Ice-capades Below $500,000: Blood Runs Cold (2011)

Blood Runs Cold (United Kingdom, 2011)
Rating: **1/2
Starring: Ralf Beck, Elin Hugoson and Hanna Oldenburg

Winona is a successful artist looking for an escape from her stressful big city life, so her manager settles her a house located right in her home town where she can stay for a while and relax. She runs in to her old boyfriend there and got acquainted with his buddy and his buddy's girl. They all hang around town, chatting, drinking, and soon accompanying her back home so they can continue catching up with their lives. But somehow, Winona can't shake off the feeling that she's not alone.

Unfortunately, she's right; a deranged man-eater, wielding an axe, soon starts chopping off body parts from his victims and eating them, thinning down the number until all that's left except is Winona, in one hell of a cat-and-mouse chase between an unstoppable lunatic and probably tonight's dinner.

Made in a budget of five-hundred grand, Blood Runs Cold (2011) works as an effective chiller (no pun intended) and a splatter movie of unusual proportions. It is atmospheric, bloody and a tense, taking its time to build around the characters before setting out the big freak to dismember the night. There's a wad of nightmare logic at play here, too, as the random appearance of the killer and his lack of origins makes him a worthy and creepy foe. When he murders, expect no tame killings as he axes his way to a fountain of blood (literally!), all of it workable albeit its given budget.

The only flaw of the film is that it falls victim to bad acting and bad characterization. No-namer Hanna Oldenburg did show some potential despite hunching over at some of her lines, doing well enough on a leading role for a shlocky B-grade shocker. There's also a matter of pacing problems, but I believe the wait was worth it given the blood-gushing finale we're treated with.

 

Blood Runs Cold (2011) is a good little title that deserves some praise. It's simple and bold, with a vision that shouts potential. While it may be forgettable for some, it does stand tall as an entertaining piece of low-budget hack-n-slash.

Bodycount:

1 male gets an axe to the neck

1 male killed offscreen

1 female gets an axe to the gut

1 male beheaded with axe

1 male had an axe thrown to chest

1 male had his head crushed with a rock

Total: 6