Cold Ground

No, the entire movie is not in French, just the first 5-10m and intermittently throughout. All of it for good reason and adds to the background in the movie which is about a French movie duo meeting English scientists, forensics/investigative professionals and one guide to reach a scientific outpost in some treacherous mountains. I've watched every bit of good and bad found footage out there. I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting films in the genre. I prefer horror. This is a solid FF movie in that genre. This was on par with: "Exists" "Alien Abduction (2014)" "Frankenstein Theory" ect. It has an interesting setup with a large party of confident strong people, which I find to be far more entertaining than just like two people running screaming in the woods or being locked in a building, large parties make the situation seem more dire since in theory it should provide safety but fails miserably as people are picked off. The actors all play their particular roles well, the scenery is well chosen, the creatures are terrifying and it doesn't just toss it all at you at once but builds to a terrifying final few scenes. None of the actors overact, scream incessantly or have obnoxious emotional problems. Everyone starts off happy, has a job and takes the situation seriously. The scientists act as such, the movie crew asks a lot of questions and all of it adds to the plot. The scenery is well chosen and definitely provides a very lonely sense of danger as they are isolated in a wooded area up in mountains where they make clear that it is extremely cold, which it looks it. The creature makes it's appearances through the evidence it leaves, eerie sounds and eventually directly. The makeup/cgi is well done and looked good. If you want to get a detailed look I doubt you will get that even on a DVD but its good enough that you know what it is and it's scary. Come on, its FF, not a nature documentary. There is one scene at the end where I was kind of like "really, right now?" But that was minor, the characters were out of their element and acted rashly. This would be my only real complaint. Summary: Top notch FF. If that's what you are looking for don't hesitate. If on the other hand you are looking for a conventional horror movie, go elsewhere. Great job to those who made this movie, more like this please! (A follow up expedition would be cool! Or the story told from the perspective of the mountains scientists we didn't see)

I'm writing this review mostly because I've noticed this movie's not getting a lot of love, and it really is an intelligently done creature feature. A French journalist and her boyfriend/cameraman are off to the Swiss/French Alps to investigate cattle disappearances and mutilations in the area which may have something to do with a new bacteria. Researchers however never returned from the mountains, so the intrepid journalists head out with a biologist, a mountain guide, and an American investigator studying similar cases in the US (which he thinks are caused by e.t.s) to shoot the a rescue mission. It isn't long, of course, until they realize they're the one's in danger. It's a slow burn, couple of slow spots, lots of dialogue, part of which is in French, which may bother those who dislike subtitles. The characters in this one really shine; you believe they are what they are cast as. The setting is desolate cold, the mutilations bloody and the creatures, it's easy to put the dots together as to what they are. This is a found footage film. A polarizing medium, but love it or hate it, the plot is so engrossing you forget that's what you're watching, up until the end. We have that typical ff lack of conclusion, which I would say is this movie's only real flaw.

This movie doesn't start out all that badly, but it rapidly goes downhill. (No pun intended.) There are just too many things that made it impossible for me to ignore them. These people are supposed to be in frigid temperatures, but they are dressed as if they are walking around in the city during the winter. The so-called scientist, uses the words "virus" and "bacteria" interchangeably. A jeep at a camp that can only be reached by foot. Even if this was air-lifted in, what possible use would it be? None of the team except the guide/leader had any provisions for a 3-4 day hike through frozen wilderness, and the guide/leader's supplies were limited to some cans of food, chemical heat packs, nylon tents and sleeping bags, (which he instructed them to hide in from carnivorous killers that could tear apart flesh!) and alcohol. He tells them it will help keep them warm. Even I know, drinking alcohol does not help you keep warm, just the opposite. Nobody has a compass or map. The scientist doesn't take any notes, by hand or recorded. The camp they are visiting hasn't been heard from in days, but no air search was initiated. The boyfriend with the hurt ankle, following his girlfriend through the deep snow and holding the camera, aims the camera down towards his feet showing clearly unbroken snow, at his feet, stretching out ahead of him. Where is her trail through the snow? They are walking through frigid conditions at times with no hand or head coverings. No steam from their breathing, and on and on the inconsistencies kept coming until I was just rolling my eyes. By the middle of the film, I thought I could give it a 4 or 5, but by the end my rating was 1. Edit: While watching "Cold Ground" I had this weird feeling that I had seen this movie before, but long before 2017, and I remembered liking it. After doing a Google search, I knew it! This is just a bad ripoff of the movie, "The Dyatlov Pass Incident (2013)". While that movie was no blockbuster, it was done with more realism and attention to detail than this dreck.

Cons: Since I'm late to the "pick-apart" party I will get straight to the point with questions/comments. - They are scientists and don't know the difference between bacteria and viruses?.....interesting - Three-day hike and they brought food and water for a week in those little backpacks, two small tents barely big enough for two people yet they're five of them but they happen to bring five sleeping bags?...hmmmm - Complain about how cold it is, yet they bring very little clothing and the ones they brought are useful in 50-60 degree weather as those knitted gloves are going to do nothing but get wet and freeze your hands. - Why is the lead girl wearing Mudd brand jeans? This is weird because those were made in the mid-'90s, not the mid-'70s when these so-called lost tapes came from. - It's weird how they finally reached the camp and yet there was a hardtop jeep up there yet they had to hike? So how did that Jeep get there, and how did they expect to get back down with there being several feet of snow with a blizzard every day? - Also why would you cut off your limb like a foot in a blizzard and freezing temperatures?? Even in very cold/freezing places like this isn't a good idea as your blood is still warm which means you'll bleed to death before it cools and slows down and since they were already struggling to stay warm it was a big mistake as you lose blood your body temperature will drop even in none freezing temperatures as in doing so ensured this guy will freeze to death faster not to mention the roc she used left there and the wound not being dressed. - A Bobcat in the Alps near France? That is a North American feline now I know they were very lazy in doing their homework for any sort of accuracy as I was saying to my self "Where is the Moose also?" LOL. - I did a freeze-frame on the so-called Yeti/Bigfoot's in this movie and they were pretty bad costumes if they were going for a Yeti/Bigfoot. They got the body pretty decent but not the heads as they were WAY off and the best freeze-frame image showed it to have an elongated snout with oversized canine teeth and long pointed ears it's like they borrowed the werewolf costumes from the Ginger Snaps movies. Pros: - Yes 1/3 of the movie was very slow to pick up but when it did pick up with action it was pretty decent. - Acting wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst I've seen, just decent enough for what it is. - I like how they kept the monsters mostly hidden with only glimpses of them till the end. - I also liked how the monsters used the humans they injured to lure more into a trap which shows intelligence. - All in all the movie was decent enough to give it three stars and that's being generous considering everything I found wrong but if you're looking to be entertained it does that just fine but just don't expect too much accuracy or perfection.

Warning: Spoilers!!! Do you want to watch people walking endlessly through the snow and every once in a while being attacked by blurry monsters? Then COLD GROUND (2017) is for you! This "found footage" film (Jesus, when will people realize this genre died a long time ago?) purportedly shows us a pair of French documentarians, who are also lovers, going to the French Alps in 1976 to investigate a series of animal mutilations and disappearances. Along for the trip are a detective from Colorado (!), who is there to see if it is connected to the "Snoopy Case" (Don't ask!) and a couple of guides, who are going to the top of the mountain where the titled area is, an unexplainable region where the ground is below zero, even in the summer. As they make the three day trip up the mountain, they experience an avalanche, find some human bones and remains and are attacked by creatures we never get a good look at. The cameraman, David (Geoffrey Blandin), breaks his ankle during the avalanche, but continues filming as if nothing happened. When the group is thinned out by the creatures until only David and Melissa (Gala Besson) are left, they must find their way down the mountain before the creatures kill them too, but they fail miserably. This film delivers nothing in the way of entertainment, as it is nothing but 90 minutes of footage of people walking in the snow and when the creatures attack, the camera swirls so wildly, you never get a clear view of them. Everything these people do are beyond comprehension and the camera David uses is indestructible, surviving getting hit directly by an avalanche and falling hundreds of feet down the mountain. We are supposed to believe this footage was found forty years later, but you wouldn't know it by the condition of the print (this is not supposed to be video footage, but film!). Where did they find the camera, encased in ice?!? Nothing is explained in this film, not what the creatures are or where they came from, not why the area is a "cold ground", not why the creatures skin their victims before killing them, not where the footage was found, nothing! And to make matters worse, we never discover what happens to the last victim, as the film just ends, explaining nothing. That is the problem with these found footage flicks, they think that nothing needs to be explained because it is supposedly "real life", but entertainment needs explanations, nothing near it is in this film. Director/screenwriter (and I use that term loosely) Fabien Delage gives us nothing in the way of entertainment, offering one unbelievable scene after the next (Why do people keep on filming when their life is a stake???), even going as far as to have Melissa cut David's broken foot off with what looks like a butterknife and a sharp rock (!) and then, moments later, the creatures kill him! Do yourself a favor and skip this one unless you are a found footage freak (I am still wondering why people like these kinds of films). I saw it for free streaming on Amazon Prime, but I still felt like I was cheated. When will I ever learn?

Watched it on "Prime Video" ! Kept my interest all the way through. The team were not a bunch of teen age idiots looking for a monster, the monster(s) were looking for them. No more spoilers just watch I really liked it, and those who didn't like it were probably born in the 80's oh, oh now I've done it. :) :) :).

Not a perfect movie, but definitely better than most lower budget found footage. I liked the wintry setting, the characters, and the few glimpses of the creatures. It had some dull parts, but also had its fair share of suspense.

I'm not a big fan of "found footage" films. Neither am I fan of poor writing. So "Cold Ground" starts with two strikes. Nobody's heard from a scientific team for several days, so five people hike for three days to the camp in the snow? Based on their packs, none of them came prepared. There's no way they had two tents, five sleeping bags, and food and water for a week. Apparently no-one carried a compass, either. And if it's a three-day hike to the camp, how is there a jeep up there? (And what could they use it for?) While the acting is surprisingly good, the story is full of holes. What large predator kills everything that moves and eats virtually nothing? They'd all starve in one season. Why is it they treat the main character differently from every other victim? And if it's so darn cold out, why is it we never see the hikers' breath? I'm sorry to be so negative, but the writing and directing here just feels plain lazy. As if someone woke up one day and said, "I know. Let's remake Blair Witch, but with snow."