Rotten Tomatoes Rating: NA (Critics) / 73% (Audience)
Directed By: Boris Rodriguez
Written By: Boris Rodriguez, Jonathan Rannells and Alex Epstein
Starring: Thure Lindhardt, Georgina Reilly, Dylan Smith
Studio: Doppelgänger Releasing

Synopsis: Lars Olafssen, once a young celebrity in the art world is slipping away fast into the land of has-beens. His long-time art dealer, Ronny, is now an ungracefully aging hipster who desperately wants his meal ticket back. But Lars refuses to paint. His creativity comes at too high a cost – his inspiration is carnage – blood, guts and limbs. Not surprisingly, this lead to a dreadful breakdown in the past. Nevertheless, an eager Ronny arranges a teaching job for Lars at an art school in Koda Lake, a small Canadian town in the middle of nowhere. It’s a “therapeutic” measure for Lars – a means to conquer his need to paint in the “safety” of a country retreat… That is, until Eddie comes into his life. (Source)

The Good:
I loved the look of this film. Set in a particularly frozen part of Canada and shot is such a languid manner for the most part except for the scenes where Eddie gos on his night-time jaunts. During those scenes there is a kicked up kineticism to the way the scenes are shot that mirror the frenzy that Eddie is experiencing.
Dylan Smith is great as Eddie. He has no lines but he gives a very emotionally open performance as the mute manchild with the bloody appetite. Even though he is a bit of a monster it isn’t his fault and Scott makes you want to just give the big fella a hug and take him to the park to play catch.
Also notable was the way that the audience has to decide who is worse, Eddie or the people using him for their own gain? And it was a nice touch to never let the audience see the masterpieces that Lars would paint once he got “inspired”.

The Bad:
This movie is a bit too short. At less than 90 minutes I felt that some of the relationships that were formed and I was supposed to care about really had no meaning to me.

The Ugly
I can’t think of anything uglier than a developmentally challenged, sleepwalking cannibal running around a frozen tundra in his tighty whities eating unsuspecting woodland critters and defenseless Canadians.

Final Verdict: An interesting premise that felt a bit too rushed in its execution. A little more time spent developing some of the characters and their relationships would have been a good movie. But that being said, this is still a very enjoyable and original movie that is full of dark humor and blood-n-guts.

Grade: B-