Ozge (Violetta Schurawlow) has it tough all over; she’s a Turkish cab driver livin’ in Vienna which makes her about as popular as a fart in a submarine with the locals, and most of her family isn’t too keen on her either. As you may guess, this makes Ozge a bit anxious, so she heads to the local gym to kick dude’s asses up under their hats (as well as the occasional policeman or customer). As fate would have it, there’s a real sick ticket roaming the streets, torturing sex workers of the Muslim faith to death, and our heroine gets a glimpse of this madman (and vice-versa) as he makes like the wind and blows the scene after killing Ozge’s prostitute neighbor. After dealing with unsympathetic cops, Big O’s nightmare comes true as the killer returns and the two battle in an out of control taxi (a real jaw-dropper of a sequence I must say). This leads to a path of vengeance, as after Ozge escapes the nefarious clutches of the psycho he murders her cousin which makers her take the fight to him with the help of the only one that will listen to her, a private detective named Steiner (Tobias Moretti)!
Cold Hell is probably one of the most female empowering pictures I’ve seen. Our heroine Ozge is like a callous; hardened from the constant forces of her bleak existence rubbing on her soul. But, she is no shrinking violet by any means, and the fact that she is given a means to combat her world (literally and figuratively) through her Thai Kickboxing training at the local gym. This is a refreshing change of pace…and but one within a fright flick that is unafraid to change the paradigm. Take for instance the murderer’s quest for holy vengeance against those that are unclean in the Islamic faith (the film’s title references a frozen zone in the Islamic version of hell)…a nice spin on the same theme prevalent in the ‘seven deadly sins’ storyline of Se7en. Adding to the aesthetic of the picture is the way Austria is presented; cold and raw…with just a neon haze to give it a slight dream-like ambience…the city becomes a character itself. But that isn’t to say this whole flick is pitch black grimness, as there is also an undercurrent of comedy that pokes through here and there which gives the audience time to breathe as the dark tale rockets by at a brisk pace (with a run time of just over ninety one minutes).
If you dig on revenge tales and killers who use religion as the basis of their nefarious acts, and want to see a flick with a truly powerful female lead, give Cold Hell a go; it’s dark, thrilling, and above all a unique spin on well established genre archetypes.
Catch Cold Hell exclusively on Shudder now!
