Cold Blood (DVD)

Cold Blood, aka Freez’er (as it was known in 2001), makes it way to DVD on September 27, 2005 courtesy of Heretic Films. It’s a low-budget, homemade movie in which most of the crew are also actors, and it follows a tried-and-true storyline showing a man who’s murdered his wife and then winds up being haunted by what he’s done.

Cold Blood hits the ground running with a “slam!” as JM (Barnes Walker III) strikes Andrea (Laurence Avenet-Bradley) with a fatal, skull-crushing blow. Tailspun into a panic by his hasty action, he quickly moves to cover up his crime. As he does this, writer/director Brian Avenet-Bradley goes into flashback mode and shows us that JM’s crime was one of passion after discovering that Andrea was cheating on him.

Still, he loves his wife and can’t quite let go of her. JM decides that a trip out to the country might be the best thing for both of them, so he dumps Andrea into the trunk and drives to his sister’s uninhabited farm where he was married just one year before. As soon as he sets foot in the door, JM places Andrea’s already rotting corpse in an ice-filled bathtub, fondles her wedding dress in the closet, then moons over their wedding video.

Before long, strange characters show up — namely a hayseed-chewing, bib-overalled handyman named Bud (Brian Avenet-Bradley), and an abused wife, Julie (Carrie L. Walrond), who likes to take hot baths in homes of men she doesn’t know. Even stranger than the local hicks are the incidents that start to tease and taunt JM — is the spirit of his wife trying to get someone’s attention?

Cold Blood is well-directed as far as the action and suspense goes, but Avenet-Bradley clearly doesn’t have a flicker of flair when it comes to working with inexperienced actors (his own performance suffers the worst). Workmanlike cinematography from the other Avenet-Bradley serves the story well enough, and the music is above low-budget average.

If you can get by the wooden acting and sparse production value, you might enjoy this haunting little tale. It’s not a diamond in the rough by any means, but Cold Blood is a cut about the usual direct-to-DVD indie chiller in that it has some memorable moments and good scares.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson