That Cold Dead Look In Your Eyes (2021) Review
Spoiler-free so you can read before you watch
Horrorific content by AngelaNolan on November 12th, 2021 | Movie Review | Mind Bender, Drama, Psychological, Thriller, Arthouse
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It’s about a man, Leonard, who’s on the verge of losing his girlfriend, Marie, his house, and job when his girlfriend’s father comes to stay and mysterious boxes appear across the city.
That Cold Dead Look In Your Eyes was directed by Onur Tukel (who also directed Summer Of Blood) and stars Nora Arnezeder (from Maniac), Max Casella (from Applesauce) and Eva Dorrepaal (from Sisters Of The Plague).
Switching between black and white and full color, and utilizing extreme close-ups, That Cold Dead Look in Your Eyes is visually appealing. At the beginning the color sequences denote happier times, but these lines begin to blur as the film goes on and Leonard unravels, keeping you on your toes. I don’t want to reveal too much about the plot but I found it unique in that it tackles a problem affecting the whole city but only focuses on how it impacts Leonard and we only see the places he frequents. This makes the problem feel somehow both grand and small.
The arrival of Marie’s father, sadistic to Leonard in her absence, is the catalyst for Leonard’s life to fall even further apart. His love of photography also allows the movie to play with the line between art and reality so he’s key to the plot. Unfortunately this character misses the mark in terms of LGBT representation. Very predatory in his advances towards other, usually younger, men he explains how he’s Marie’s father by brushing off the question with ‘sometimes gay men sleep with women’.
You can tell the movie is a labor of love. The acting is outstanding. The soundtrack is perfect and matches the abrupt changes in tone, jumping from dance music to jump-scare style musical stings. It may seem an odd thing to pick up on but the subtitles are the best I’ve ever seen; they’re in a very readable font and increase dramatically in size for emphasis or when multiple characters speak together.
The movie’s pacing is odd with the first half being slow, building to a somewhat chaotic second half, and finally a surprisingly quiet ending. That sounds like a negative but it actually works and you can’t imagine the film any other way. It will leave you with questions and a lot to think about. It’s one that I think needs multiple watches to truly unpick everything that’s going on because there’s an awful lot.
If nothing else I’ve said so far has convinced you, you should know that this movie will give you some excellent insults to use, in both French & English!
Worth Watching?
Yes. It’s a little hard to follow but it will keep you guessing and has effective scares, balanced with a few moments of comic relief. If you like movies that don’t spoon-feed you everything you want to know this one is for you.
