Cold Ground

French found-footage yetisquatchfoot flick. Maybe 50% English dialogue, 50% French (with English subtitles on the version I saw.) A cut above most of the dreck Amazon Prime offers for free. Not bad for what it is, but the imdb rating seems suspiciously high to me. Fairly engaging once it gets going. Subjective peeves: When characters who are discussing disease theories are supposed to be scientists, they ought to know the difference between a virus and bacteria (sadly, the ignorance of this difference amongst the general population is one of the reasons we have more and more antibiotic-resistant bacteria.) They also should know that alcohol is not one's "best friend" in extreme cold, as it actually lowers body temperature. And if it's so damned cold where they are that they're concerned with hypothermia and frostbite, why does the female lead spend the majority of the time with no head covering and only a thin pair of knitted gloves? These may be trivial issues to some viewers, but they definitely lower my rating.

Yes this movie did have its flaws and did move slower than necessary, the story, filming, and acting kept me interested throughout. It was of above average quality all around which makes it odd that it had such bad reviews (with agreement on the review about animal cruelty having absolutely nothing to do with the movie and should probably be removed...). While the negative reviews are puzzling, the aggregate score of the movie is a good indicator. Not a waste of time, but not a must see either.

It gives me a sort of tug of the heart strings - the demise, that is, of these dear folk who, except for the French, money-worshiping peegs, JUST KIDDING, were just trying to do the best damn job they know how. As the multinational team of folk climb a mountain at the French/German border, or thereabouts, they learn each other, the mountain, the weather, and the history, which does not include the recent history of animal mutilations.

I basically only watch horror and mystery movies. Anything along the lines of crypto and I'm in. This has that and found footage mixed in one. A lot of people with these negative comments I don't get. You know the ones complaining about found footage films, well if you don't like found footage films, then why would you watch a blatantly advertised found footage film? That's pretty stupid if you ask me and that's on you. I thought the movie was decent. Decent acting. The French girls body was pretty hot, needed to see maybe some more of that lol. All in all. It was okay with me I enjoyed the film.

Here we have a movie that so desperately wants to be something akin to Blair Witch you can almost taste it.

What you get instead is an interminably dull movie that mostly consists of shots of scenery and the backs of peoples heads as they trudge through the snow. Then trudge through the snow some more. Then, for a change, they trudge through the snow.

And when our antagonist does show up FIFTY MINUTES into this eighty-five minute movie, it's a blurry mess that leaves you squinting desperately at the screen for SOME sort of payoff for your patience. Let me just tell you, before you waste your time like I did, there isn't one.

Avoiding spoilers, I will warn you that the last 8 minutes of this movie consist of five minutes of shaky cam staring at walls and two minutes of running before an insulting abrupt ending.

Just....don't waste your time. You want a decent movie about people getting lost in the woods and terrible things happening to them? Go watch The Ritual. This ain't worth your time.