COLD GROUND (2017)

Studio:     Wild Eye Releasing
Director:    Fabien Delage
Writer:     Fabien Delage
Producer:  Redwood Creek Films
Stars:     Gala Besson, Doug Rand, Fabrice Pierre, Maura Tillay, Phillip Schurer, Geoffrey Blandin

Review Score:

Summary:

In 1976, two journalists join a treacherous research expedition in Swiss mountains to investigate bizarre animal mutilations.

Synopsis:     

Review:

A handful of “found footage” films have taken place in timelines prior to the 1990s, which is of course when “The Blair Witch Project” (review here) popularized the genre.  The further back a setting goes though, the more trouble I have buying into the “record everything” idea, if only from a technical standpoint.

I’m not normally one to quibble about that either.  A camera that’s virtually “always on” is a common contrivance affecting all “found footage” films to some degree.  Usually, you just kind of go with it.  But “Cold Ground’s” specific setup routinely repeats the “why are they still recording” question no matter how many times you try looking the other way.

For no particular reason that ever seems to matter much, “Cold Ground” takes place in 1976.  Unless the director was just dying to apply a film scratch filter over his footage, which becomes distractingly overused, the movie could take place in 2026 and I don’t see how anything would be significantly affected.

Anyway, things kick off with freelance French journalist Melissa and her cameraman boyfriend David.  The duo travels to the Swiss border to interview a research team investigating an unusual case of cattle mutilations in the mountains.  Melissa and David join a small expedition to search for several missing scientists and, after what feels like forever trudging through a snowy forest, eventually confront the terrifying culprit.

The reason 1976 nags at me is because the year makes it harder to accept that a cameraman would keep rolling without cause.  With modern digital media and equipment, this rarely matters.  But not only are film reels expensive and cumbersome to work with, someone also has to record sound separately and do additional labor to synch audio and video down the line.

Yes, I realize that’s how “The Blair Witch Project” did it.  Except Heather, Josh, and Mike returned to their motel room regularly, weren’t expecting to be in the woods as long as they were, and had the excuse of being drunk when they recorded unrelated antics.

Given the cost of film in 1976, it seems far less justifiable for someone to randomly film his girlfriend eating a croissant in a field, or to pan aimlessly around a room over lava lamps, record players, and Polaroids posted on a wall.  We’re supposed to believe one man willingly lugged copious cans of fresh film around wintry woods, enough to record nonsense during a multi-day hike?  Even on 8mm, the camera supplies alone would require multiple duffel bags and cases just to accommodate everything.

“Frankenstein’s Army” (review here) pulled something similar, yet I gave it a pass simply because that film is conceptually crazy.  Putting a World War II-era mad scientist movie into a first-person format seems like the last thing to be hung up on considering how much disbelief suspension is necessary there.  Here, “Cold Ground’s” strict seriousness makes it harder to hurdle such a hump.

David’s dialogue at least makes some weak attempts to explain his careless cinematography.  Early on, David specifically says he’s bringing batteries to last a week.  He confirms he has plenty of audiotape too.  Later, David adds that he keeps filming because he needs the camera’s lamp.  Ordinarily, one would be able to use the light without running the camera, except David mentions the mechanism is vaguely “jammed” somehow.

Even if that’s the case, couldn’t the lamp still work by running the camera without film in it?  Regardless, that flimsy excuse doesn’t account for why David keeps recording during the day.  Nevertheless, I appreciate that the script makes some meager move to acknowledge how badly the fiction wants to work within its forced “found footage” frame.

It’s not like David is a particularly talented documentarian either.  He can’t keep his camera steady.  He certainly can’t keep the film clean.  He frames interview portions poorly.  And he allows music to faintly play in the background while one subject speaks, even though it sounds like neighbors shouting next door.  What’s funny is that the piece David and Melissa are producing is a spec documentary they hope to sell to TV stations.  No wonder these two are desperate for jobs.  I can’t imagine a single network programmer being remotely impressed with their amateurishly incongruous footage.

David and Melissa’s companions aren’t much savvier, despite their disciplines.  All five search party participants fill unique functions like biologist, journalist, etc.  Their personalities aren’t as distinguished.  Maybe the detective gets snippy faster than anyone else and the trail guide has a slight sense of humor.  But the mostly “meh” mood everyone creates together doesn’t make an audience eager to get swept up in the emaciated story.

“Cold Ground” interested me because it was made by writer/director Fabien Delage, who wowed me with his exceptional debut feature “Fury of the Demon” (review here).  I was intently curious to see how he would build upon such a convincing faux documentary, but a poor plot keeps “Cold Ground” as blandly basic as “found footage” gets.  Five people enter snowy woods searching for something strange and eventually, they find it.  That’s truly all there is to it.  Characters have a hard time sustaining engagement since the majority of what they do is merely hike through snow, camp, hike through more snow, stumble upon a clump of bloody remains, hike, camp, and hike some more.  Delage then fills in plentiful spaces with cliché after cliché, including someone recording a confessional video and someone else unable to move properly after suffering a leg injury.

Even though “Cold Ground” is disappointingly rote, the indoor warmth and convenience of a haunted hospital location would have been infinitely easier on its cast and crew.  At least they had the commitment to film in a forest at night during winter.  They venture into a cave populated by actual bats too.  As usual under such circumstances, my bell curve adds special consideration for exhibiting genuinely laudable indie effort.

I still don’t see a reason to recommend “Cold Ground” since it’s uneventfully dull.  If your heart remains fixated on snow-set “found footage,” consider looking into “The Frankenstein Theory” (review here).  Or to keep it in the Fabien Delage family, do yourself a favor and track down “Fury of the Demon” instead.

Review Score: 40