FIVE FILMS FROM...2008

COLD PREY 2

(Directed by Mats Stenberg)

'I've killed him before.'

We all know how much some horror sequels can go off the rails and suck harder than a black hole with hiccups, so there’s nothing to be gained in naming-and-shaming any examples. However, all genre fans know that sometimes they can be just as striking and enjoyable as the first film… even if it’s directed by a different filmmaker or the story goes in a slightly different direction. Covered in our “Five Films From 2007”, the sequel 28 Weeks Later could arguably be a good example of this, as could Exorcist III and Nightmare on Elm Street 3. So, here’s another good sequel for your consideration from the year in question. Cold Prey numero uno was (and is still) an extremely effective Norwegian take on the slasher genre. Directed by the brilliantly named Roar Uthaug, who is now better known for the decent 2018 Tomb Raider reboot at the cinema and the hugely successful Troll on Netflix, it was in the top ten of financially successful films in its home country in 2006. However, despite good reviews and great festival reactions, it was (and is) not that well-known overseas. The same goes for this 2008 follow-up, which is sometimes titled Cold Prey: Resurrection (or “Fritt Vilt II” in its home country). Directed this time by Mats Stenberg, it was written by Uthaug and again stars Ingrid Bolsø Berdal in the leading role, replaying her final girl character from the original.  

The film picks up exactly at the same point where the first left off, where the female protagonist is picked up in the frozen wilderness and brought to a hospital. This is Jannicke (Berdal), the only survivor from the slaughter of the first movie. It was all perpetrated by a dishevelled nutcase known only as “The Mountain Man” (Robert Follin), a disfigured and disturbed hermit who masks his face with goggles and winter wear. He killed anyone who stumbled across his remote abode, a deserted ski lodge set in the snowy peaks.  But he reckoned without the feisty Jannicke, who just about managed to avenge her buddies before collapsing in the snow. So Jannicke ends up in the hospital in the nearby municipality of Otta. Despite her trauma, she manages to direct the police to the kill zone, where they recover the bodies of her chums and the Mountain Man (let’s call him MM). Except… when they take MM to the morgue… he ain’t quite dead yet. And the doctors stupidly revive him, despite Jannicke’s (understandable) protestations. Inevitably, after a brief recovery nap, MM revives and starts killing everybody he meets in the skeleton-staffed hospital. And of course, he makes a beeline for the injured Jannicke… who by this time is REALLY pissed off with his shenanigans and refusal to snuff it.

If all that sounds like the plotline to Halloween II (the 1981 one, not the weird Rob Zombie one in 2009), then yes, it does. Like the first film, Cold Prey 2 is very much a homage to Halloween and Friday the 13^th. The seemingly invincible killer, hiding behind a mask and showing zero empathy for the people he murderises in varying and innovative ways. In fact, the only real difference between the synopsis of this and Halloween 2 is that the authorities recover the killer’s “corpse” and place him in the hospital, rather than him hunting down the final girl. Also, there’s no Doc Loomis equivalent. If anything, Jannicke is an amalgamation of Loomis and Laurie Strode. She’s also a major reason why this sequel rocks so much.

Berdal’s performance as Jannicke is quality. She was a fine hero in the first film, but takes it to another level here, beyond the basic Laurie Strode and towards a Ripley-level of heroism. Despite being silent and traumatised for much of the first part of the film, when MM arises and she has to face him, she becomes absolutely bloody furious! Giving bestial yells as she barrels into him with a hospital gurney and struggles with him in desperate close quarters, it’s a far cry from some of the fleeing characters typical of a slasher like this. Without giving away the ending, she dares to relentlessly pursue her tormentor (instead of vice versa) and provides a definitive end to the proceedings in the final scene. Yes, there was a Cold Prey 3, but it was a prequel. Make of that what you will.

Even with Berdal going nutzoid, this could very much have been another dopey slasher rip-off, despite the sub-zero setting and the Norwegian dialogue. But some really good elements elevate it above that. The police are fully informed and involved from the beginning, and it’s a nice touch to have them gradually reveal some of the history of MM as events unfold in the hospital. It fleshes out the faceless villain and shows that he’s been killing for a long time, as well as giving some depth to the whole scenario. The remoteness of the town manages to still provide some form of isolation and believability to the set-up, whilst supplying new characters who are likeable enough to miss if they bite the pickaxe. Camilla (Marthe Snorresdotter Rovik) becomes a decent companion figure to Jannicke, and of course, a random child is put in potential danger. Whilst a lot of the plot developments could be decried as being predictable, the story occasionally throws a decent curveball. The trap laid by MM, taking out multiple characters, the return to the ski lodge, and the denouement are all head-turning moments.  

The film also nails the requisites of a slasher. MM is a formidable and hefty menace, and the sequence where he spasms on the morgue table as he wakes up is oddly disturbing. A practical man, he prefers the use of available weapons, pausing to compare the effectiveness of separate tools whilst in the hospital basement. Gore and tension are there in droves. The throat-slashing scene (the dopey victim spins on a chair as MM lurks behind him with a sharp object) is splendidly effective. Another classic horror moment occurs as Camilla holds her entire body off the floor under a table (so that she can’t be seen by peeking eyes), as the villain saunters around her location, and her arms quiver with exertion.

It's all good, solid stuff and well worth catching. At the time, the success of Cold Prey 1 ensured that it got good footfall at the Norwegian cinemas, but it stays shamefully underappreciated in other territories. Scream Factory has released physical copies in the US, but you’ll mostly have to hunt/rental digital copies (probably with a VPN) if you want to see a decent version in the UK. Don’t expect a deconstruction or reinvention of the slasher, but if you want to see a frosty-faced and accomplished variation of “Halloween” with a formidable hero, you can’t go wrong with this sequel.

Fun Fact:  The shooting was beset with problems, and at one point, Berdal came down with severe food poisoning, meaning that she had to perform scenes in between vomiting copiously. To lighten the mood, team members hid in various rooms of the hotel where they were staying, doing their best to scare the others by jumping out wearing masks from the set. The movie was seen by 101,564 people on its opening weekend, which was a Norwegian record for a domestic movie at the time (although that’s according to Wiki…so…).

THE BURROWERS

(Directed by J.T. Penny)

'If you so much as touch that gun without my say-so, I will holster it in your ass.'

No. It’s not about “liddle people” who live in the sideboards and live off stuff scavenged from normal-sized humans. This is a bona fide horror-western, a sub-genre that is often neglected when retrospectives of film trends are published. And there are a surprisingly large number of them if you take the opportunity to look. From the blood-spattered nastiness of Bone Tomahawk (2015) to the quirky weirdness of Grim Prairie Tales (1990), there’s something for fans of both genres if you search it out. For more recent examples of this interesting sub-section of movies, see Organ Trail (2023), Thine Ears Shall Bleed (2024), The Wind (2018), and many, many others. Likewise, The Burrowers is an atypical horror film that uses a western setting to good effect, with much of the plot being an indictment of the damage that white settlers and the military did to the country, as much as it is about weird subterranean creatures with a nasty eating habit. Written and directed by J.T. Petty, who is probably best known for Hellbenders and work on many video game scripts, it’s a great (but certainly not feel-good) take on this type of story.     

The story begins “Little House on the Prairie”- style in 1879, somewhere in the Dakota territory of the “New World”. The Stewart family are happily incumbent on a ranch on the plains, with daughter Maryanne (Jocelin Donahue) being engaged to Irish immigrant Fergus Coffey (Karl Geary). However, sometime later in the middle of the night, the ranch is attacked by unknown assailants. A few of the family are found mauled and dead in the aftermath, but a few have gone missing, including Maryanne. This causes a military-backed posse to be assembled, led by the loathsome Henry Victor (Doug Hutchison), who predictably blames Native Americans for the massacre and is eager to wipe out local tribes. Luckily, some restraint is found within other members of the posse, which not only includes a distraught Fergus, but also an experienced frontiersman, John Clay (the inimitable Clancy Brown) and former soldier, William Parcher (the perennial “I-know-that-face” actor, William Mapother). As they track across the plains, they encounter friendly and not-so-friendly natives, which results in misunderstandings and needless violence. They also stumble upon the real cause of the opening murders, a subspecies that has adapted to a horrendous way of finding food after the white man decimated the herds of the wild west. Don’t expect a happy ending.

Apart from being misread as “The Borrowers” by English folk, The Burrowers probably suffers from a lack of awareness and promotion. In the US, it did get a showing at the Toronto Film Festival and received some praise. In the UK, it was barely released, and even its striking (if misleading) poster artwork didn’t create much of a buzz. That’s a shame because this is stirring stuff and quite unusual in its delivery. That being said, it’s certainly not something to watch if you want a simple creature feature or a straightforward action-oriented thriller. Anyone looking at the title and synopsis and expecting something similar to Tremors (or perhaps more fittingly Tremors 3: Back to Perfection) is heading for disappointment. It’s a slow and sustained mood-piece with most of the genre elements kept to the background, emphasising mystery and a pervasive feeling of dread, rather than big-ass worms chawing down on cowboys.  

Starting with the titular creatures themselves, they aren’t revealed to any extent until the very end. We mostly get POV shots from grassy knolls or pitch-black assaults at night. Only towards the final acts are the humanoid nasties seen in any detail. They’re pale and hairless semi-humanoids with hunched backs and hind legs whose knees bend forward (like a bird). But it’s mostly the things that they do that inspire revulsion and exploit our very worst fears. These are expertly drip-fed to the viewer by nasty discoveries and second-hand history lessons offered by the Native Americans. It slowly becomes clear that those who go missing are poisoned and paralysed by the toxins carried by the Burrowers. They then bury them alive, let the toxins ripen the body, and return to feast on the still-just-about-kicking individuals. Despite an exposition bomb from one character, all this is gradually pieced together by finding bodies in shallow graves and exposure to the methods of the freaky assholes.  

One thing about all that horror lore, though, is that it’s often not the primary focus of the plot or the developments within it. As much time (if not more) is given over to the (mis)adventures of the posse and the effects they have on the land and culture around them. Victor is a massive racist and hell-bent on killing any Native American that he can find, if not whole tribes. Sadly, indicative of attitudes at the time, it’s ironic that (spoiler alert!!) he’s one of the few characters to survive and has absolutely no experience or knowledge of the titular monsters. By contrast, Fergus is a well-meaning and heartbroken doofus who consistently screws up and makes things worse. And without presenting more spoilers, more than one innocent or “good” character is mercilessly killed in one way or another, often for no good reason other than inhumanity towards others. The final shot is an absolute heartbreaker.

It's often a complaint that’s levelled at the film, that the balance between horror and western is sometimes misjudged. You do get the impression that the climax was a bit rushed, and more could have been done with the title characters. That being said, there’s a bittersweet and honest complexity to the film that is quite atypical. Brown and Mapother are as watchable as ever in their roles, with no safety net given to any of the cast. Any one of them could bite the dust (or be bitten by something in the dust) at any time. The final act is a morose indictment of those times and a clear message that there are as many monsters above the ground as there are underneath it. Fans of straightforward monster films may be left wanting, but those looking for (literally) more depth and mystery with their bullets and blood will find this to be a hidden gem.

Fun fact(s): It was shot in just 23 days in New Mexico. Actor Doug Hutchinson was insistent that Henry Victor would be the sort of “person” to have a handlebar moustache, so it was written in. Petty evolved the look of the creatures over 3 years with pages of concept sketches and ideas.       

THE STRANGERS

(Directed by Bryan Bertino)

‘Is Tamara home?'

Home invasion films are horrible aren’t they? Slasher movies can be camp and fun and schlocky, despite all the bloodshed. Creature features can be exhilarating and fun and even body horror can offer some genuine moments of gross out comedy. But home invasion films are sort of evil. Although their plots vary slightly at their core, they are about a person (or people) trapped in a single location (usually a home) and someone (or some thing) wants to get in. And not to share some cold beers, watch football and engage in friendly banter. Oh no. They usually want something specific inside your home, be that an object or a person and they’re prepared to do anything to get it. Or you know, they just want to fuck you up for the sake of it. This fear of the abode being invaded isn’t new either. This primal fear of the home being breached isn’t new either. I’m not about to label The Three Little Pigs (written in 1886) as a straight-up “home invasion” story, but it does illustrate a key point: as long as humans have had homes, we’ve feared what might get inside. Whether it’s a wild animal, a stranger with bad intentions, or something supernatural, the anxiety lingers. In cinema, this fear dates back decades. The Desperate Hours (1955) is an early and potent example. Then there’s Wait Until Dark (1967)—a must-watch if you haven’t already—in which a blind woman is terrorised by a trio of thugs seeking something in her home. Things turned more brutal with Straw Dogs (1971), and after Halloween (1978), the home invasion and slasher genres became natural bedfellows. From When a Stranger Calls (1979) to Scream’s iconic opening (1996), and more recent entries like Hush (2016) and Us (2019), the subgenre continues to evolve. And Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers is easily among the best.

I was lucky enough to attend the UK premiere of The Strangers at FrightFest back in 2008. Yes, somehow that was 17 years ago—but I’ll save my existential horror about the passage of time for another blog. The festival crowd “loved” it—though perhaps “were left hollow by it” is more accurate. For those who don’t know what The Strangers is about, here’s the low-down. Kristen (Liv Tyer) and James (Scott Speedman) arrive at the latter’s isolated summer holiday home after spending the day at a wedding. Despite looking like #couplegoals, things are clearly strained - James has just proposed, and Kristen has turned him down. Awkward. The rose petals and champagne only make things more painful. James calls a friend to pick him up in the morning, realising the relationship may be over. It plays like a quiet relationship drama until a young woman knocks on the door in the early hours asking if “Tamara is home.” James sends her away. But she returns… and she’s not alone.If you haven’t seen the film, now’s a good time to stop reading. Spoilers ahead.

Critics and general audiences were split on The Strangers. Both groups gave it middling scores—hovering around 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. But financially, it was a sleeper hit. Thanks to its small cast and single location, the production budget was a modest $9 million. It doubled that on its opening weekend and ultimately earned over $80 million worldwide. Oddly, it took nearly a decade to get a sequel, which was decent, but lacked the raw menace of the original. According to Bertino, the inspiration came from a childhood experience:

"As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered. They were asking for someone who didn’t live there. We later found out they were knocking on doors in the area, and if no one was home, they broke in."

Chilling stuff - but at least the assailants in this case were robbing people and not killing them (we assume, anyway!). The motives here are much, much murkier however and that’s where the true horror comes from. These home invaders aren’t here for money or revenge. They don’t know Kristen and James. They are simply there because they enjoy terrorising (and killing) people. ‘Why are you doing this to us?’ Kristen asks her attackers at one point. ‘Because you were home’ is the chilling response. But surely all this nihilism and depravity means that this film is a real grind? Well, no. Because although it has an ending that leaves you feeling like you’ve just been slapped across the face, the rest of it is extremely tense and gripping. Bertino’s direction is sparse but beautiful and Speedman and Tyler’s performances help elevate the material beyond a simple slasher. As do the trio of masked up maniacs.

Some of the best horror comes in the first half. The first time that Dollface knocks on the door is weird enough but when she does it a second time, there’s a real sense of menace. The scene where someone pounds on the front door when Kristen is home alone is anxiety inducing but the winner has to be the scene a couple of minutes later. James still hasn’t returned after nipping out to get some supplies and a spooked Kristen is walking around the generous kitchen. In the dark doorway behind her we see a man with a sack on his face slowly emerge. He watches her for a few moments before disappearing back into the darkness. We know he’s inside the house now, but she doesn’t. (Shudders)

Fun fact: The film was shot entirely with hand-held cameras or steady cams. Every shot has some camera movement.

LAKE MUNGO

(Directed by Joel Anderson)

'I feel like something bad is going to happen to me. I feel like something bad has happened. It hasn't reached me yet but it's on its way.' Whilst a lot of found footage horror films are lazily given the mockumentary label, the vast majority of these films are not actually mock documentaries, truth be told. Cannibal Holocaust (1980), The Blair Witch Project (1999), Paranormal Activity (2007), Grave Encounters (2011) are all films about people who are making a documentary, but we are not watching a feature in a finished documentary format. They are not edited or presented in the same way as something like The Tunnel (2012) or Savageland (2016) or Horror in the High Desert (2019). You could sit down and start watching these things and believe that you were watching an actual polished documentary, as opposed to a curated montage of raw footage. These two types of films offer quite different viewing experiences and the horror comes from a slightly different place. A film like Ghostwatch (1994) is a rarity, in that it sort of does both. It provides the tension of the raw, lo-fi stuff you get in films like The Blair Witch Project whilst also giving us the veneer of a professional live documentary. It’s one of the reasons it’s so bloody good. Anyway, back to true mockumentaries and possibly the best example of this we’ve had to date; Joel Anderson’s Australian chiller Lake Mungo.

The premise sounds simple enough. A teenage girl, Alice (Talia Zucker), drowns during a swim following a family picnic. The documentary follows her family as they attempt to process the loss and the possibly supernatural events that begin to unfold in the aftermath. That description might lead you to expect a pseudo-doc version of Insidious or Poltergeist, complete with paranormal investigators and high-tech gear. But this isn’t a Most Haunted-style ghost hunt. At first, it plays more like a true crime documentary - talking heads, careful setup, character studies. We get raw footage of the location where Alice died and harrowing images of her recovered body. It all feels authentic and grounded, thanks in large part to the subtle, naturalistic performances from the actors portraying Alice’s parents and brother. Their quiet grief and emotional repression feel strikingly real. Lake Mungo does a phenomenal job of making us believe in these people and their story - which only amplifies the unsettling power of the horror when it finally arrives.

Initially, we hear of unexplained noises in the house and bruises appearing on Alice’s brother. There’s something inherently unnerving about listening to an earnest account of frightening events without actually seeing them. The father's story of Alice’s ghost appearing to him is particularly affecting. But let’s be honest - visual scares still hit hardest, and Lake Mungo delivers a few that are genuinely chilling. Joel Anderson deploys a specific kind of horror that, when executed well, is deeply effective: still images that seem innocuous at first, but on closer inspection, reveal something horrifying. Often accompanied by a slow zoom, the first of these moments in Lake Mungo is enough to give you goosebumps. Alice’s brother, an aspiring photographer, has a camera set up to take a photo of their backyard every three months. And sure enough, the image captured a few months after Alice’s death reveals a shadowy female figure standing on the lawn. She later appears in other photographs and home videos - always indistinct, but unmistakably present. What’s most disturbing is that in each appearance, she is looking directly at the camera. She seems to know she’s being recorded. That awareness implies a consciousness that’s difficult to shake.

Why is she appearing though? Does she have a message from beyond the grave? Well, it’s not quite as simple as that (thankfully) and one of the things that separates Lake Mungo from other more conventional ‘ghost stories’ is that the plot takes several hard turns into territory that you’re not necessarily expecting. By the end there’s some sense of closure for the family and the audience but still a lingering sense of sadness and quiet dread. Because what Lake Mungo is really about is the inevitability of death and loss and that’s something that all of us can relate to.

Incredibly, Lake Mungo is director Joel Anderson’s only film. Fans have been clamouring for him to make something else (obviously) but with no luck. Come on Joel, sort yourself out!

Fun fact: Watch out for the utterly unexplainable appearance of someone dressed as a Nazi soldier standing next to a window inside the house (around 26 minutes). So bloody weird.

SPLINTER

(Directed by Toby Wilkins)

'It’s ok, it’s ok. We’re cutting your arm off.'

Now this is a fun little genre bender! The sort of film that we haven’t had for a few years, which is a bit of a shame. Released on Halloween, it only got a very limited theatrical release unfortunately – only taking half a million at the box office. Back in 2008, streaming wasn’t really a thing either - so it found its audience like a lot of genre movies did back then; on DVD. It’s become a bit of a cult favourite with some horror fans and it’s easy to see why. Part body horror, part monster movie, part siege movie. It’s a film that gets going very early on and doesn’t take its foot off the gas.

A young couple, Seth and Polly (played by Paul Costanzo and Jill Wagner - so noughties!), are driving through the forests of Oklahoma on a romantic camping getaway. In a neat little gender reversal, Polly is the practical outdoorsy one whilst nerdy Seth is very much out of his element in the great outdoors. However, their idyllic trip takes a turn for the worse when they are carjacked by an escaped convict (played by Shea Whigham!) and his drug-addict girlfriend (Rachel Kerbs). At gunpoint Seth and Polly are instructed to head to Mexico but a flat tire soon puts pay to any plans of getting very far. But what’s caused the flat tire I hear you ask? A bit of glass on the road? Or a rock? Nope. They hit an animal. Now before you get all upset thinking they’ve mowed down a cute kitty or squirrel, they’ve hit something else. Something that’s covered in splinters. Something…that doesn’t seem quite right. They seek refuge at a nearby gas station, but the place seems abandoned. Injured, shaken up and with a mounting sense of distrust, our ragtag group must find a way to work together before whatever is outside, finds a way in. Or…maybe it’s already inside.

Clocking in at just over 80 minutes, Splinter is lean, smart and fun. It zips along at a brisk pace with not much let up – perfect for todays attention-challenged audiences. This is British director Toby Wilkins’ directorial debut, which makes the whole thing a notch more impressive too. Before this, Wilkins had established a reputation in visual effects – working on films like The Manchurian Candidate (2004) and Scooby Doo 2 (2004). You might think that could translate in a load of noughties CGI guff but the creature effects and designs are really cool. And most importantly, they’re practical. Like Carpenter’s The Thing, you never quite know what physical form this parasitic threat will take, and we get everything from ravenous rodents and scuttling disembodied hands to some sort of horrid amalgamation later on. It’s brilliant. Wilkins also doesn’t overdo it, allowing the film to linger in suspense for long stretches before unleashing the creature again. We don’t see gore too often, but when we do it’s suitably grim.

For the most part this is a single-location film (always a solid choice for indie horror), but the moving parts of the plot and the intrigue surrounding what our bickering characters are up against ensure it never comes close to being dull. That’s partly due to an efficient script, but much of the credit goes to the cast. Jill Wagner is one of those actresses who, aside from being strikingly attractive, has great on-screen charisma. Shea Wigham is always a class act, and here he’s at his mean-spirited best. Costanzo, as ever, provides moments of light, nerdy relief. And honestly, any film set in a rural gas station at night is going to earn my approval.Yes, there’s some aggressive shaky-cam editing going on in places. There’s one scene in particular where a character is attacked and you don’t entirely know what’s happening. But that’s somewhat expected with low-budget horror trying to prevent viewers from spotting the rough seams in practical effects. And yes, it’s relatively formulaic, but this remains a tense, entertaining B-grade creature feature that’s well worth your time. It’s underseen and a bit undervalued if you ask us. So go check it out.

Fun fact: Shea Whigham ad-libbed a fair share of his dialogue.