Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
When one of them breaks a leg, five friends snowboarding in the Norwegian mountains take shelter in an abandoned ski lodge and soon realize they’re not alone.
Cold Prey is a well-crafted Norwegian slasher that elevates the genre through exceptional use of its icy, isolated mountain setting. The cinematography of the Jotunheimen landscape is genuinely stunning and atmospheric, giving the film a stark visual identity that most slashers lack. The plot follows familiar genre conventions — five friends, isolated location, unstoppable killer — but executes them competently with decent pacing and genuine tension. The acting is solid by slasher standards, with Ingrid Bolsø Berdal's final-girl performance being notably strong. The ending is somewhat anticlimactic and doesn't fully capitalize on the dread built throughout. Its novelty lies mainly in its Scandinavian setting and restrained tone rather than any radical reinvention of the formula.