The Cold Prey Trilogy (2006, 2008, 2010)

 

Second Sight are giving their lavish boxset treatment to the Norwegian slasher franchise that launched the international career of director Roar Uthaug (TROLL, TOMB RAIDER) and provided horror fans with a novel setting for murderous mayhem. Second Sight’s limited edition set comes with the three films on Blu-ray (1080p transfers on three separate discs), each with a set of extras, and you also get a 120 page book with new writing, five art cards, and a slipcase. So let’s take a deeper look at what we get:

Disc One: Cold Prey aka Fritt Vilt (2006)

Five friends set off for a snowboarding holiday on the Norwegian slopes. Unfortunately their fun is curtailed almost immediately when one of them, Morten Tobias (Rolf Kristian Larsen) manages to break his leg. Fortunately there’s somewhere to take him in the form of the rotting and long-disused hotel that’s just over the next rise, the one near which all manner of winter sports enthusiasts have disappeared. They settle in to some of the most disgusting hotel rooms committed to celluloid and pretty soon they’re being bumped off. Could it have anything to do with the child from the opening scene who mysteriously disappeared years ago?

In the extras director Rolf Uthaug says he pitched COLD PREY by playing the trailer for Marcus Nispel’s TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake and said “Now imagine that, but cold.” Which is kind of what COLD PREY is to an extent. But what could have been a generic slasher is kept fresh by good direction, an amazing location and likeable performances, especially from Larsen and final girl Ingrid Bolsø Berdal. It’s a must-see for slasher enthusiasts and was a deserved hit.

Second Sight’s Blu-ray is step up from previous DVD releases, but overall this is a pretty grainy low-res film so don’t expect anything spectacular, for this or the other two in the series. Extras include a new commentary from Uthaug and Berdal (in English in case you were wondering) and new interviews with the director (22 minutes) and star Ingrid Bolsø Berdal 19 minutes). There’s also an ‘alternate ending’ which is actually just the ending we see but fleshed out with storyboards for material they didn’t have the budget for, and featurettes on the visual effects (24 minutes) and behind the scenes (22 minutes), plus nine minutes of bloopers. The disc is rounded off with two short films: Mountain Rose Runs Amok (2 minutes) which is a brief amateur slasher piece and An Evening in the Green which is three minutes of jolly fun with a lawnmower and, as its director (Roar Uthaug) puts it ‘a bucket of pig intestines’. There’s also a music video but it’s not for the catchy end credits song.

Disc Two: Cold Prey II aka Fritt Vilt II (2008)

Unsurprisingly following in the wake of the success of the first film, COLD PREY II is to COLD PREY what Rick Rosenthal’s HALLOWEEN II was to John Carpenter’s original. Taking up where the previous film ended, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal’s Jannicke is taken to hospital. Soon the bodies of her friends are taken there too. And the body of the axe-wielding maniac. You can guess the rest. This one really is a bit too much by the numbers to make it interesting but if you love generic slashers you’ll probably still have a jolly hospital-based time.

Extras include a new commentary track from director Mats Stenberg (again, in English) as well as a 32 minute interview. There are also interviews with Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (11 minutes) and Roar Uthuag (4 minutes), who was associate producer on this one. There are also extended and deleted scenes (5 minutes), bloopers (3 minutes), and a behind the scenes featurette (34 minutes & goodness me the weather looked terrible).

Disc Three: Cold Prey III aka Fritt Vilt III (2010)

It’s prequel time! The little boy who would grow up to be the killer in the first two films kills his parents. Twelve years later a group of friends hiking in the area start to get bumped off by the ‘Mountain Man’. COLD PREY III is the most by the numbers of the lot and feels very much like a Texas Chainsaw ripoff. However we still get some impressive locations (and very little snow this time) making the Norwegian landscape the star of this one.

Extras this time include a new commentary track from Christer Andresen (a Norwegian associate professor of film studies specialising in Norway’s horror films and Phillip Escott of Second Sight, and a behind the scenes featurette (8 minutes).

The COLD PREY trilogy is available in a special limited edition set from Second Sight on Monday 6th July 2026

Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025)

Following its UK cinema Christmas release last year, Mike P Nelson’s grindhouse slasher movie remake par excellence is now getting a Blu-ray, DVD and digital download release through Studio Canal.

This new version of the 1984 original keeps the best elements (child traumatised by seeing his parents killed by 'Santa' grows up to become lunatic slasher wearing the same festive outfit) but adds a lot more to the mix, including why the killer is creating his own advent calendar of death, a subplot about children being abducted, and a romance with a girl into true crime documentaries. 

Where SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT really scores big, though, is that here there's none of the irony, smugness or post-modernism of so many of those tiresome pseudo 1980s slasher tributes, the ones so keen to keep nudging you that 'this is just like the 80s, right?'. Instead here everything is played straight, which also helps to make an outrageous sequence in the middle (that appears so gob-smackingly out of left field) a thing of near genius. There are some in-jokes but they are subtle and more to be nodded at by those in the know, although fans of SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 will most likely cheer at the mention of ‘Garbage Day!’.

Considering how many extra elements are added, including the reason the lead character has been going on a killing spree every Christmas for the last ten years, it would be easy for SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, to collapse under the weight of too many absurdities. Full marks, then, to Nelson and his talented and likeable cast who get the balance just right. Likely to become an annual seasonal watch for horror fans, this is how you do a modern slasher picture. Studio Canal’s Blu-ray comes with an eleven minute making of that includes interviews with Nelson, the producers (who also produced the original) and the lead players.

Mike P Nelson’s SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is out on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download from Studio Canal on Monday 2nd March 2026

Jason X 4K UHD (2001)

 

"Evil Gets a 4K Upgrade"

One of the most entertaining sequels to Sean Cunningham's 1980 FRIDAY THE 13TH gets a 4K UHD release from Arrow Films.

Jason Voorhees is chained up on earth. Scientist David Cronenberg wants him transported elsewhere for research purposes, despite the objections of scientist Rowan (Lexa Doig) who wants him frozen. Even before Cronenberg can say 'I want him soft' Jason's up and about and killing again, and it seems only cryogenic freezing can stop him. By accident Rowan gets frozen as well, with the two of them being discovered 455 years in the future.

What follows is that old Universal monster (and especially Frankenstein) movie standby: Jason gets thawed out and is soon on the rampage again, the gag this time being that he's on a spaceship. Blowing him to bits works until the ship's nanobots get hold of him and give him an upgrade, leading to yet more ridiculous trouble.

The tenth film in the series, JASON X unexpectedly turned out to be one of the best sequels to the original FRIDAY THE 13TH, the other being FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI - JASON LIVES. The script fully appreciates the ludicrousness of the premise of the entire franchise and even makes fun of it in a bit of holodeck jollity towards the end. Despised by some fans for these very reasons, if you don't hold this series of slashers in especially high regard you may still be highly entertained by this.  Arrow's 4K provides a crisper image but the contrast between light and dark is so extreme it's more of a strain on the eyes, with some scenes being just a bit too dark despite all manner of adjustments to our OLED monitor.

Extras include three commentary tracks. As with Arrow's release of JASON GOES TO HELL you're best off listening to them in 'reverse' order - director Jim Isaac, producer Noel Cunningham and screenwriter Todd Farmer first, then Farmer and Crystal Lake Memories author Peter Bracke second and finally the new commentary from Michael Felsher and Steve Barton. 

There's a new 10 minute interview with composer Harry Manfredini & it's good to hear he's a fan of this one. 2020 extras include a making of (33 minutes) and interviews with Farmer (23 minutes), Sean Cunningham (15 minutes) and actress Kristi Angus whose character gets her head frozen and smashed (11 minutes). 2002 extras include another making of (18 minutes), 52 minutes of cast and crew interviews, nearly an hour of behind the scenes footage, and The Many Lives of Jason Voorhees half hour documentary. There's also the electronic press kit (25 minutes) trailers and TV spots. Arrow's limited edition set also comes with a booklet, double-sided poster and reversible sleeve.

JASON X is out on 4K UHD from Arrow Films on Monday 19th May 2025

Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday 4K UHD (1993)

Director Adam Marcus' contribution to perhaps the daftest, most illogical and continuity-poor franchise in movie history is getting a deserved whistles and bells 4K UHD double disc release from Arrow.

Why deserved? Because while a number (but not all) of the sequels to Sean Cunningham's seminal FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) have adopted a rather ho-hum approach to the antics of Jason Voorhees, JASON GOES TO HELL grabs the crazy potential of its scenario and runs with it, hardly pausing for breath until the final audience-pleasing shot.

Crazy axe murderer Jason Voorhees is still up to no good at Crystal Lake despite having been dissolved in toxic waste at the end of the previous sequel, which Marcus was instructed to ignore when writing this (pretty much par for the franchise). He is lured into a trap by a sexy FBI agent (Julie Michaels) and gets blown to pieces. In the first few minutes.

But aha! His still-beating heart is eaten by the coroner assigned to report on all of Jason's bits and somehow he becomes possessed and we're off on another killing spree! But there's more - Jason needs to be properly reborn, plus the bodies he possesses have a habit of wearing out quickly so he has to swap often. He's also being pursued by professional Jason hunter Creighton Duke (a winning performance from X-Files star Stephen Williams) as well as leading man (and Friday the 13th the TV series star) John D LeMay. What's Jason to do? Apart from kill loads of people? 

The curious can have all their questions answered (within reason - this is a Friday the 13th film after all) in this double disc set that boasts the R-rated cut on disc one (running time just under 88 minutes) and the unrated cut on disc two (nearly 91 minutes). 

'Thanks for buying this film for the fourth time" says Adam Marcus in his brief introduction to both cuts, and Arrow's UHD set is certainly the fourth version to grace the film library here. However, you can now dispense with previous DVD and Blu-ray releases as Arrow's stunning 4K transfer (it really does look excellent) and the extras make this the ultimate version of the film. Disc one includes new interviews with SFX expert Robert Kurtzman (17 minutes), actress Julie Michaels (12 minutes) and good old Harry Manfredini (12 minutes). Extras from a 2020 release of the film include two interviews with director Marcus totalling 48 minutes in all and one with Kane Hodder (28 minutes). There's also 12 minutes of deleted footage with optional commentary, and a one minute tour of the Friday the 13th props museum.

Disc two has the commentary tracks and if you're unfamiliar with them you should start with the archival commentary from Marcus and co-writer Dean Lorey which is as entertaining as it is endearing and will leave you feeling extra love for the film. Then go to the 25th anniversary commentary with Marcus and Crystal Lake Memories author Peter Bracke before finally listening to the most recent track from Michael Felsher and Steve Barton. Finally, Arrow's set comes with a double sided poster, booklet, and a reversible sleeve.

In one of the interviews on here Adam Marcus said he wanted to make a film that was fun. He certainly achieved his aim and if you're a fan of JASON GOES TO HELL you'll also have a great time with all the extras that have been assembled here as well.

Adam Marcus' JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY is out in a dual disc 4K UHD set from Arrow Films on Monday 19th May 2025

In A Violent Nature (2024)

"Revisionist Slasher Turns Out To Be Better Than An Awful Lot of Them"

Have you ever watched a slasher film and wondered what the killer was up to during those lengthy and frequently dull sequences where the victims-to-be were doing all the things deemed appropriate for gory punishment by the culture of 1980s Reaganite America? Well wonder no more as writer-director Chris Nash's film takes exactly that angle. 

Offscreen mumbling characters remove a locket from a grave, causing the resurrection of Jason Voorhees clone 'Johnny', his retrieval of said item becoming the raison d'etre for the next ninety minutes of carnage. We follow him as he makes his way through some beautifully shot rustic scenes, as he spies on some annoying teenagers who mumble their way through his back story, and then as he despatches them with the tools he finds in a museum exhibit.

A contemporary review of Steve Miner's FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981) described it as 'short sharp shocks punctuate slabs of tedium', which is actually a pretty fair summation of most of that series. It's therefore a bit of a mystery why nobody has ever thought of the most obvious way to make those slabs of tedium more interesting by telling most of the story from the point of the view of the killer. Which is just what IN A VIOLENT NATURE does. 

It also allows Nash to provide a little more nuance than these films usually offer. A scene where our hulking maniac plays with a toy car while teenagers squabble just out of view provides an almost 'Karloff as the monster' moment of sympathy that nearly all movies in this genre never even think to include.

On the downside, the lengthy shots where we follow Johnny are a little reminiscent of RPG computer games where you're aching to get to the first quest, and there's an attempt at an explanation for why slashers like Johnny behave the way they do that falls a bit flat but these are actually minor quibbles. IN A VIOLENT NATURE is head and shoulders above recent 'slasher tribute' movies like Eli Roth's THANKSGIVING or FOUNDER'S DAY in that it treats its subject matter both seriously and sympathetically. Here's a clip:

Chris Nash's IN A VIOLENT NATURE is on general UK cinema release from Altitude Films now and is out on Digital from 12th August 2024

Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1981)

Who would ever have thought it? One of the most infamous (for a number of reasons which are all gone into in the copious extras on this disc) of the video nasties gets a UK two disc dual format UHD and Blu-ray release from Severin Films.

Tatum (Baird Stafford) is released from his very low budget-looking psychiatric institution having undergone a revolutionary new therapy that we know is bound not to work. Still plagued by nightmares (aha!) he sets off to find his ex-wife Susan (Sharon Smith), bumping people off along the way. At the climax, we see via a blood-drenched flashback, the reason for Tatum's original incarceration.

Adopting an almost Pete Walker-style disdain for the ineffectiveness of psychiatric treatment that kind of makes NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN the sleazy grindhouse FRIGHTMARE of the 1980s, Romano Scavolini's film also goes so far as to suggest that the causative trauma of Tatum's psychosis may be repeated by his own demise. That's not the reason the film got into trouble, though. In the US Tom Savini's name featured prominently on the press materials and in the credits despite him have little to do with the film. In the UK the film was released by World of Video 2000 uncut despite BBFC instructions to the commentary, and they might have got away with it were it not for their accompanying round British 'Guess the weight of a human brain in a jar' competition used to publicise the film. 

Extras (which are on the Blu-ray) kick off with the superb 71 minute documentary 'Damaged' about the life and career of NIGHTMARE's original UK VHS distributor David Hamilton Grant. An infamous character whose life story would likely make a film even more controversial and 'likely to cause offence' than the film itself, this is probably the final word on the man unless he ever surfaces (or is found) to offer comment. Excellent stuff and, if you have any interest in the history of British exploitation cinema of the 1970s and 1980s, this alone is worth the price of the disc.

40 minutes of cast and crew interviews include star Baird Stafford, Simon Nuchtern (production supervisor), Ed French and Cleve Hall (makeup), and Arthur Schweitzer (head of 21st Century Distribution). Writer-Director Romano Scavolini talks for a whopping 71 minutes about his career and the film, while Tom Savini is interviewed to iron out the controversy concerning his alleged participation in the film (his credit is still present on the print presented here). There are also deleted scenes (only a minute or so), a still gallery, trailer, and two commentary tracks - one with Stafford and Cleve Hall, the other with producer William Paul. 

Romano Scavolini's NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN is out in a double-disc UHD and Blu-ray set and also as a single Blu-ray from Severin Films in the UK on Monday 26th February 2024