‘Cold Meat’ Review: An Intense and Claustrophobic Affair
Cold Meat recently landed on VOD without much pomp or circumstance. Seeing as the basic setup intrigued me and I am an outspoken advocate for the underdog, I gave the flick a shot. As it turns out, my curiosity was rewarded. Cold Meat is a thrilling ride that serves up plenty of tension by way of a self-contained narrative. Not to mention, the picture has a way of upending expectations.
The film follows Ana (Nina Bergman), a young mother who waits tables at a roadside diner. On the night of a catastrophic blizzard, she and a customer (Allen Leech) endure a harrowing encounter with her ex (Yan Tual). Following that unpleasant display, Ana is abducted and shoved into the trunk of a car. Adding insult to injury, the driver of the sedan goes off the road, crashing into a snowbank. That fateful turn of events sees Ana gaining the upper hand on her captor but that’s cold comfort, seeing as the weather is too extreme for either of them to go for help. With no cell service, no food, and a limited fuel supply, captor and captive must learn to temporarily coexist while they wait for the storm to pass.
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I try to go into movies with as little information as possible. That leaves more room for surprises, and Cold Meat serves up a couple of those. I thought I had a good idea of exactly where the film was going early on. But the first act serves up a disruption of expectations that I did not quite anticipate. The development is well-supported in hindsight. But it still got me. That turn of events effectively changes the trajectory of the film and allows the narrative to go left where I was expecting a right turn.
Screenwriters Sébastien Drouin, James Kermack, and Andrew Desmond elevate the proceedings by setting the film in the middle of a blizzard. In addition to stranding Ana and her captor, that distinction also works to make everything that transpires more intense. The snow adds to the urgency of the situation and instills a sense of hopelessness; giving us cause to wonder if Ana will make it out of this violent ordeal alive.
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Director Sébastien Drouin also adds to the intensity by serving up a handful of really impressive jump scares. There’s one sequence in particular where the perspective cuts between the front and the back seat of the captor’s car that had me squirming in my chair. And when matters finally came to a head, I lost my damn mind.
Tension-building techniques aside, I was also impressed with the dynamic between captive and captor. Their scenario is quite unusual. Accordingly, it’s interesting to watch them search for common ground while neither of them can safely leave the shared space in which they’re taking shelter. That adds a level of complexity we don’t often see in films of this ilk and also separates Cold Meat from a lot of similarly themed offerings.
I enjoyed watching the dynamic between Ana and her captor evolve. The tables are turned following her escape from the trunk near the end of the first act, which leads to a shift in the power dynamic. Even though Ana can’t safely leave the vehicle, she gains an edge over the man who abducted her. It’s nice to see a woman reclaiming her purchase over a man with a penchant for inflicting pain on women. Such a development is usually reserved for the denouement. So, seeing that transpire so early on was a pleasant surprise.
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The dynamic between captor and captive could probably have carried the film through to the finish line. But the storm and the abduction aren’t the only elements at play here. The third act introduces one more complication that works like icing on the cake; raising the stakes even further. The aforementioned development hints at a local legend, leaving viewers to wonder if something supernatural is afoot. But I’ll leave it there, so as not to ruin any surprises.
All in all, Cold Meat is a tense thriller that is sure to appeal to anyone who enjoys a self-contained narrative with plenty of tense exchanges. You can find the film on VOD and Digital now if you’d like to check Cold Meat out.
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‘Cold Meat'
Summary
This snowbound chiller is fast-paced and intense.
Categorized:Reviews
