DVD review (region 2)
Directed by Roar Uthaug
Starring Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Tomas Alf Larsen
Release date Out now

Five snowboarders encounter an axe-wielding assassin in an abandoned ski lodge and have to fight for their lives…

Will the real Michael Myers please stand up? Young people alone in a big house. A killer with a mask and a sharp weapon. Sure, the sets and pacing are fine, but there isn't a single idea here that hasn't been cut and pasted from better slasher flicks such as Halloween, Friday the 13th and Scream. Jeez, there’s even the token blonde virgin walking around in her underwear.

The characters behave precisely like all horror ciphers do: they wander around aimlessly, get drunk, have sex, make way too much noise and leave potential weapons behind. But it’s not the lack of originality that leaves Cold Prey out to freeze. Questions as to the killer's lineage are unsatisfactory and we have little, if any, insight into his indiscriminate motives for killing - save a short ‘child abuse’ scenario, perhaps the laziest explanation for a madman, if ever there was one.

Yet all is not lost. Cold Prey is well-shot and the production values probably belie the money actually spent on it. The Norwegian scenery is beautiful, and the opening snowboarding sequences look like an ad for the Scandinavian Tourist Board. It has a positive minimalist take on the slasher genre and first-time director Roar Uthaug isn’t shy about exploiting numerous jump-scare tactics, showing promise for a better follow-up. Natalie Barnes

VERDICT: 5/10
A modern day slasher with old-school conventions.