Cold Ground (2017) Film Review

Cold Ground is another selection that was brought to my attention by The Optical Theater Film Festival. This French film is a found footage offering, but it also mixes in the now popular retro aspect. Fabien Delage’s film is even getting a possible 2018 release from Redwood Creek Films and Fright House Pictures. What we get is a mixture of found footage and retro horror with a monster aspect tossed in for good measure.  Cold Ground has obtained numerous festival recognitions and awards, and it is still doing the circuit. The result is an entertaining, well acted and terrifying experience which is able to roll with the clichés set in place already by this genre, but also adding its own intriguing and effective aspects to the mix. The intro states that in 1976, two filmmakers went to the French/Swiss border and never returned. In 2017, their footage was finally discovered.

David (cinematographer/editor Geoffrey Blandin) and Melissa (Gala Besson) are French filmmakers who go to the French/Swiss border to shoot their new feature. They have heard reports of mutilated cattle in the countryside with no clear explanation as to why. They find the British research facility, Pine Wood, where biologists are performing their own investigation into the strange cattle occurrences. Once there, David and Melissa meet the team of scientists, including Gunther (makeup FX artist Phillip Schurer) and Blake (Doug Rand). Some of the group are going to another nearby camp to look for members of their own team who didn’t come back from a recent expedition. David and Melissa decide to tag along on the three day trek to the camp… this will undoubtedly seal their fate.

 

Cold Ground uses its first 30 minutes plus to set up the story and develop its characters. Everyone is likable in the film as the viewer gets to know each member, making it more emotional for the events that occur later in the movie. Cold Ground is a French production but it’s clever in its approach of going back and forth in English and French. It’s filmed from the POV of the cameraman, so David is behind the camera for a majority of the earlier parts of the film, at least until he is forced to put the camera down.

Cold Ground is filmed in that washed out, grainy color style to give it that authentic ’70s look. The first person perspective enables the audience to get into the action and gives the film a more terrifying and effective looking style. Those camera angles really help Cold Ground achieve the scary and visceral atmosphere it goes for. In one particular scene, the group gets buried in an avalanche and the audience is buried beneath the snow with the rest of the team.

 

Lots of great jump scares and the first person camera POV makes this film all the more harrowing, as the viewer is plunged into a lifelike winter wasteland of snow and ice covered trees. They are trapped in the darkness where something slowly stalks them, occasionally letting out these terrifying, banshee-like screams. Like with most monster movies, it’s always good to keep the monster in the shadows until a big reveal at the end, and Cold Ground goes for this in the same fashion. The group tries to find their way back to Pinewood and survive through an endless maze of cold torment, but it seems futile.

 

I love European cinema, and Cold Ground is no exception. It’s not breaking new ground here (no pun intended), but the film is building a better, more solid foundation on fundamentals that are already there. The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, The Descent and, most recently, Altar, are great examples of found footage films that come to mind. Fortunately, Cold Ground is able to find its own niche in the genre and propel itself to success. The film was chosen as an official selection at The Optical Theater Film Festival, and it’s easy to see why.  The filmmakers were not afraid to pour on the gruesome effects either, as we get some great looking monsters and voracious gore, including a disturbing foot amputation sequence.

I highly recommend this intriguing approach to the found footage horror film. It’s a satisfying, grueling and terrifying experience all rolled into one. The terror is real with Cold Ground! It’s a wonderful, unforgiving film that truly utilizes the savage and cruel effects of nature and beyond. Visit their official site here to find out more about the film.