Hold the Dark is a violent, visceral film, but it can leave you cold in more than one way.

Hold the Dark begins like so many grim adventures of yore: with a journey to the end of the world. Opening on a man sitting on a plane headed for regions unknown, beckoned by an enigmatic and troubled note, the film foreshadows its very best and worst sensibilities. For this new Jeremy Saulnier thriller is about returning to our roots, including as storytellers, as a species, and as creatures of this Earth. Animals, really. It also returns to a root that attempts to chill to the bone but can leave you cold in other ways.

With Hold the Dark, the Green Room and Blue Ruin auteur enters his first Netflix foray, where he displays enough cinematic charisma in every frame to again disprove the cynical notion that Netflix originals are not genuine experiences.