An experienced Black Ops sniper attempts a nightmarish escape after a failed mission, tracked by enemy soldiers hellbent on revenge and hunted by something sinister and monstrous, hungry and determined.
Jon (Jonathan Stoddard) and his buddy Marco (Matt Munroe) are snipers from a Black Ops government program sent worldwide to erase bad guys. Jon prides himself on the fact that he’s never taken an innocent life, but all that changes when the two are sent to Ukraine to eradicate the leader of a terrorist group. After taking out the mark, they are informed that they killed the wrong target, even though he matched the description given to them.
They are instructed by central command to move further into the region to exterminate another target, surrounded by armed militia, but along the way, Jon begins to see a frightening creature, almost demonic in appearance. It continually taunts him, and Marco thinks he is losing his mind over the killing of the innocent civilian, but when it attacks him too, both men must try to outsmart the creature and eliminate their intended target without drawing attention to themselves.
“Bone Cold” initially starts as a taut thriller but then segues into horror territory once the creature appears. It quickly becomes apparent that the beast is a metaphor for Jon’s PTSD, but writer/director Billy Hanson can’t decide whether he wants to tell a dramatic story about battle fatigue or a straight-up horror flick. When Marco thinks Jon is losing his mind because he cannot see the creature, the narrative switches gears so both men can see and feel its presence; hence, they both now exhibit psychological issues due to their work.
Once the creature manifests, it’s never made clear if it’s part of the men’s psyches or a local mythological creature. In one scene, a Ukrainian female sniper tries to kill the two men, but she too sees the beast through the scope of her rifle, and falls back, almost as if she knows what it is and doesn’t want it in her life. The rest of the movie is an assortment of psychological and real-world issues that regularly collide but never inform us if they’re real or PTSD-related.
The performances by Jonathan Stoddard and Matt Munroe are fine, and cinematographer Ben Meredith captures the nightmarish essence of the Ukrainian wilderness, but writer/director Billy Hanson just can’t make up his mind as to what type of movie he wants to make; a psychological thriller about PTSD or a story about a mythological creature that roams the Ukrainian forest, killing all who gets in its way. Maybe his next film will be more transparent.
Available on Blu-ray™, DVD, and Digital June 13th
