What excited me the most about adapting COLD the novel into a movie, is how it takes two genres — the murder mystery and the paranormal thriller — and weaves them together in a very unexpected but satisfying way. A big part of the joy of watching the film is how it pulls the rug from under your feet — how it subverts your expectations of genre. 

The film has two separate storylines that entwine and eventually merge. The first one starts off as a familiar mystery: we follow Óðinn who is a government investigator looking into suspicious deaths that happened at a juvenile delinquent home in the 1980s. He is also dealing with the aftermath of his ex wife’s suicide, and is now living with his estranged teenage daughter who begins having nightmares about her mother. It’s not long until Óðinn begins having strange visions of his wife as well, which takes that story into a much scarier and creepier place.

The other story gives us a glimpse into what actually happened at the Krókur juvenile home in 1984. There we follow Aldís, a young maid who hates working in this creepy house, out in the middle of nowhere. But then a new boy arrives at the home — a handsome, charming young man with a mysterious past. She quickly falls for him… but at the same time, in the wake of his arrival she begins to feel like Krókur is haunted. She also has strange nightmares and feels like she is being watched and followed. Little does she know that the arrival of this mysterious boy is what sets off a series of events that ends in tragedy — the same tragedy Óðinn is investigating.

As both of these storylines unravel, we start to realize that they are more connected than first appeared… and that the solution to the ghostly mystery of the 1980s could be the answer to the scary events Óðinn is experiencing. Along the way, we begin to upend the genres we started with — the haunting in the 80s begins to slide into something much more tragic and psychological, and the modern mystery part… well it gets pretty wild and intense by the end. No spoilers. 

Everything comes to a head in the third act where all is revealed with twist after twist after twist — where tragedy and horror play together in a pretty spectacular fashion.