Freez'er
**½/**** Image B- Sound A- Extras B
starring Barnes Walker III, Carrie Walrond, John L. Altom
written and directed by Brian Avenet-Bradley
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Cold Blood is a movie that's almost there–that exhibits a surplus of ingenuity even when its artistry falters. Its rather obvious starting point is a man named J.M. (Barnes Walker III) who's just killed his cheating wife with a baseball bat; the predictable apparitions and paranoia follow suit as he flees to the countryside to hide the body. But though the film never finds the metaphor to fit the conceit (and suffers from some amateurish acting), it does have a couple of clever twists and interesting beats up its "Telltale Heart"-redux sleeve.
The picture starts immediately with the fatal blow, leaving us with no idea how to take J.M.: is he a serial killer, an abusive husband, or something else? Although Cold Blood flashes back to the scene that elicited his crime of passion, a sense of homicidal-everyman hangs over his shoulders as he tries to conceal his murder and outrun a lover hot on his heels. He's finally confronted with the implications of his crime when he meets the wife and victim of alcoholic handyman John (Jon L. Altom), Julie (Carrie Walrond), who works the house to which J.M. has fled and angled upon noticing the lock on the freezer in the barn. People learn secrets, people die in scuffles–that's what guilt-ridden crime is about.
The film is constantly on the verge of defining a condition yet never actually spells it out. J.M. is a stand-in for something, but what? Some canny feminist could probably divine either a critique of serial-killer films or an apologia for the same, but there's no denying that writer-director Brian Avenet-Bradley's motives are rather opaque. J.M. is kind of a middle-class cipher, especially as rendered by Barnes Walker III; the rest of the cast seems similarly unstyled and undirected, their street clothes belying the shabbiness of the whole enterprise. Nothing appears to happen quite as it should, and Cold Blood is not entirely satisfying as a result.
"Not entirely satisfying" is not the same as "complete and total failure," though. Avenet-Bradley is at least groping around some potentially fascinating subject matter, and if he hasn't found it, he's aware of its proximity. His ultra-low-budget aesthetics are no match for the craft and intelligence of Primer, another zero-budget chiller with infinitely more panache, yet they impress upon us the urgency of the situation and the guilt that closes in around the doomed hero. None of this is earth-shattering, but it's a good college try–and it suggests that with a budget and a little purpose, Avenet-Bradley could hit one out of the park.
THE DVD
Heretic's DVD release of Cold Blood has its weaknesses. Taken from a 16mm source, the 1.75:1 non-anamorphic widescreen transfer looks rather washed-out, with weak fine detail and an unbecoming greenish tint to the image. The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, on the other hand, sounds surprisingly full: plenty of country ambience floods the surround channels, while separation of the front three channels is often creative. Though the often post-synched dialogue is a little soft and lacking potency, this is a miraculous mix for such a low-budget endeavour.
Extras include a feature commentary with Brian Avenet-Bradley, his wife, cinematographer and movie corpse Laurence Avenet-Bradley, and Barnes Walker III. It's a refreshingly tech-heavy affair, and while non-film professionals will be scratching their heads at the terminology, the participants are no-nonsense about establishing how and why each shot is the way it is. (If only a few of these shots were a little sharper.) A making-of featurette (14 mins.) is similarly all business; even though the actors and technicians are a tad vague about artistic motivation, they minutely detail the project's origins (the farmhouse location) and especially the surprisingly involved special make-up effects.
Two deleted scenes don't alter your impression of the action much–they mostly consist of J.M. lurking and repairing a part of the barn after discovering something untoward. Last and least of the main features, "the songs behind the story" is a series of six demos and studio tracks that date back to when the film was intended as a black comedy. Titles like "Baseball Bat Blues" and "Stick'er in the Freezer" should tell you the level of wit involved, though they won't prepare you for the atonal music and delivery. Extensive cast and crew bios (right down to the special effects crew) and the trailer round out the package.
82 minutes; NR; 1.78:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 5.1; English, French subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Heretic
