Cold Skin (2018) Review

"We are the invaders, which makes us the enemy."

-Gruner

With the world on the brink of World War I, a young man called Friend (David Oakes) is brought to a remote and barren island to be the new meteorologist.  The only other inhabitant is the lighthouse keeper, Gruner (Ray Stevenson), who is reclusive and hostile.  Friend discovers that the island is overrun by humanoid-amphibious creatures at night, which results in his cabin being destroyed.  Friend is forced to move in with Gruner, who has captured one of the creatures (Aura Garrido) and keeps her as a slave.  At night, Gruner and Friend do their best to defend the lighthouse as they face a full year before the next ship arrives.  But Friend begins to wonder if Gruner is the real monster on the island.

What Works:

The highlight of this film is the large-scale monster attacks.  From the trailer I guessed there would be at best two or three monster attacks in the whole film, but there was more than double that.  It was really unexpected and all of the scenes are really well done.  Even though most of them take place in the lighthouse they never got repetitive.  Each sequences was really intense as the monsters become more and more determined to take the lighthouse and the situation for Friend and Gruner became more and more desperate.  

The performances are solid all around.  All three leads do a great job in their roles.  Friend is a very likable protagonist, Gruner is a complex and unpredictable antagonist, and Aura Garrido does a great job of communicating how the creature is feeling even without speaking.

The cinematography is very beautiful.  We get quite a few sweeping shots of the island, some stunning underwater shots, and really effective use of the lighthouse.  The sweeping spotlight adds a lot to the intensity of the attack sequences.

Finally, I just have to mention the setting.  It's a fantastic location for a story like this.  It feels so chilly and isolated you start feeling cold in the theater.  It adds a lot to the feeling of the film and how the characters behave.

What Sucks:

There are some points where the CGI does not look very good.  I'm guessing the filmmakers were focused on the attack scenes, so there are smaller moments where the creatures are a little too jerky and move too quickly.  It's noticeably unnatural and took me out of the movie.

It's also a little hard to understand the dialogue at times.  There is some loud background noise in some scenes and the accents of the lead characters are very thick.  Personally, I have a hard time hearing through accents, so I like to watch movies with subtitles, but that wasn't an option for me this time.  When I watch it again, I will definitely use subtitles, but that is no excuse for the scenes with a lot of background noise.  If the characters hear the dialogue, we should be able to as well, even if realistically we wouldn't be able to hear, it doesn't matter.  I want to know what's going on.  Sound is the most important part of filmmaking in my opinion.  If you don't have good sound, don't bother with the rest of the film.

Verdict:

Cold Skin has a few small problems that are pretty typical of an indie movie like this, but the film accomplishes a lot.  It has great cinematography, solid performances, an engaging story, an awesome setting, and some really intense action scenes.  It does have some issues with CGI and sound, but this movie is like a scary version of The Shape of Water and I have to say Cold Skin has got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good