Directed by: Adrian Garcia Bogliano
Written by: Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Ramiro Garcia Bogliano, Hernan Moyano
Starring: Facundo Espinosa, Marina Glezer, Camila Velasco
If there's one thing horror movies could always use more of, it's scary old people.
I've often said that horror fans can wait for the next big zombie or vampire movie all they want — but me? I'll be the one championing the latest craze of killer old people and their mighty Rascals. Thanks to Adrian Garcia Bogliano, I didn't have to wait very long to start this championing, as Cold Sweat embodies the very vision I had of a horror movie where old men are the bad guys. Naturally, this results in an old man stalking a girl at the speed of a snail while he ambles across the room with the aid of his walker — and oh how glorious it is.
When Roman's girlfriend Jackie disappears, he expects to find her in the arms of another man. And, with the help of a friend, find her he does — but there is no lover on the scene, only a pair of demented old men keeping her locked away in the basement of their crumbling mansion. Armed with wild-eyed reactionary political ideals and case after case of decades-old and highly unstable explosives, the villainous duo are conducting illicit experiments on a string of young women lured to their home via the Internet. With Jackie doused in nitroglycerine, her every step toward escape is fraught with the possibility of sudden death. If Roman cannot free his young love, she is likely to end up in pieces.
Cold Sweat has the honor of being one of the more original horror movies I've seen as of late. It thrives on the idea of straying from the norm, which works both in and against its favor. On the upside, it twists our expectations and keeps us entertained and unsure of the road ahead. On the downside, we find that old men as killers are kind of not that intimidating when all is said and done. In fact, if there's one thing that really sticks out here, it's that the old men never feel like much of a threat. They are in fact, for a good chunk of the film, in the house doing "something" while our heroes run up and down stairs and blow up shit by accident. It's an interesting point to make however because, really, the evil old men aren't the real threat; their choice of weaponry is.
The two men have a major obsession with explosive chemicals, which results in their very crafty method of dispatching young girls. One of the men even says, toward the film's end, that there is no need to kill the girls because they always end up dying on their own. It's a startlingly poignant line that perfectly echoes what the old men are so crotchedy about in the first place.
Like most old people, they are dismissive of the new generation of kids — the kids that would rather play on the Internet than play outside, the kids that only use 200 of the 500,000 available Spanish words on a daily basis. Why would they ever need to put an end to the new generation's lives when the kids are perfectly capable of killing themselves with their stupidity? And they're mostly right as we find ourselves shaking our heads when Roman fails at getting a phone signal but is able to log online and post a help message to his 800 friends on Facebook. Predictably, they are all useless. Sure it's silly, but it totally works. Old people are right; we are awful! But then again...we are adapting and evolving and they are just getting old and cranky, which means of course that WE WIN in the end.
This puts a spin on the torture porn side of things because in Cold Sweat, the tension and the blood and guts don't come from some nihilistic attitude of rusty tools and sepia tones. Instead, the tension is all about the anticipation — the feeling of being trapped physically and mentally in a realm of nightmare and Science. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's got soul.
The music at times does get a bit A.D.D., jumping from kooky comedy one minute to heavy metal and '70s porn the next. There's also some dragging in the last 30 minutes or so as we kind of feel like the moment of confrontation could have been sped up quite significantly. Additionally, the relationships could have been fleshed out a bit more. There's an odd love triangle all of a sudden and it kind of feels rushed. Romance is created, unexpected friendships blossom and it's nice, but when did it all happen?
Aside from this, Cold Sweat has a lot of great things going for it. It has its fair share of completely creepy and off-putting moments, especially involving the subduing of a young man wearing eyeliner, and some very pissed off girls barricaded in the basement. Which reminds me — I do wish we could have seen more of these so called "evil" experiments the two men were doing. Obviously, the girls in the basement were a direct product of that, but I think Cold Sweat could do with much, much more.
Ultimately, Cold Sweat brings something refreshing and new to the table of the horror genre. It's not the best movie you'll see this year, but it will probably surprise you. Whether that surprise is the good or bad kind, you can't deny that Adrian Garcia Bogliano isn't pumping originality and heart into Cold Sweat. It's different, it's gross and it's oddly uplifting in the end. How many horror movies can we really say do the same?
Rating: (3.5 out of 5):
