Cold Sweat

Things That Make You Go Boom: A Nutty Argentinean Thriller That You'll Either Love Or Hate
The new horror thriller "Cold Sweat" is a movie sure to divide its audience. I suspect that there will be plenty of aggressively negative reviews on one hand, but a number of equally supportive raves as well. This exercise in outrageousness from Argentina may not make a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things, but its sheer wackiness almost compensates for its narrative shortcomings. As much as my instincts tell me that I should completely write this one off, I simply can't. Part of my nature embraces what I like to call "bad movie magic," and this spirited film embraces a nonsensical lunacy that it's hard not to appreciate on some level. So if you can disconnect your common sense and just enjoy the visceral unpleasantness of "Cold Sweat," the movie does offer a uniquely skewed nightmare with a gritty visual style.

Transpiring in what amounts to real time, this eighty minute film takes place almost entirely within the confines of one decrepit domicile. A man and...

Not what I expected, but better
I wasn't expecting a lot from this film, but it turned out to be far better than I expected. It's an Argentinian film, with a prelude regarding some of the terrorist activity and political unrest of the 70's. Then, it jumps to present day as a young woman is about to go into an old house (on false pretenses) trying to help a friend out to see if his ex might be there....well, she was not expecting to find a couple of holdover terrorist from the old days who are nuttier than fruitcakes & experimenting with nitroglycerine-type stuff, and who have a basement full of crazed mutants (of sorts). And, they just happen to have a big cache of dynamite in the basement too, a bunch that disappeared in the 70's. And if you know anything about dynamite, the older it is, the more unstable it is. Kind of like the 2 old geezers that hoarded it.

This is a film that I am going to have to watch again because it was a bit hard to follow at times, but it also had me on the edge of my seat...

Started Out Okay But.....
This Argentinian film is somewhat of a torture, thriller that starts out well and manages to stumble to the end zone.

Here's the scoop. A young girl drives a guy, with whom she's beginning a relationship, to a house where his previous girlfriend has gone to hook up with a guy she met on-line. He needs to put a final finish on this previous relationship, and find out why he was so unceremoniously dumped, so he can move on with this next gal. After getting into the house he finds he's walked into a rough situation where two old geezers are torturing and killing young folk using varying instruments including some old, unstable nitroglycerin.

This is a pretty cool set up. The unstable nitro thing was the main focus of William Friedkin's film "Sorcerer." They pay homage to him here by having the hero wear a "Sorcerer" t-shirt. But after the set-up, things get pretty stupid. I don't want to spoil but when our rescue party comes across some of the previous victims, it...

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