Movie Reviews: Cold Prey

Dennis suggests Cold Prey (in Horror).  It’s always a good day when a poor video clerk finds a new horror movie he can actually recommend when someone asks, “I need a really scary movie.”  I mean, there just aren’t very many good horror movies.  And believe me, I’ve searched.   So this icy variation on the tried-and-true slasher subgenre of the horror family, which avoids most of the inherent traps of the average horror script, is like a deep, cleansing breath of frosty, blood-tinged air.  Plus, it’s from Norway!  The plot is pretty standard (a quintet of pretty people, and isolated location, an unseen killerman), with the following, refreshing variations:  one- the fivesome is actually nice, appealing, relatively well-developed, and generally devoid of the shrill dimwittery that makes you root for the bad guy.  Two: the fab five actually aren’t that stupid; I mean,we all know that most horror movies would be over in about twenty-five minutes if the ‘heroes’ weren’t about as capable as a pack of drunk eleven year olds, but, and I know this will come as a shock to most horror filmmakers, it’s actually more scary and compelling when the characters act like real people and still find themselves unable to escape their predicament.  Throw in a unique setting (abandoned ski chalet at base of glacier) and the charm of hearing what ‘what the f***?!?!’ sounds like in Norweigian (it’s about the same as English), and a heroine who looks like the best parts of Sigorney Weaver and Parker Posey, and you’ve got a welcome new international addition to the slasher pantheon.  Plus, dude’s got an ice-axe!  Ouch!