“In Cold Light” is a Stark, Gritty, Beautifully Styled Thriller
Maika Monroe broke out onto the scene over a decade ago in the instant-classic horror flick, It Follows. Since then, Monroe has made quite a name for herself as a scream queen, starring in films like Watcher, Significant Other, and Longlegs. Now Monroe stars in Maxime Giroux’s In Cold Light. The film marks Giroux’s English-language feature debut and racked up an award for Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. In Cold Light gives Monroe a chance to flex her dramatic muscles to anchor a story of the difference between living and surviving.
Ava (Monroe) has spent two years in prison. She was arrested by police at a drug bust, but was adamant that she wouldn’t rat on anyone else involved. Now on the outside again, Ava wants back in. On one of her first nights out, she witnesses the brutal murder of her brother, up close and personal. In Cold Light shifts to a bare-knuckle survival thriller where Ava has few safe places to turn to and an ever-growing number of people who want her dead.
Saban Films
It’s a gritty survivalist thriller, but there’s a lot of style on display in In Cold Blood. Ava’s world, from drug-dealing to the rodeo at the center of this small city, is one of utter simplicity. Her essence is utility and utility alone. The few familial connections she has left are strained, most notably the one she has with her father (Troy Kotsur). Ava’s insular, no-frills character is wonderfully at odds with the work from Giroux and cinematographer Sara Mishara’s lush, neon-colored world. They’ve crafted a dreamlike world, one that seems to exist both within and beyond reality, that speaks to Ava’s overarching goal.
At a meeting with the person assigned to her case, when asked what one thing she wants, Ava says, “to feel free, to be alone.” The person pushes back and says that’s two things, but Ava stays strong. “No, it isn’t.” In Cold Light might have a sense of style when it comes to its visuals, but the heart of the film is in Monroe’s physicality and the loneliness that exudes from every pore of her skin. Ava isn’t glamorous like the visuals would have you believe, but the friction between them speaks to the way she doesn’t understand her place in this world. It’s why the look of the film is so at odds with Ava, yet she continues to press on throughout this terrible night she’s having because she hopes that at the end of it, there will be peace.
Saban Films
Much of In Cold Light is about action rather than conversation. Monroe is deeply compelling and comes out of this bruised, battered, and exhausted. The film is shot nearly in real-time, which adds to the larger tension that’s ramping up throughout the movie. Her Ava is the epitome of vulnerable stoicism in a main character who has been through hell and back in the pursuit of freedom, whatever that means to them. The closest Ava gets to letting her frustration cloud her judgment is in a conversation with her father. They’re arguing in the backyard, and the only thing illuminating them is the motion sensor light that keeps flicking on and off. Her father is deaf, so the light is a necessity in order for them to have this terse conversation about the choices they’ve each made to lead them here. Something about the harsh, stark, ever-disappearing light remains haunting long after the scene ends. It’s an encapsulation of the desperate, frustrating hope at the center of In Cold Light.
Stylistically flashy in parts In Cold Light and with a dizzying infrared section, this film is a throwback to not-quite-action movies. It’s not all explosions and death-defying stunts, but it is a race against time and circumstance. The entire world doesn’t hang in the balance, but Ava’s entire livelihood does. That sure seems like enough to fight like hell for.
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