Movie Review: BONE COLD

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: June 16th, 2023 / 04:46 PM

BONE COLD movie poster | ©2023 Well Go USA Entertainment

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jonathan Stoddard, Matt Munroe, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jennifer Khoe, Shaan Sharma, Elise Berggreen, Jeremy Iversen, Danielle Poblarp, Alan Hanson, Brenda Pollock, Duncan Perry, Juliet Lopez, Ricardo Mestre
Writer: Billy Hanson
Director: Billy Hanson
Distributor: Well Go USA Entertainment
Release Date: June 13, 2023 (digital, Blu-ray, DVD)

BONE COLD combines covert military action, PTSD, and the uncanny in a fairly suspenseful and effective package.

U.S. military Reaper Team consists of two men, Jon Bryant (Jonathan Stoddard) and Marco Miller (Matt Munroe). We first see them in Afghanistan. Jon, who has the best aim, usually makes the kill shots, which is starting to weigh on him.

Jon has a wife, Mel (Jennifer Khoe), and little daughter Wendy (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), waiting for him at home. Marco just has his mom. But they are both happy to be home on leave, which is cut abruptly short when they’re summoned for an emergency mission on the Ukraine/Russia border.

The plan sounds a little hinky even when Reaper Team is first briefed. Col. Nathan Berman (Shaan Sharma) and C.I.A. Agent Morris (Jeremy Iversen) reluctantly admit when prodded that another team was sent out, but returned without accomplishing the objective.

It sounds relatively simple, as wet work goes – take out a malicious militia man, then be exfiltrated back home.

Jon and Marco aren’t fully prepared for the Eastern European cold in winter. They are also not prepared for some of the ways in which the mission goes sideways. Finally, they are not expecting the presence of an inexplicable creature that seems to get closer without warning.

Director/writer Billy Hanson uses the creature as both literal monster and metaphor. He is skillful enough with the sniper/militia material to make the flesh and blood menace more alarming than the shadowy threat.

In fact, while Hanson keeps the focus on Reaper Team, he gives us enough of “the enemy” to make them human, so that we fear for one of their snipers as well.

Bryant and Munroe achieve a friendly, familiar chemistry that makes us invest in their characters’ well-being and concern for each other. We also comprehend their differing attitudes towards their shared vocation.

Narrative choices about what is revealed when tilt BONE COLD into another genre in its third act. There’s a moment when we are made to ask, “Wait, there’s more?” The simple fact that there is indicates where we’re headed. It doesn’t derail the film, but it dampens the tension a bit.

Wintry Maine forest locations stand in for Eastern Ukraine persuasively, and Los Angeles doubles just fine here for urban and suburban Northern California. The intriguing creature design is by Brian Hillard and Matt Cunningham.

BONE COLD lets the audience get ahead of it in the third act. Still, it holds our attention and keeps us worrying about all the dangers that may be lurking on unfamiliar turf.

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