cold prey 2

By now, it seems most people are born with an inherent understanding of the slasher film formula. Although I’m sure medical professionals would disagree, my theory is the information passes via embryonic osmosis like nicotine or alcohol. How else can you explain the beat for beat reconstruction of Halloween 2 - a movie made in the USA in 1981 - by filmmakers in Norway nearly 30 years later? Face it; Michael Myers is stalking us even in the womb!

Actually, the folks behind Cold Prey 2 (2008) are following up their first success from 2006. The original Cold Prey followed every cliché in the book, but still managed to be a solid, scary, suspenseful import that introduced us to an abominable snow-slasher picking off a group of snowboarders who stumble into his abandoned hotel. While it doesn’t have much name recognition here in the States, it was a huge success in its native Norway, kicking off an avalanche of imitators. And it’s essential viewing before popping in Cold Prey 2, which takes place immediately after the events of the first film.

Sole survivor Jannicke (Ingrid Bolso Berdal) stumbles down the mountain and into a local hospital where she’s treated for her injuries. Her rescuers get the whole story and proceed back up to the scene of the crime, where they find the bodies of her friends and the alleged perpetrator: an enormous mountain of a man clothed from head to toe in homemade snow gear. The corpses are brought back to the hospital morgue…but one of them might not be as dead as he appears.

Cold Prey 2 works hard for your respect. It gives us a reason to like each and every one of the hospital staff and patients before forcing us to watch them die. But ultimately, as the formula dictates, it must all come down to the Final Girl. And when Jannicke finally snaps out of her doldrums, the film sets itself up for a terrific last act as she faces down the film’s signature villain back up at the abandoned hotel where all the horror began. Up until that point, we’re introduced to characters with the lifespan of a fruit fly and situations lifted straight from John Carpenter’s so-so sequel.

The hospital setting is admittedly creepy, but it can’t match the snowbound horror of the original. Director Mats Stenberg wisely gets us back where we started eventually, but everything memorable about Cold Prey 2 relies on the careful construction laid out in Cold Prey 1. So when you get the kids together, make sure it’s a double feature!