Cold Prey II (2008) Horror Slasher

Cold Prey II (2008) - Fritt vilt II in Norwegian this thrilling slasher film continues mere hours after the last film ended. The original Cold Prey  was surprisingly well done but seeing the history of sequels I have to say I feared the worst going into the second film. The original with its killer creation story built into it was well directed by Roar Uthaug and acted by the cast with lead Ingrid Bolso Berdal a real stand out, the action was tense and the situations presented were not way out there. When it comes to stalker /killer movies they can quickly go from good to bad with small script choices and the fear is always that in the pursuit of a few dollars suddenly your killer has some kind of supernatural powers and can't be killed. Then before you know it is its "Friday the 13th", parts 3 and on, and he is killing in outer space.
 Mats Stenberg in his directing debut, and from the looks of it his only project ever picks up shortly after the first film ended. Of course we don't know that yet instead we meet the cast of people who will be the hunted at the new location, a hospital. We have Camilla (Marthe Snorresdotter Rovik) and Ole (Kim Wifladt) he a search and rescue technician and she a doctor at the hospital in Stehotinn. They are in the midst of a sort of breakup, but not where she is thinking of taking a job further away and he is not committal about joining her. None of this will matter soon though, as Ole while driving out on his job almost hits Jannicke our sole survivor from Cold Prey. This is how we know it is not long after the events of the first film. She is in tough shape with exposure related problems and is brought back to the hospital to be cared for by Camilla. When the bodies of the other victims are brought into the hospitals morgue, and the body of the killer from the first film you can guess what happens next.
This second film directed by
  The film makes a leap,  partially reasonable and somewhat ridiculous at the same time to explain the return from the dead of the killer. First there is a reasonable argument that the cold slowed the killers heart so he appeared dead, then the warmth of the morgue allowed him to revive. The second part though involves the back story of the character, it goes that at birth the child was DOA but that amazingly after some time his heart magically jump started itself. This is wrapped in a paper of some kind of syndrome but really it is a lame attempt to create back story while also getting the killer back in action.
  Writer Thomas Moldestad as he did in the first film delivers a script that is tight and tense. If not for the silly rebirth of the killer you could say that this film is damn close to the first in the scenarios that play out. Since the killer does what he does it is, the basic stalk and kill of the first film is on display here. Instead of the abandoned ski lodge we place it in the hospital and instead of skiers we have patients and hospital staff. So what is different? Well the story of Jannicke who at first is pretty helpless as she recovers, but as the film goes on her fight, this time from a place of experience is what drives the film forward. What is great about her isn't that she is some kind of wrecking ball for the killer but more that her will to survive. She encompasses the competent and strong willed survivor we all hope we will be in such an extreme situation. Like Ripley in Alien she is a problem solving, strong woman who will fight back when it is called for. Since seeing "You're Next"  and its character Erin, this is another competent resourceful woman character and I have to say the horror genre needs more of them. Also this film does what a good sequel does it ups the body count a bit, and includes more action than the first. Many of the characters in the film are just fodder for the killer.
  So although the film plays out like a stalker slasher film, the character of Jannicke carries the action and again even though there is not a lot new in this film is entertaining all the way through. We do have the story of the killer though. Not quite willing to make the killer supernatural, Moldestad instead uses the fact that in the original the killer is defeated outside to help bring him back to life. This is Norway and its damn cold in these films. So suggesting that the killer's body temperature could of made his heart slow to the point that it could not be heard is a reasonable attempt. Unfortunately we also get a little back story on the killer, how when he was a baby thta he was stillborn and the doctors could not get him going with CPR. The after they had given up he suddenly jump started his own heart. It is a bit of a stretch and damn close to being ridiculous. Knowing that there is a third film in this series I anticipate the crossing over into camp at the very least.
  So if you want a solid and entertaining film where lots of people are stalked by an overly strong killer, half the time, the characters don't even know there is a killer, then watch Friday the 13th, oh wait no, Cold Prey II which is similar but not the same. You will have to read subtitles but I think the story is strong enough to recommend this film.

Chernobyl Diaries (2012) Horror Monsters

Chernobyl Diaries (2012) - SPOILERS ALL THOUGH THIS!!!!  There really is no way we can talk about this film's absolute inability to perform as a horror film without spoiling the movie. So I will take the low road here and completely spoil this film. If you do not want it to be spoiled for you PLEASE stop reading now.
 The Chernobyl Diaries is the story of  Americans in Russia where an exotic trip to the nuclear zone, the city of Prypiat around the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant goes horribly wrong. Chris (Jesse McCartney), Amanda (Devin Kelley), and Natalie (Olivia Dudley) track down Chris's brother Paul (Jonathan Sadowski) in Kiev as the travel the world. The setup is not quick in this film, we get several scenes of different places the group visits before they arrive at the brother's place in Russia. After a night of drinking Paul tells them that he has arranged a special tour in the radiation zone of the power plant which in real life melted down in April of 1986. So they are there 26 years later the radiation low enough to explore a world totally abandoned by humans. Some 350,000 people just up and left at the spur of the moment and left absolutely everything behind.
  Paul hires Uri (Dimitri Diatchenko) a former soviet special forces soldier turned extreme tour guide to bring them to an abandoned city near Chernobyl. Joined by another unrelated couple  Zoe (Ingrid Bolso Berdal) and Michael (Nathan Phillips) the group climbs into Uri's van and after some initial difficulty with security forces sneak into the city. They walk around and check out buildings with Amanda taking photos and Uri explaining the disaster.  All of this set up takes about 35 minutes so the audience I was part of was starting to get board when the group finally heard a noise down the hall of one of the apartments there is this great set up piece where the group sees a pond and stops to check it out. There is this mutated fish with really big teeth dead on the bank. So we know we are going to be dealing with some mutant things later on. When Uri is making splashes in the water we see the live mutant fish swarming. It actually is a very good foreshadow if later someone falls in the water. In the buildings the sudden non supernatural scare is funny and surprising but boy what a long build up for a film that is only 90 minutes long. After this point the problems really start for the group and the viewer alike. When they decide to leave the van won't start, but it is not just that it won't start it has been sabotaged. It looks like someone has fucked with the distributor but this group does not seem interested in this point. Instead they quickly are turning on each other about how they got into the situation. Certainly it should have been the entire conversation, who did it?, Why they did it? but nary a word is spoken just Chris blaming his brother and Paul blaming Uri. What the fuck are these people even awake? Someone came into your van and trashed your ride and you are more into blaming each other than realizing you are in danger?

 Staying in the van for the night seems like a good idea, with a 13 mile hike out the next day it seems wise. Problem is that this film is waiting for nightfall and the chance to scare us. It does not take long for noises off in the dark to pull the curious Uri from the safety of the van. It makes sense that if someone is comfortable exploring in the dark it is the former soldier. Chris goes along for good measure and then something happens. We hear the yelling but don't get to see the attack that happens off camera. What kind of a horror movie has something happen off camera? One that does not want to spend any money at all. So Paul and everyone hears the shouts and Paul heads out and drags his brother back with a pretty severely wounded leg. Wild dogs are in close pursuit but that is not the extent of the attack. Being in the van they are safe but we learn Uri was not so lucky. We also learn that it was not just dogs but again the film fails. Chris does not say what else attacked them and no one questions him. WTF! At this point we are a good 50 minutes into the film and nothing has been seen. The characters that did see things, just don't want to talk about it and apparently these "future dead people" he is traveling with are fine with not knowing the danger. We here that it was not just dogs but that is all. You would think that Chris would describe in full his experience but it is just a horrible lead to leave the audience guessing. It should leave the other characters guessing too but they just ignore the comment. This is particularly frustrating as a viewer and at this point I am sort of saying Fuck this movie. It unfortunately is not its worse offense.
  After spending the night in the van they start a conversation about hiking out. Only then does anyone note that Chris has a bad leg and is not going anywhere. To recap these people have been sitting in a van all night long, with no radio or board game or weed and this is the first time that anyone notices that Chris is not going anywhere on his mangled leg. I guess this is what happens when idiots are put into this kind of situation. So some will leave and some will stay waiting for help. The group that leaves spends the next ten minutes of film time walking away from the van and avoiding the dog pack and find a similar van to the one they are driving. They explore a bus that has been fortified against attack, with obvious bullet holes from the inside towards whatever was attacking it from outside. Whoever was in there eventually lost and the bus is abandon except for some blood. Remarkably they get a new distributor and can head back to rescue the others. Then of course they need to hide and run and things start getting really shitty. Those dogs have spotted them and they need to run, yes outrun a pack of wild dogs. Instead of holding up in the fortified bus a hundred feet away they go running off into the open country side. Crossing an old bridge that is rotting they cross the stream the dogs don't dare to go near. Now payoffs are important and since we saw the fish earlier you would think that here comes the fish attack on a massive scale. Unfortunately though because of budget constraints or just poor writing there is no big mutant fish attack and although the dude that falls into the water gets a cut on his leg he and the girlfriend who pulls him from the water are alive and safe from the dogs. On the way back it is suddenly dark, yes they head out in the morning and after 15 minutes they find the car part but it then gets dark on the way back to the van. Maybe I dozed off or something and missed the entire day, but they did not get so off track that they were gone until dark. Fuck you Chernobyl Diaries!

  When they arrive back at the van, the overturned, onto its roof van, Chris and Natalie are gone.  Okay again, when making a horror movie NOT showing anything bad that happens is a really shitty thing to do to your audience. This film relishes not showing anything and thus it is a really shitty horror movie. At least things pick up from here, we get wandering around in the dark and scary mutant people chasing them. My memory is a bit bad and I only saw this once, because even though I had to write this review there is no way I would pay to see it a second time. So I think they find the blond Natalie and NOBODY gets the story from her of what happened to the van. Fuck you Chernobyl Diaries! Instead they just wander around in the dark and we finally get to that creepy scene where the little girl is standing and they see her back. In the preview it is really scary and Natalie is dragged into the darkness down the stairs. It happens just like that except we see what the reaction is from the rest of the group. They see her vanish and run after her but she is gone, at the bottom of the long stairway is a longer corridor but in both directions is emptiness. It just is not physically possible that she is completely gone. Again we never actually see what happens to her this movie is all about what not to do in a horror movie. We see more and more of the mutant people who are the problem. Hell their escape from the hospital is why the area was closed off for the day.  They create the last 30 minutes of the film where one by one the tourists are knocked off as they flee through underground passages from these cannibalistic mutants. In the end there is a semblance of an explanation but at that point you are just wishing this shit would be over. Even in the most tense parts the creatures are only revealed in blurry glimpses and shaky camera flashes leaving the viewer again wondering if there was any budget at all for effects. I was so angry by the time this movie ended that when my daughter and I started talking about the film we could only say negative things about it. So Fuck You Chernobyl Diaries!
Rating (2.5) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others