In this Swedish take on the all-American slasher film, Winona (newcomer Hanna Oldenburg) seeks refuge from stress at a vacation home, only to find more of it. Part of that is because she runs into her ex-boyfriend, Rick (Patrick Saxe, also making a feature debut), amid all the wintry conditions, but most of it is because they’re being chased by a gloved-and-goggled serial killer who clearly listened to his mother about bundling up before going outside.
Whoever this guy is goes unexplained; he appears to have no motive beyond satisfying the bloodlust of the Fangoria convention crowd. Directed and co-written by freshman Sonny Laguna, Blood Runs Cold benefits from the look of its snowbound setting and the character design of the ax-wielding madman, but sadly nothing else.
Offering nothing new is not automatically a bad thing — only when you fail to present it in a fun or interesting way. Laguna does not make his presentation special (nor does the DVD, which lacks all bonus material), and his movie is as routine as it is gory, which is to say extremely. —Rod Lott
