Cold Skin (2017)

Director: Xavier Gens

Writer: Jesus Olmo, Eron Sheean (Screenplay) Albert Sanchez Pinol (Novel)

Starring: Ray Stevenson, David Oakes, Aura Garrido, John Benfield

Plot: A young man who arrives at a remote island finds himself trapped in a battle for his life.

Tagline – How much horror can the heart endure?

Runtime: 1 Hour 48 Minutes

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: Strong Isolation Versus Monster Movie

Story: Cold Skin starts in 1914 with Friend (Oakes) goes to work on a remote island in a weather station, he only company on this island for the next year should be Gruner (Stevenson) a grumpy lighthouse keeper. This is until the first night when Friend gets visited by sea creatures, planning to defend himself he loses everything, forcing him to move into the lighthouse with Gruner.

Learning the Gruner has kept on of the creatures on the island, Friend starts to communicate with her and naming her Aneris (Garrido), but the onslaught that comes at night is countless numbers of the creatures the two men must work together to fight off, but what is their try reason for targeting this island.

Thoughts on Cold Skin

Characters – Gruner is the lighthouse keeper on the island, he has been there for a long time (though we don’t get told how long) and just wants to be left alone, he plans his battles against the creatures and knows how to defend himself, he doesn’t like carrying people and is a strict master of Aneris. Friend is the young scientist that has been assigned to the island to record weather, he sees this as a chance to start his life again. He learns the hard where about the creatures and while he will defend himself, he does believe there is more to what the creatures will be searching for. Aneris is the female of the species, she stays on the island with the men calling out for help at night, she doesn’t fight against the men and is treated mostly like a pet to them.

Performances – Ray Stevenson is great in this role, if you ever want someone to play a grumpy figure, you need to never look further than this man. David Oakes is an actor I was unfamiliar with going into this film and he does a good job in this movie. Aura Garrido as the female creature gives us a wonderful body language display.

Story – The story here follows two men that are in isolation on a remote island, who are under attack from creatures and spend most nights planning their own defence against them. There is a question about what would a scientist do when it comes to meeting a new species, even if there is a deadly side to them too. The story however is reduced to humans versus creatures in overly long battles with both sides knowing what they were fighting for.

Adventure/Horror/Sci-Fi – The adventure should be where Friend finds himself going to make what should be his own history. The horror comes from the battle between humans and the creatures who only come at night. While the sci-fi side of the film comes from the idea of a new species being found, unlike anything they human characters would have seen before.

Settings – The film has the perfect setting for this style of movie, it keeps our characters in complete isolation from the rest of the world, they have no way out of the situation and now we see the weather conditions being just as deadly as the creatures.

Special Effects – The effects are used very well through the film, most seems practical even with the swarms of the creatures that attack the lighthouse.

Scene of the Movie – The beach moment.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The battles seem repetitive.

Final Thoughts – This is a good sci-fi horror that gives us the question of man verses the unknown, something we have seen before, but is such an easy story to be telling.

Overall: Good creature feature.

Rating

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