ColdWater

                                                                 
    Originally filmed in 2011, and having undergone reshoots and reedits after some festival dates “ColdWater” the most recent film from Dave Parker, (The Dead Hate the Living, The Hills Run Red), has resurfaced as part of the NuHo Online Film Festival

  Now I'll admit I wasn't horribly optimistic going going into it, I liked “Dead Hate the Living”, but pretty much hated “Hills Run Red”, I'd heard it referred to as a found footage film, which I tend to dislike, (it isn't, there are some scenes caught on cameras along the way however), and given all the buzz Hills had stirred up the fact this hadn't seen more than a couple of festival screenings made me think it had issues even 3 years of post production couldn't cure.

  On the plus side one of the few reviews I'd seen was written by a friend who has good taste and mostly positive things to say about it so I figured to give it a chance. And my response was something of a mixed bag.

  The plot itself is very simple, deceptively so even. Andre is recovering from a car crash that left him with a severe concussion and memory loss. He's recruited at the last minute to fill in for his buddy Rob on a house sitting gig at a big, strange house in Coldwater Canyon. He invites his girlfriend Rachael  over. But as the day turns to night, things start getting very odd and unsettling.

  The most immediate problem is that it takes forever to get properly started. The print I caught came in at 79 minutes, (IMDB lists it at 86 minutes which indicates a lot has been lost in the reworking), and its at the 20 minute mark that the first “blink and you'll miss it” bit of weirdness occurs. So you're a quarter of the way through the film before there's anything much happening and then it takes a few more minutes to get to the point where things start getting creepy. Now this buildup does pay off once things get rolling but I can see more impatient fans hitting fast forward or even eject. Tossing  something in a little sooner would have been a good thing.

  Now once things do get going the film does become damn creepy. Starting with small things half seen or caught by security cameras or the camcorder Andre uses for his video diary. Then escalating with a visit from a distinctly odd acting neighbor in a scene that while it sets up the last act of the film fairly well is a mess in and of itself. I'd never leave my girlfriend, (or anyone else for that matter), alone with somebody acting like that.
  
  At this point the film cranks up he paranoia as Andre tries to figure out where Rachael has  gone and  just what the hell is going on in general. And he does find out a lot, most of which he would rather not know. There's a bit to much use of distorted camera angles to illustrate the effect this is having on his sobriety and sanity. It's still very creepy and effective as it brings us to the ending...

  I don't want to give this away so excuse me for being vague, let's just say it sucks, it's a cheat and between the film's tagline and a piece of info you get near the film's start, I saw it coming miles off. There is an alternate possibility that the supernatural is involved and some of the reedits may have been intended to make it more ambiguous but it doesn't really work or help. 

  So what we have here is a slow opening, a great middle and a crushing letdown of an ending. The thing is the middle was good enough I felt it worth the $2.99 I paid to see it, but I couldn't justify recommending it at a much higher price. And a warning to those hoping for another “Hills Run Red”, “ColdWater” is a much more restrained film, with very little gore or even blood. This could have been a very good little film, but it falls apart at the end, something all the rediting in the world can't fix.