13 Over the Edge + February 2, 2011 SPOILER ALERT: Cold Prey Prepare for Your Final Descent Good old-fashion ice-pick murders fullfill you slasher dreams DARCIE SMITH ARTS EDITOR Released in 2009, Cold Prey is a Norwegian thriller that certainly exemplifies the term “slasher.” Starring Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Tomas Alf Larsen Endre Martin Midtstigen, and Viktoria Winge, the 97-minute film focuses around five friends who take off on a snowboarding trip in Jotunheimen. One of the friends breaks his leg during a bad fall, so naturally the fun stops there. From there, they must seek out shelter until they can make it back to their car and get help the next day. Their shelter of choice: a creepy, rundown, abandoned hotel. Despite predictable elements such as this, this film is incredibly suspenseful. There is little time between reading the subtitles and feeling terrified to really criticize the overused elements until after the film is done. It does follow the plot line of “a group of friends stranded/injured/alone/against the elements, exploring an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere, with a serial killer stalking them and the first girl who dies is in her underwear,” but as mentioned, suspense saves the day. There is something more frightening about watching a foreign horror and suspense film. It might be credited to the fact that if you have to read the subtitles for the dialogue, you are not always watching the screen with your full attention. When the horse-sized ice pick murdered jumps out, it is an unexpected and terrifying surprise. Since you are not completely focusing your vision on the characters on the screen, it is also easier to get caught up by the suspense and believe that something awful is always about to happen. When the first killing occurs, it is quite brutal and also sad, as the victim is so close to her friends and just misses a chance to be noticed and saved. Either that, or once her friends noticed a giant masked winter nightmare man lodging an ice pick into her back, he would simply overpower them all and the film would have ended abruptly. Ate PREPARE FOR YOUR FINAL D ; a“ The back-story surrounding the murderer and why he decides to kill innocent joy-loving youth is somewhat explainable, though there are some questions that remain unanswered at the end. The film opens with a scene of a young boy running through the snow screaming and crying, and seemingly being pulled under the snow and buried. Newspaper clippings are found by the snowboarders that show the hotel back in its active days, and the family who ran it. There are also clippings showing that their son went missing and was never located. By the end of the film, most of this is resolved. The surviving female who defeats the giant murderous man rips off his goggles and the audience sees that the man has the same marking over his left eye that the young boy had in the opening scene. It is then revealed that for whatever reason (one of the unanswered questions) his parents had attempted to bury him alive and make it seem like a missing person case. One could infer that he managed to escape and eventually kill his parents as an act of revenge, and then proceed to carry out his days taking the lives of anyone else who came around as some sort of retribution. This film turns into a bit of a sad story near the end, once the audience can see that the killer’s parents were cruel and merciless and how deeply it affected him. This is realized at about the same point that it sinks in that all of the surviving female’s friends were just murdered and she is all alone, and there is definitely some conflicting sympathy. If this film sounds like one you would be interested in checking out for yourself, it is available for rental at the Bob Harkin’s Branch of the Prince George Public Library. Not only can you feel smart for having sat through a film with subtitles, but you can also feel good about supporting your public library. IKI “PROBABLY THE MOST PERFECT SLASHER MOVIE EVER MADE!” ~AIN'T IT COOL NEWS ONLINE SOURCE If you have a PG Public Library Card, you could watch this movie for free! Awesome! Scarlet Fever: A Kick Ass Vigilante Using her wits, sexuality and strength Scarlet sends her message home BIANCA CHORABIK CLUBS EDITOR i Ee ES _ — Though | fight for DC Comics, | have to swallow my pride and keeping his images sharp and _ sketchy, Maleev WIKIMEDIA COMMONS This comic features a kick-ass heroine and is a must read for every- body no matter what...or else! and forfeit in this battle against my arch nemesis, Marvel...or, more precisely, Marvel's sidekick, Icon. In July 2010, Icon’s first issue of Scarlet was put on the stands. Since then, not only has the first issue been reprinted, but also the following two issues have been published and more are sure to follow! Scarlet, a kick-ass vigilante with flaming red hair, shatters the expectations of the two-dimensional world. This girl uses her wits, sexuality, and brute strength to get her message across. She has one heck of story to tell, and you better be listening! Besides, if Scarlet was a real person - I’d totally tap that. Brian Michael Bendis forms a plot that starts you off drowning in a pool of blood, hoping that you'll be able to swim out, but you can’t and now your hands are tainted. You become Starlet’s partner in crime as she tries to rid the world of corruption, one cop at a time. Bendis’ style is quite evidently macabre, with overtones of humour and above all, even to such a fictional genre, he brings in realism. His writing is convincing, genuine and always intriguing. Alex Maleev was the perfect candidate for this project. His art is beautiful, yet gritty. By only using colour when necessary appropriately emphasizes the darkness of the narrative. Simply examining the characters’ facial expressions, one can appreciate the effort and talent put behind depicting reality. Not only does he push awkward, sometimes even grotesque expressions, upon the readers, he pushes the boundaries in terms of what is truly beautiful. Through these expressions, our protagonist is depicted more humanly than any thing I’ve seen in comics. So, if you’re not completely dense, you'll go pick up a copy today! No, don’t make up excuses like “I don’t like comics” or “| have homework to do”. Because, firstly, if you claim not to like comics, then you’ve either a) never read a comic book in your life, or b) read “the Amazing Spider-Man”. Oh, and if you’ve decided to stick to the latter excuse, honestly... who are you kidding? Get off Facebook for a moment, walk out the door and purchase a copy of this phenomenal new series. You will NOT regret it! And, if you, by some small inconceivable chance, do... well, | both apologize and question your judgment.