenter's The Thing), and I'm a lover of most things Scandanavian, so the film wasn't a hard sell for me. That said, the film is exceptionally well made for a low budget horror, and even if a lot of the killing scenes are a little underwhelming, star Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Jannicke) is an engaging heroine, and puts in a fine performance to keep the film rolling along at a nice pace.

The film comes into its own near the end when Jannicke is on her own against the masked killer as she realises that with no hope of escape or hiding, she must face him on her own.

Overall, this is a decent and enjoyable film. the characters are not as annoying as in many other slasher films (when I'm quite happy for them to get killed), and as I've said, the director has to take a lot of credit for making the film look so good. Some of the killing scenes are fairly pedestrian, which, though fairly realistic, can get a little boring. The film does get better as it goes along and has a decent final showdown.

Rating: 3/5