COLD GRIP AKA TEMPTATION is an exploitation horror thriller about a man who falls victim to a woman who preys on men, seducing them into one-night stand in order to infect them with HIV, only to end up becoming a murderous predator himself.
The premise is actually not bad, and gives at least the title TEMPTATION a nice double meaning: the temptation to be seduced into dangerous sex, and the temptation to be seduced by your baser self to prey on others.
Unfortunately, the execution of the premise falls drastically short. The look of this direct to video film is uncommonly cheap, and neither the acting nor the debut direction by Javier Barbera are all that impressive. But the greatest lack is in the script: it completely fails to render plausible how a seemingly nice business man suddenly becomes this ruthless monster, especially since he did not bother to get tested to see whether he really was victimized or not. Also, how did he find her so quickly afterwards? What are the odds that her next potential victim was going to be out in the woods in the same area just as the protagonist tries to bury her?
These substantial implausibilities turned me off, not to mention that there was a missed opportunity for a back story which would explain why the woman turned into a predator. For example, I could imagine that a woman who got infected by being raped could turn into this character. Finally, the ending was deeply unsatisfying.
This is all too bad because, again, the premise was promising and at least some of the horror sequences were reasonably effective. Also, while the movie looks really cheap, there are two aspects that don't: one is a decapitated head prop which looks surprisingly realistic, and the other is the title and end music by Marcello de Francisci which really conveys the ambience of a much classier film.
With better production values, acting, direction and screenplay, this could have been a horror exploitation classic, but as is, it is forgettable.
The premise is actually not bad, and gives at least the title TEMPTATION a nice double meaning: the temptation to be seduced into dangerous sex, and the temptation to be seduced by your baser self to prey on others.
Unfortunately, the execution of the premise falls drastically short. The look of this direct to video film is uncommonly cheap, and neither the acting nor the debut direction by Javier Barbera are all that impressive. But the greatest lack is in the script: it completely fails to render plausible how a seemingly nice business man suddenly becomes this ruthless monster, especially since he did not bother to get tested to see whether he really was victimized or not. Also, how did he find her so quickly afterwards? What are the odds that her next potential victim was going to be out in the woods in the same area just as the protagonist tries to bury her?
These substantial implausibilities turned me off, not to mention that there was a missed opportunity for a back story which would explain why the woman turned into a predator. For example, I could imagine that a woman who got infected by being raped could turn into this character. Finally, the ending was deeply unsatisfying.
This is all too bad because, again, the premise was promising and at least some of the horror sequences were reasonably effective. Also, while the movie looks really cheap, there are two aspects that don't: one is a decapitated head prop which looks surprisingly realistic, and the other is the title and end music by Marcello de Francisci which really conveys the ambience of a much classier film.
With better production values, acting, direction and screenplay, this could have been a horror exploitation classic, but as is, it is forgettable.
