Review: "The Cold Hour"
I'll admit that I haven't seen very many non-English language horror flicks. Sure, I saw France's grossly overpraised "High Tension" and a smattering of imports from Japan and Thailand, but I had no clue that Spain had the capacity and determination to put together a high-quality horror movie. I mean, the last I knew of them, their armada was getting its ass kicked by the English. And then there was some stuff about El Greco and Velasquez. I...really should have stayed awake more in high school.
At any rate, "The Cold Hour", or "La Hora Fria", if you prefer, is your basic "a group of people in a remote outpost are imperiled by The Other" type of story, with one major difference: everyone speaks in Spanish. Also, the remote outpost is some kind of apartment building serving as a safe haven in the aftermath of a ghastly NBC (nuclear/biological/chemical) global slugfest a decade or more ago that has exterminated most of mankind, not to mention apparently all of dogkind and catkind and a lot of chickenkind. Oh, and most of those that were not outright vaporized have become infected with a skin-sloughing brain-killing disease, thereby transmogrifying into the Strangers. To add to this, the Invisibles come poncing by every couple of nights to paint the walls in a layer of rime and to rattle doorknobs. Also they kill the odd chicken. Non-odd chickens are left alone.
With this type of story, you know that at least one person is gonna snap and go nutso, and that 75% of the cast will be picked off by the enemy, and that eventually the outpost defenses will be breached. Also, with all the vague allusions and hint-dropping, you know as well that someone is gonna spill the beans about what REALLY happened in the Final War.
Despite the predictable adherence to this formula, "The Cold Hour" has some degree of novelty in using a kid as the lead protagonist and POV character. Additionally, the appearances of the Invisibles are staged in quite a creepy and unsettling fashion. The introduction of the characters is done efficiently, and the slow unfolding of the story is handled well as we are gradually clued in on what took place long ago and how the current situation came to be. Production values are high, the FX are entirely acceptable, and the DP skillfully uses a deliberately limited palette of colors to suggest the isolation of the group. Overall, the performances are pretty good, particularly for the roles of the kids and the women. (With the exception of Judas, most of the men are pretty disposable.)
I enjoyed this one quite a lot and it's been one of the high points of the festival for me so far. And now, an opposing viewpoint from my friend Comic Book Lad: "This sucked." Eh, everyone's a critic.
At any rate, "The Cold Hour", or "La Hora Fria", if you prefer, is your basic "a group of people in a remote outpost are imperiled by The Other" type of story, with one major difference: everyone speaks in Spanish. Also, the remote outpost is some kind of apartment building serving as a safe haven in the aftermath of a ghastly NBC (nuclear/biological/chemical) global slugfest a decade or more ago that has exterminated most of mankind, not to mention apparently all of dogkind and catkind and a lot of chickenkind. Oh, and most of those that were not outright vaporized have become infected with a skin-sloughing brain-killing disease, thereby transmogrifying into the Strangers. To add to this, the Invisibles come poncing by every couple of nights to paint the walls in a layer of rime and to rattle doorknobs. Also they kill the odd chicken. Non-odd chickens are left alone.
With this type of story, you know that at least one person is gonna snap and go nutso, and that 75% of the cast will be picked off by the enemy, and that eventually the outpost defenses will be breached. Also, with all the vague allusions and hint-dropping, you know as well that someone is gonna spill the beans about what REALLY happened in the Final War.
Despite the predictable adherence to this formula, "The Cold Hour" has some degree of novelty in using a kid as the lead protagonist and POV character. Additionally, the appearances of the Invisibles are staged in quite a creepy and unsettling fashion. The introduction of the characters is done efficiently, and the slow unfolding of the story is handled well as we are gradually clued in on what took place long ago and how the current situation came to be. Production values are high, the FX are entirely acceptable, and the DP skillfully uses a deliberately limited palette of colors to suggest the isolation of the group. Overall, the performances are pretty good, particularly for the roles of the kids and the women. (With the exception of Judas, most of the men are pretty disposable.)
I enjoyed this one quite a lot and it's been one of the high points of the festival for me so far. And now, an opposing viewpoint from my friend Comic Book Lad: "This sucked." Eh, everyone's a critic.
posted by Purukivel at 10:16 PM
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