Survival thrillers set in vast, isolated places aren’t anything new. We usually follow solo survivors who battle against the elements of the unique biome they are stranded in while also often being threatened by another entity. But French director Sébastien Drouin‘s Cold Meat sets off on its own rugged path in the first act, which renders it a fresh take on the genre — fresh and chilly. Set in the Colorado Rockies during an all-consuming blizzard, the film meticulously crafts a deep chill that creeps into our bones, not only because of the cold, but because of the two survivors who are forced to work together despite the fact that one has abducted the other. From the unexpected twists in its premise to the ever-changing dynamics between the two leads, Cold Meat weaves subversion into each of its elements, while battering us with the pitiless, icy fringes of morality. And now it is free to watch on YouTube.
‘Cold Meat’ Is a Subversive Survival Thriller
Opening up with a cozy diner scene, Allen Leech’s David seems like an ordinary albeit brave chap who good-heartedly intervenes in an altercation between Nina Bergman’s Ana and her violent ex-husband Vincent (Yan Tual). Opting for words rather than violence, he threatens to pursue a lawsuit against him to ensure he will not get custody of his daughter. Leech’s performance is graced with simplicity and a calm demeanor, as he reasonably talks to the menacing man but has a steely backbone we immediately admire. Once the ex-husband leaves, Bergman plays the relieved yet shaky Ana and also deftly garners our sympathy — it is a sharp and effective way to draw us into these characters.
Later, when the redneck ex decides to try and ram David down during a snowstorm on the highway, we think we know where the plot is going until it pulls the rug out from under us. We are thrown into the wilderness alongside two characters, one of whom has just been kidnapped by the other, yet both are trapped in the car with the raging icy winds outside. The plot continues in this same subversive manner, as their cat-and-mouse game of survival against each other and the elements concoct an enticing relationship. Cold Meat then further stuns us with its third act, wafting over an effortless supernatural twist that fits in seamlessly with the surreal white landscapes and haunting howls of the blizzard.
The Kidnapper and Their Victim Survive Together in ‘Cold Meat’
Cold Meat doesn’t only subvert the genre conventions of a typically solo survival thriller, but is also subversive in the way it presents the strange dynamic between captor and captive. The two are instinctively against each other, but have the overarching issue of survival to confront at the same time. Trapped in the car with limited heat, water and food, hypothermia becomes the most pressing issue, leading to a distinctly uncomfortable scene of them reluctantly yet greedily feeding off each other’s body warmth. This scene essentially encapsulates their symbiotic yet conflicting relationship, keeping us hooked on their unwilling reliance on each other while anticipating the twist of the knife at any second.
With nothing to do except wait out the storm, it tentatively becomes a two-people-in-a-room-talking kind of film as they hash out their differences, taking turns overpowering and threatening each other while meditating on the value of life. Much of the camerawork is restricted to the confines of the car, entrapping us in the setting and the equally claustrophobic relationship, starkly contrasting the deadly expanse outside. With close-ups of mouths moving and eyes darting, there is an inescapable quality to the corruption that shrouds them, especially as the kidnapper begins recounting tales of his previous victims. As such, the actors’ micro-expressions really come into play here, as each movement conveys some capacity for frustration, fear or loathing.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
‘Cold Meat’ Explores Crossing Moral Lines to Survive
Their interactions lead into commentary about crossing lines of morality. It’s most obviously seen in the serial kidnapper’s and killer’s nostalgic musings on his past victims, particularly his first one, where he made “many mistakes.” But this also provides a point of contrast, where the captive slowly begins closing the distance, being pushed to extremes to survive. As the peril of the supernatural entity derived from the local legend forewarned by the narrator in the opening sequence increases, the necessity for extreme measures also becomes more demanding. Even the “evil” kidnapper who relishes crossing moral boundaries has never really had the same threat held against him, making his actions under that pressure gripping to watch.
As the title suggests, the two leads slowly devolve into Cold Meat, stripping away what makes them intrinsically human and turning them into fodder for the third act, simply capable of terror and nothing more. Flipping our expectations multiple times throughout the film, Cold Meat is certainly not like any survival thriller you have seen. The lines of humanity become murky in more ways than one, all through a compelling central relationship that is as vividly chilling and sharp as the ice around them.
