DVD Review: COLD PREY II (2008)

COLD PREY II (2008) 

Label: Shout Factory

Region Code: 1 NTSC

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 94 Minutes

Video: 16:9 Widescreen (2.35:1)

Audio: Danish Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Director: Mats Stenberg

Cast:  Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Johanna Morck, Kim Wifladt, Marthe Snorresdotter Rovik, Fridtjov Sahein

If you love snowbound horror and slashers then you best prepare yourself for an extended horror-gasm because the sequel to the Danish slasher entry COLD PREY (2006) is about to make you pop your top! Not sure what took so long for this sequel to make it's way to a proper region 1 DVD release but trust me it's worth the wait, I loved the original film and this one maintains the same level of quality.  It's atmospheric, tense, and features not just a main character you actually feel something for but a cast of side characters, too! On a purely visual level we get a a gorgeous snow-set mountaintop setting plus a very cool pick-ax armed slasher hacking away at 20-somethings, what's not to love?

This sequel much like Halloween 2 (1981) takes up immediately following the events of the first film, our heroine Jannicke (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), is picked-up by the police who find her dazed and confused alongside the road, the officer nearly runs her down. In shock and uncommunicative she is transported to a hospital where she tells the startling tale of what happened to her and her friends on the mountaintop, which I won't spoil for you. The authorities send a detail up to the mountain and specifically to the crevice in the ice where the corpses were thrown, and indeed her story checks out, there's a lot of bodies. 

The bodies are brought back to the hospital by the authorities for identification and autopsy purposes. When Jannicke is brought to the morgue to identify her friends bodies she sees that the killer's body is among them and goes into a justified shit fit and pounds the bejeezus outta the corpse in the morgue, and wouldn't you just know it the hulking freak springs back to life (of course!) to continue his slasher spree and maybe even knock off Jannicke who only just barely escaped him in the first installment.

There's a lot of similarities to Halloween 2, this is a pretty obvious homage to that film without question. It's a direct sequel, we have the hospital setting, and the drugged-out survivor girl. We don't quite get a Loomis character but collectively he's represented. Comparing it to H2 I wouldn't say it's a clone, think of it in terms of the DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) vs. DAWN OF THE DEAD (2008), similar but totally different. This frosty slasher-nirvana, and it has a great retro-feel, too. Much like the first installment there's plenty of slow lingering shots and eerie atmosphere bolstered by a creepy score and some nice sound design, this is a great looking slasher.

Something we don't get enough of these days that this film has in excess are some decent characters that you can get a feel for, the deaths actually mean something because the characters get at least some minor development, they're quite likable. The officers, the hospital staff and a small child whom befriends our heroine all enter into the picture and when the blood starts flowing you feel it, you dread it even, there's a real sense of menace and it's appreciated.

Ingrid Bolsø Berdal as our returning heroine is pretty fantastic, she starts of struggling with physical weakness and the effects of being strung out on tranquilizers but when the shit hits the fan she's quite the ass-kicker, and with this film we get not just one final girl, but two!

In regard to our baddie we do get some expanded back story from a cop who investigated a missing person report years ago, some newspaper clippings and whatnot. It's not a perfect info dump but it's not offensively expository either. Apparently the third entry is prequel, and given what we know and what we discover with this film, and the one before it, I am pretty excited to check it out.

At the end of the day this a slasher film so after all the character development and how gorgeous the movie is you might still wanna know how are the kills are, right? No worries grue-seekers, they're pretty sweet. While there's nothing new under the sun it's superbly executed without resorting to gratuitous excess, there's some restraint. We have a slashed throat, a brutal shower room brain bashing (minus a few point for a lack of nudity), a vertebrae shattering neck snap, and a great finale that takes us back to the remote mountaintop hotel where it all started. I would say that this one, while starting off somewhat slow for the first forty minutes, nicely ramps up he action over the first film and is its equal.  

DVD: Shout Factory present Cold Prey 2 in 16x9 widescreen (2.35:1) and it's a very nice standard definition transfer. The whites are crisp without being overblown and the blacks are adequate  there's some crushing evident in a few scenes. It's not an overly sharp image either, would love to see this get a 1080p Blu-ray with amped-up fine detail, it would be a stunner. The Danish 5.1 audio is very nice offering some good use of the surrounds. Dialogue, score and effects are well balanced and clear. Overall a very nice presentation that would greatly benefit from a new hi-def transfer.

The disc is pretty bare bones by Shout Factory standards coming in with only a trailer for the film and a few deleted scenes, which seemed to be just slightly different takes from scenes in the film, if that.

Special Features:

- Trailer (2:02)

- Deleted Scene (7:31)

Verdict: Cold Prey and Cold Prey 2 are fun, essential retro-styled slashers, these films are recommended to any slasher fan looking for something new to chew on. Now I am left to wonder how long do we have to wait for the second sequel which was released in 2010 in Norway to make it's way to North America? A perfect scenario would have Shout Factory acquiring the rights to all three films and releasing a triple feature Blu-ray of this Norwegian slasher franchise, can we make that happen? 3.5 Outta 5 

DVD Review: Salvage (2007)

SALVAGE (2007)

"What If Everyday You Relived Your Own Murder?"
Echo Bridge Entertainment


RATED: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 79 Min.
DIRECTOR: Joshua and Jeffrey Crook
CAST: Lauren Currie Lewis (Claire Parker), Chris Ferry (Duke), Cody Darbe (Jimmy)


SUMMARY: Claire Parker is going to die. At the hands of a sadistic and depraved killer, she will endure a terrifying, unimaginable brutal death--and it will all happen again. After being beaten, dragged, sliced, and stabbed, Claire awakens at work--where it all began--untouched and unharmed. But the hellish ordeal is far from over. The madman is back and he's ready for more blood... (from the Salvage DVD)

FILM: This journey begins as Claire Parker is getting off of the graveyard shift at the Starfire Express, a 24 hour convenience store. She walks down the street a ways and waits for her boyfriend Jimmy who works at the salvage yard to pick her up. A man calling himself Duke pulls up alongside her in Jimmy's truck. He says that he works with Jimmy and has been sent to take her home. On the ride to Claire's house Duke comes off as a pretty greasy guy with some inappropriate comments towards Claire. It only gets creepier from there as he tries to invite himself into Claire's home but she's not having it. He tries to lure her out saying that she's dropped an earring in the cab of the truck. She tells him to leave it on the door step and she'll retrieve it later, and so he does. Though she is sure he's gone on his way she still cautiously unlocks and opens the door only a smidgen, just enough to squeeze her arm through the opening and grab the earring then she quickly locks up again. Relieved she makes her way to the kitchen only to discover that the backdoor is open. A rush of fear rushes over her as Duke appears and strikes her and then drags her screaming to the basement. It's at this point that Claire awakens at the Starfire Express, it was only a dream ...or was it? The events unfold in a similar fashion, only this time Jimmy does pick her up takes her home and they go off to school. Only now she's seeing visions of Duke and things seem wrong, not right. It's at this point that you realize Claire is reliving her murder again and again in a nightmarish time loop. Each time she awakens at the moment of death and is able to gleen a bit more information about who Duke is and what's happening to her.


Salvage was made on a limited budget but the acting, cinematography and story are really strong. The acting from Lauren Claire Lewis and Chris Ferry is particularly good. Ferry as Duke is a menacing figure with a gruff voice, very chilling. Lauren is your every girl, not an overly strong female character but very likable and sympathetic.

It's a brutal film though it's not especially gore-laden. The effects are modest and well done. Some definite use of CGI that's not too distracting, including a great shotgun blast to the face. There's a face peeling scene in the film that is a prime example of the camera pulling away from the savagery and letting the tension and sound design do the heavy lifting.


The film was shot a mini DV and looks pretty good. There have been some color enhancements to the image that gives the film a surreal look, it works wonderfully. Also working in the films favor is a really effective film score from Evan Wilson (A Kiss of Chaos, Rise of the Dead)

DVD: The Salvage DVD from Echo Bridge Entertainment is presented in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic wide screen. I was a bit disappointed in the non-anamorphic letter boxed transfer to be truthful. It's 2010, almost every home must have a wide screen television by now, right? That said, the image looks quite good if a bit soft. The 5.1 audio track is also decent if not overly active. There are precious few supplemental materials here including a trailer and a Crook Bros. commentary track which is mostly technical in nature with very little discussed in regards to story.

VERDICT: A very good psychological thriller that relies on story, tension and haunting atmosphere (not gore) and nudity to carry it through. I'll be looking forward to the next Crook Brothers project. ***1/2 (3.5 out of 5 stars)
-McBASTARD