‘Cold Blows the Wind’ Review
Stars: Danell Leyva, Victoria Vertuga, Jamie Bernadette, Torrey B. Lawrence | Written and Directed by Eric Williford
At the start of Cold Blows the Wind, Dean (Danell Leyva; Stealth, Broke Luck) and Tasha (Victoria Vertuga; Lexi, Caesar and Otto’s Deadly Xmas) look in the trunk of their car and are surprised to find a badly injured man. They’re surprised not because he’s there, but because they thought they killed him when Tasha hit him while driving drunk. Realising he isn’t dead Tasha wants to get him to a hospital while Dean is worried once what happens gets out they’ll go to jail. To avoid that he takes the only logical course of action and stabs the man to death. Tasha reluctantly helps him bury the body.
Writer/director Eric Williford (Welcome to Horror, Bikini Mayhem) and cinematographer Marc Martinez (50K, Latin Spring Break) give us a striking burial scene full of moonlight and mist as the couple squabble while digging the grave. And as they do, someone is watching them, and humming the song, also known as “The Unquiet Grave”, from which the film takes its title.
We don’t have to wait long to find out who the watcher was, as Blair (Jamie Bernadette; Dead by Dawn, I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu) turns up at their door seeking safety from a man she claims is after her and letting it slip she saw what they did as added incentive for them to help her.
She also offers a warning, it seems that just like The Forest of Resurrection from Versus, “Dead things tend to not stay dead.”. Clearly spooked though claiming not to believe her, Dean goes to check and sure enough, the jogger is up and shambling along. At this point Cold Blows the Wind turns from a thriller with a very familiar plot to something seemingly supernatural and much darker than mere murder.
It’s easy to see why Cold Blows the Wind picked up the Best Feature and Judge’s Choice awards at HorrorHound this year. Apart from the atmospheric visuals, there’s some distinctly disturbing interaction between Tasha and Briar as her mood shifts back and forth between friendly, menacing and flirtatious, culminating in her demanding to be killed.
It’s made all the more chilling by an excellent performance by Victoria Vertuga and one of the best performances I’ve seen from Jamie Bernadette in some time. Danell Leyva also does a solid job as Dean. They essentially are the cast, the only other character on screen for more than a few seconds is Torrey B. Lawrence (Aquarium of the Dead, The Harder They Fall) who has a pair of scenes as Briar’s “Uncle Stevie”, a rather cliched menacing black man, complete with gold tooth.
And Cold Blows the Wind needs those performances to be convincing as it eventually, as you probably guessed, ends up going into Evil Dead territory and could easily have seemed rather silly without the viewer buying into the characters. But they do sell it, and it works quite well even if the film’s ending leaves more than one question unanswered.
Unfortunately despite the influence of Raimi’s film on the plot, the film’s gore is infrequent and fairly tame with the bloodiest acts happening off-screen or with the victim just out of view. The sound effects do make it easy to visualise what’s happening. We do however get a fair amount of nudity from both actresses to make sure it won’t be mistaken for a Blumhouse film.
An excellent film that makes good use of its small cast and single location, Cold Blows the Wind is a reminder that low-budget horror films can still deliver more than many studio efforts despite their lack of flashy effects.
**** 4/5
Cold Blows the Wind is currently available to rent or buy on the film’s website ahead of a wider release to streaming platforms.
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