Cold Prey

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You'll catch your death.

Cold Prey (original title Fritt Vilt, which translates to "open season") is a 2006 Norwegian horror/slasher film, directed by Roar Uthaug and starring Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Tomas Alf Larsen, Endre Martin Midtstigen and Viktoria Winge. A sequel Cold Prey II (Fritt Vilt II, also known as Cold Prey: Resurrection) was released in 2008 and was directed by Mats Stenberg. This was then followed by a prequel Cold Prey III in 2010.

The trilogy uses a lot of common Slasher Movie tropes and clichés, while subverting a few at the same time. Although the common tropes make the films somewhat predictable, the acting, cinematography and genuinely foreboding atmosphere won over audiences and critics.

The first film follows a group of five friends - Jannicke, Eirik, Morten Tobias, Mikal and Ingunn - as they drive into the mountains of Jotunheimen for a day of snowboarding. Unfortunately, things turn sour when Morten has an accident, breaking his leg. Miles away from civilization, with the car too far away and realizing that Morten's injury cannot be treated in the wilderness, the group spot a nearby hotel and decide to seek help there.

Upon their arrival, they discover that there is no-one to be found at the hotel. After treating Morten's injury with supplies found within the building, the group decide to seek shelter for the night, with the intention of going for help in the morning. Eirik, Mikal and Ingunn go off to explore, while Jannicke stays and looks after Morten. The first three discover the electric generator of the hotel. Eirik fixes it, restoring power to the hotel. Afterwards, the three discover some odd things within the building, including a fire axe cabinet (with the fire axe missing), a burnt-out room with a broken window, a bathroom with strange stains in it, and Eirik hears a strange, unidentified noise. Thinking little of it, they all return to the parlor. As they are all relaxing, Jannicke finds the hotel's guestbook and discovers that the last guest checked in sometime during 1975. Under the names of the last registered guests, there is a message reading: "We hope you find your son".

What they don't realize, however, is that they are being watched...

Second film picks up where the first ended and brings the story to conclusion. Third film shows the killer doing his thing in the eighties.

Tropes used in Cold Prey include:

• Abandoned Hospital: Much of the second film is set within a nearly-empty hospital.
• Abusive Parents: Mountain Man's father Gunnar abused him and forced him to live in the basement. His mother just looked the other way
• Action Survivor: Jannicke.
• Agony of the Feet: An arrow is shot through Magne's foot in the third film.
• The Archer: Mountain Man in the third film starts firing arrows at Anders, Hedda and Magne when they try to escape him through a river.
• Ax Crazy: Who do you think?
• The Bad Guy Wins: In the third film.
• Barrier-Busting Blow: The killer grabs Magne through a door in the third film.
• Bear Trap: Mikal steps into one in the first film.
• Beard of Evil: The Mountain Man. Also Jon from the prequel.
• Bertha in The Attic: The killer was kept locked up in the basement by his parents when he was little.
• Big Damn Heroes: Towards the end of the sequel, Camilla turns up to save Jannicke from the Mountain Man.
  • Earlier in the same film, Ole turns up at the last moment to stop the Mountain Man from killing Camilla.
• Blatant Lies: After Morten suffers a particularly nasty breakage in his leg, Jannicke tells him that it's just "a small fracture" to try and keep him calm.
• Boom! Headshot!: Jannicke delivers one to the Mountain Man, just to make sure he's really dead this time.
• Buried Alive: The killer's parents attempted to do this to him in 1976.
• Cain and Abel: The nice guy Einar and his evil recluse brother Jon in the third film.
• Camera Abuse: When Morten is killed, blood splatters onto the lens.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Morten towards Jannicke. Towards the end of the first film, he tries to tell her that he loves her, but can't finish his sentence. Jannicke replies that she already knows.
• Caught in a Snare: The killer catches officer Kim with such trap in the second film.
• Chase Scene: First film opens with a little boy being chased around in snow.
• Chekhov's Gun: The shotgun shell in the first film, and the "box of junk" in the second.
• Crazy Survivalist: Mountain Man.
• Creepy Child: The killer became one after his parents tried to kill him.
• Dangerous Windows: The killer attacks Jannicke's company in the police car through its windows in the second film.
• A Date with Rosie Palms: Morten is apparently a big fan of this.
• Death by Sex: Averted. Ingunn, who is still a virgin, refuses to have sex with Mikal as she doesn't feel quite ready yet. She is the first character to die.
• Developing Doomed Characters: First and third film.
• Disney Villain Death: The killer seemingly dies in the first film when he falls into a crevasse. As it turns out, it wasn't quite enough to kill him.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Sverre to Audhild in the second film.
• Don't Go in The Woods: The horror starts in the third film when the main cast decides to spent a night in the woods.
• Dramatic Unmask: Happens when Jannicke is struggling with the Mountain Man at the climax of the first film.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: In spite of being mortally wounded, Ole is able to make his way out of the hospital and manages to save Camilla's life by shooting the Mountain Man. He dies of his wounds very shortly after.
• Eureka Moment: When Einar in the prequel starts going through the papers of Stenoe Mountain Lodge case, he realizes that he saw the missing boy's sweater in his brother's home back in 1976 after seeing one of the photo's depicting him.
• Eye Scream: The Mountain Man tries (and fails) to gouge out Camilla's eyes with his thumbs towards the end of the sequel.
• The Faceless: The Mountain Man has his face covered most of the time, to protect him from the harsh environment (and because it looks imposing).
• Fan Disservice: Ingunn in nothing but her underwear? Nice. The fact that she's just taken a pickaxe to the shoulder, is covered in her own blood and about to die? Not so nice.
• Final Girl: Jannicke.
• Fingerless Gloves: The Mountain Man wears them.
• Fingore: The Mountain Man gets two of his fingers blown off with a shotgun in the sequel. This doesn't seem to cause him much pain - it just makes him angry.
• Genre Savvy: Jannicke becomes this in time for the sequel.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Most (though not all) of the killings in both films fall into this category.
• Gratuitous Rape: Jon rapes Siri in the prequel.
• Gross Up Close-Up: Done in the sequel when the police are taking pictures of the victims.
• Handicapped Badass: In spite of not being able to walk properly due to his broken leg, Morten is still willing to do his best to slow down the Mountain Man in order to let Jannicke escape.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Morten opts to stay behind and fight off the Mountain Man, partly by attempting to bluff him, in order to give Jannicke a chance to escape.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: At the end of the sequel, the Mountain Man is impaled through the chest with his own pickaxe.
• Hope Spot: Einar arrives at Jon's place in third film when Siri is there, but just when she tries to alert him, Jon grabs her.
  • A particularly cruel one happens in the first film. Ingunn, bleeding and weakened, is right in the entrance of the parlour - but, as she's too weak to cry out and Mikal is blasting loud music, no-one hears or sees her.
• Hospital Hottie: Camilla and Audhild. With the latter, Sverre definitely seems to think so. Audhild even admits to Sverre that one of the reasons she wanted to be a nurse in the first place was because of the fact that some guys like nurse uniforms.
• Hostile Weather: Strong wind builds up outside the hotel in the first as the cast take shelter there.
• Human Shield: The Mountain Man uses Eirik as one.
• Immune to Bullets: The Mountain Man isn't fazed in the second film when he is shot. He also takes two shots point-blank from Simen in the third film, though there is a possibility that he just missed.
• Implacable Man: The Mountain Man.
• In the Hood: Mountain Man's outfit of choice in the third film.
• Infant Immortality: Played straight with Daniel in the second film.
• Kick the Dog: The Mountain Man (either knowingly or unknowingly) keeps Eirik alive, uses him as a human shield, then stabs him with his pickaxe as Jannicke and Morten can only watch in horror. In the second film, he knocks out Audhild, just so he can drag her to the shower, prop her up, and wait for her to wake up before he kills her.
• Kill the Cutie: Poor Ingunn... and poor Audhild.
• Kneecapping: Jannicke stabs the Mountain man in the knee in the climax of the first film.
• Lean and Mean: The Mountain Man.
• Made of Iron: The second film reveals that the Mountain Man survived the damage done to him in the first film. And then some.
• Mirror Scare: There is a build up to one in the third film but it plays differently.
• Neck Snap: How Mikal meets his end, and how Herman meets his end in the sequel.
• Never Recycle a Building: The hotel hasn't been used for over 30 years.
• Nice Guy: Eirik.
• Nightmare Dreams: After being sedated in the sequel, Jannicke has a nightmare of the Mountain Man attacking her.
• No Name Given: The name of the killer is never revealed - he is merely credited as "Fjellmannen", which translates to Mountain Man.
• Not Quite Dead: The Mountain in the sequel. It is also revealed that he was literally born not quite dead, as he was stillborn for hours before coming back to life suddenly.
• Nothing Is Scarier
• Numbered Sequels
• Once Is Not Enough: Jannicke is Genre Savvy enough to know this by the sequel. After impaling the Mountain Man with his own pickaxe, she grabs the nearby police shotgun, strides up to his body, and blows his brains out.
• Playing with Syringes: Jannicke arms herself with a full syringe when things start to go downhill in the hospital.
• Police Are Useless: The local police force's investigative methods have a lot to improve on. Averted, however, in the sense that they do go to investigate the crevasse almost immediately after hearing Jannicke's story.
• Powerful Pick: The Mountain Man uses a pickaxe in the first two films.
• Red Right Hand: The Mountain Man's birthmark.
• The Reveal: The Mountain Man is the little boy from the beginning of the first film and his parents tried to kill him.
• Sad Clown: Morten Tobias in the first film. He may be the joker of the group, but it's obvious that he is in love with Jannicke, but can't have her as she is in love with Eirik.
• Scenery Porn: It is to be expected when snowboarding is included.
• Self-Made Orphan: The prequel opens with the killer retaliating on his parents for the attempt on his life.
• Serial Killer: The Mountain Man has killed a lot of people.
• Series Continuity Error: Gunnar is missing his beard in the third film.
• Shower Scene: Audhild in the sequel has one after her shift is over. Interestingly, the scene is set up in a tense fashion, making one assume that she's going to meet her untimely end there. She doesn't - at that point in time, anyway. To elaborate, she is knocked out by the Mountain Man in the hospital corridor, before he actually drags her back into the shower, waits for her to wake up, and then proceeds to smash her head in with a fire extinguisher.
• Skinny Dipping: Hedda and Magne in the third film go for a nude swim on a lake.
• Slashed Throat: The first thing that the Mountain Man does in the second film after waking up is slash Sverre's throat open.
• The Slow Walk: The Mountain Man is a master at this.
• Took a Level in Badass: Jannicke, especially in the sequel.
• Trophy Room: Jannicke and Mikal find the killer's collection of stuff from his past victims in the first film.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Jannicke and Morten.
• The Voiceless: The Mountain Man. He does however says a few words when we see him as a kid.
• Window Pain: Eirik breaks and enters into the hotel in the first film through a window.
• Wrench Whack: Herman throws a wrench at the killer when he meets him.