Presos no Gelo 3: O Início

Four years ago I gave a glowing review to the first real Norwegian horror movie ever (unless you count Villmark which was more of a thriller or the DTV crap "22" which was more like a bad nightmare). Cold Prey blew my mind. Sure, to most of you it's probably a mediocre slasher flick but to me it raised the bar for Norwegian movies.

Maybe this is why the first one was a success. The second one was okay-ish. A bit too much action and not enough horror if you ask me but still a solid entry. Now we have the third, supposedly (and hopefully) final entry in this franchise and I have to say with a heavy heart that this was a disappointment to the extreme.

What is supposed to be a prequel comes off as a sloppy dtv-remake of the first one - without the snow - or the hotel. The dialogues seem to be copied and pasted from the first movie and even the characters are similar (only this time we have a bunch of REALLY bad actors without any real characteristics). These actors were so bad that I cringed in the seat as it was so uncomfortable watching them deliver their basic dialogues. The first 5 minutes or so are prequel-ish but the movie really doesn't explain anything. It felt as if the crew wasn't allowed to shoot inside the hotel this time so instead it took place in the woods and in two small houses near the hotel (??????).

This is less Friday the 13th and more Wrong Turn - but without the actual excitement. Imagine Cold Prey meets Wrong Turn meets Manhunt (yes, this could indeed very well have been the sequel to Manhunt aka Rovdyr, that might actually have made more sense as this felt nothing like the first two Cold Prey movies).

I won't go on about it but if you want a very standard DTV slasher from the 80s that somehow was forgotten and crawled onto the big screen 25 years later - here you have it. The mediocre slasher flick that everyone will forget within a year. Too bad, this franchise had so much potential.

I saw this for the first time recently n got totally disappointed.

The settings ain't that great. It takes away the tension n suspense. The locations are picturesque but doesn't add.

None of the kills are memorable or brutal n there is absolutely no tension n suspense.

Some of the scenes are very predictable.

The lead character from 1 n 2 Jannicke, is a strong protagonist n reminds us so much of yesteryear's bad ass female characters.

Cold Prey 3 has the disadvantage of not having a protagonist as strong as Jannicke.

This is a prequel to the first film, set in the 1980s but an unnecessary one.

While the first one reminded of The Shining due to its snowy landscape, the 2nd one of Halloween 2 n Visiting Hours due to the hospital set up.

Both were set during the chilly winter with lots of snow which added more atmosphere n isolation but the 3rd one ruined it by the summer set up n the forest locations. The 3rd one is more like a backwoods slasher in the veins of Wrong Turn, The Rituals 1977, Just Before Dawn, Deliverance, The Final Terror, FT13, etc.

While being set in summer with lots of ponds n lakes around, we expected some nudity but alas.

A girl undresses but we don't get to see any boobs. So uncool man.

When I first heard that they were making a third "Cold Prey" movie, which pre dates the first two showing a back story on the killer, I was actually quite pleased, as we only saw glimpses in the first two. I am a big fan of the first two and wrote glowing reviews for them rating them 10 and 9, but this one I only rate 5, because quite frankly I was really disappointed.

Okay the beginning opened up quite well, when we finally get to see what happened to his parents and the way they treated him, but that was over in 10 minutes and then it cuts to a group of teens camping in the nearby woods. I was hoping the third would somehow capture both positive aspects of each film, but sadly, Cold Prey 3 turned out to be your pretty standard backwoods slasher that we've seen several times before.

Another complaint is that this one is set in summer time which kinda defeats the object of being called "Cold Prey" There's even a clichéd scene where some of the characters decide to go skinny dipping in a lake, which seems to be some sort of requirement in backwoods slashers for some odd reason. Speaking of characters, none of them are likable, in my opinion. With the little development we're given for each person, it leaves us with little reason to care whether they'll somehow survive through the ordeal.

All in all "Cold Prey 3" isn't a particularly bad film, as a stand alone it would have been pretty good, it just lacks the brilliance the first two, so I hope it's now come to an end.

Slasher movies might try to be cute (see first part of the Cold Prey series or High Tension for that matter), but this is as down and dirty as you might expect it to be. It is also exactly what you think it will be throughout. In other words: It is dire predictable. It's still nicely done and all, you just can see where it is heading (actually you might know where it is heading before it even begins). If you don't let that spoil your "enjoyment" of the movie, you are good to go.

In this case, it is not really necessary to have seen the other two movies of the "franchise". Actually you might be better off not having seen them. Slasher fans will enjoy this (I guess most did enjoy the first one too), but for everyone else this might prove to not be enough of anything to make them wanna watch it through

When I set out to watch the final film of the Fritt Vilt trilogy, I had no idea it was going to be a prequel, and by that redeem itself from the total failure I had expected. After the first film presented the Mountain Man as a surprisingly human slasher (not in character and bahaviour of course, but in his level of strength and fortitude), the second one made him into too much of a Jason Voorhees kind of creature, beginning with the fact that he had survived the ending of the first film.

Fritt Vilt 3 proved to be quite a pleasant surprise in a few aspects. Being a prequel, it had already been known that Mountain Man was going to win, so that had been supposed to be left was a little guess work as to how. First of all - the film really didn't follow the "Hollywood" rules of Slasher-Horror. Personally I was wrong with all guesses that mattered - who was going to die first (the characters weren't exactly Hollywood stereotypes of Slashers either so that made it a little hard to guess), who was going to be the last survivor and how would the story end. The ending, while remaining true to the previous two titles and not having any twists or shocks, really wasn't what I had expected, and was a pleasant surprise.

All in all, the film gave us everything expected of a prequel, answered all the relevant questions about the Mountain Man that had been left unanswered by the first two titles (with the exception of the story behind Mountain Man's weapon of choice in the first two). and was just as good as the first (no Ingrid Bolsø Berdal though, unfortunately). The second was still my favorite, and I'm glad I got to see this Norwegian Horror trilogy.