Cold Prey 2 (2008) Review

A slasher sequel that takes place in a hospital?  Never seen one of those before..."

Picking up soon after the original Cold Prey, Jannicke (Ingrid Bolso Berdal), the sole survivor of the previous movie makes her way back to civilization and is brought to the hospital.  Traumatized, she explains to the police what happened.  They find the bodies of her friends and the murderous Mountain Man (Rune Melby).  They bring all of the bodies to the hospital, where the staff discovers the Mountain Man is still alive and help nurse him back to health.  Soon, he wakes up and quickly starts murdering his saviors.  It's up Jannicke to save herself and everyone else in the hospital.

What Works:

Like in the first movie, Cold Prey 2's protagonist, Jannicke, is a badass.  She's smart and capable.  She makes mistakes, but learns from them.  She is tough as nails and never gives up.  It's awesome having a horror movie lead who doesn't just scream.  

The cinematography and lighting in they film is gorgeous.  They manage to pull off some creative and creepy shots.  One in particular stands at Jannicke realizes the doctors are trying to bring the Mountain Man back to live.  The way it is shot is very effective and it's nice to see people put effort into making this.

Finally, there are some effectively tense sequences.  There is one scene with Jannicke trapped in the back of a police car and the Mountain Man is trying to break his way in.  It's really well done and tensely shot. 

What Sucks:

Let's get the setting out of the way here.  The first movie took places up in the mountains in an abandoned hotel.  It's was a very memorable setting.  This one takes place in a hospital.  There are a few scenes in the mountains, but most of it's in a bland hospital.  It reminded me too much of Halloween 2.  

Most of the characters in this movie are useless.  Besides Jannicke they are all stupid, panicky, or incompetent.  It sucks that Jannicke always has to stick her neck out for these fools.

Finally, the first half hour of this movie is very boring.  Nothing happens.  They should have trimmed that part down to maybe ten minutes and had more scary sequences.  It's a sequel.  We don't need as much set-up.  Let's get down to the kills.

Verdict:

Cold Prey 2 is an ok sequel.  You could do a lot worse.  There enough good parts to make me recommend it.  And the second half really picks up the pace in terms of scares and deaths.  It not as good as the original, but for a horror sequel, it's totally ok.

 6/10: OK