In his feature film debut, Sébastien Drouin brings us this new two-hander thriller Cold Meat. After saving a waitress (Nina Bergman) from her abusive partner, David Peterson (Allen Leech) finds himself desperate to survive in the frozen tundra of the Colorado Rockies. Violence, betrayal and brutality appear to be the only options, but how willing is David to take them?

Cold Meat is the type of film which instantly appeals to me; a simple concept thriller with a small cast in a harsh environment. It sold me on the Robert Redford fronted oceanic thriller All is Lost and the episode Bagman from Better Call Saul, so the premise of Cold Meat had me from the word go. The benefit is that the film delivers, mostly, on providing a taught and exciting ride. I think the choice of setting helps perfectly, the snow-capped wasteland of the Rockies makes for the perfect setting for this story. Ryan Petey’s cinematography I feel does the heaviest lifting in terms of creating this potent sense of danger and anxiety, there’s some gorgeous work here. There’s some good use of the extreme close-up to really sell you on the character’s mania and desperation.

You’ll have noted that I have cleverly avoided talking about the plot too much in this, and that is because there is about a twist every ten minutes. That’s probably hyperbole but there are a load of twists in this tale.  At points, it does feel like needless stretching of the film’s narrative to fit the ninety-minute run time. However the script does pull back some points with its surprisingly effective study of the irrationality of human cruelty, and without giving too much away, it goes in to especially good detail with the presentation of the male good Samaritan.

Performances from the central two leads are really good. Bergman and Leech have a strong interplay, both always trying to size each other up but never getting a true sense of each other. Leech in particular gets to really show his acting chops in the back half of the film as his performance descends into a palpable sense of madness and cruelty.

On the whole I think Cold Meat is the type of pleasant surprise that makes for a good cult thriller, with plenty of decent enough social commentary to keep you engaged throughout and performances that do get you through the script’s rougher and more convoluted moments. There’s something really creative here and Drouin feels like a director with quite a decent amount of potential, I’d like to see where he goes next with future feature film endeavours.