Cold in July is an amazing film, one that I have heard little about, and really had no idea it existed until it popped up on Netflix. It’s set in the 80’s, and starts off with everyman character Michael C. Hall killing a buglar, and Sam Shepard playing the burglar’s father who, recently released from prison, comes to exact revenge. It’s level of twists are similar to A History of Violence. Don Johnson gives a memorable performance as a PI, and I just have to say between this and Brawl in Cell Block 99, he really seems to nail this style of movie. Michael C. Hall is awesome as regular guy whose nerves are completely fried, and I love how it shows a realistic reaction of a normal dude who’s just killed someone, complete with frustrating interactions with those people who are like “well if someone broke into my home he better be prepared to meet my 12 gauge!”. Sam Shepard is menacing as hell, reminding me of Cape Fear (but not copying it). The soundtrack is what really set this film apart from movies of this style, it’s got a beautiful synthwave soundtrack. I’ve read that the music may be jarring at first, but I didn’t think so; it doesn’t start sounding like a John Carpenter movie until about 15 minutes in, really easing you into the sound. Also I have to give it credit for having maybe one of the most intense, suspenseful, edge-of-my-seat scenes I’ve ever seen, I’m not going to say anything else other than it’s the train scene. It’s on both Netflix and Showtime right now, I’d put it at the top of your must watch list. Let me know what you think of the movie if you’ve seen it! There’s really not that much discussion of it; Whatever this style of movie is, I’m so glad it’s in its golden age right now. Just know this movie is not going to turn out the way you think, it spirals into madness very smoothly
edit: RIP Sam Shepard, damn I didn’t know he passed away
edit2: this is a sorta spoiler for the tone of the scene: I’m rewatching it right now and I forgot about the sense of dread you feel when they’re watching the snuff films. It messes with your emotions by having the hilarious car crash scene before it. I knew something was gonna be bad when they popped the guy’s trunk and find all the video tapes, and Don Johnson was like “oh they look like home movies”. Then they put one in to watch, and it looks like a standard porno (with the title “Batting Practice episode 15), and you just have a terrible feeling. Then you see the 2 masked guys start putting restraints around the girl, then hearing the sounds as it shows the viewer’s reactions.. Man it’s almost on the same level as the videotape scene in True Detective or Kill List. Also googled the batting practice scene and it seems that it was really effective at disturbing people
“What’s on the tape?”
“Do yourself a favor hoss, you don’t need to know”
“What’s on the tape?”
the tension in that scene..man