Scream Queen Felissa Rose just can’t get away from killing people! This time, Rose, accompanied by Dave Sheridan and Caroline Williams, is a stone-cold assassin with a penchant for vengeance against another hit-man who kidnapped her sister. An action-horror film through and through, Cold Blooded Killers is just that, kill or be killed. No amount of loyalty or killer’s creed can keep you safe when a bounty is on your head.
We open in one of the most surprising scenes I’ve seen in a horror flick: a couple sits down to a very fancy meal, only to have their lovely time interrupted by a leather-wearing, handgun-wielding Rose. But wait — the woman pulls out a machine gun from the kitchen cabinet? What is going on here?! Oh no… their young daughter is home… AND SHE’S GOING IN WITH THE FIREARMS TOO! Not only that, but she curses Rose with all the gumption of a hardened criminal, only to die by the way of the gun like her parents. This isn’t just your ordinary killer face-off, this is some serious shit right here.
Immediately I’m impressed with not holding back when it comes to kids. And you could pretty much say that for everyone in the film; drugs, nudity, violence in many forms — Cold Blooded Killers delves into the debauchery like no other. Based around an app that helps people call hits and hitmen find those jobs, this initial kidnapping scene was sure to find itself wrapped up in a bunch of mess coming from all angles. And that’s what we got exactly; all types of assassins are present here: the smooth-talker, the murderess, the big boss and his henchmen, the pro-killer, everyone we could possibly fit into a stereotyped box showed up to cash in on this hit. Cold Blooded Killers had all the basic necessities of a good movie.
Story-wise, I liked it fine. While the premise of an app-based hit system wasn’t exactly new, it wasn’t so overdone that it made the movie boring. Effects were at two extremes though. On one hand you had some pretty low-budget CG, mainly with blood spurts and bullets. On the other hand, practically-done wounds were generally well done and realistic. While I could have stood a teeny bit more blood here and there, it was enough to warrant a gore warning. Characters, while stereotyped, were enjoyable and interacted well with others. Watching Cold Blooded Killers, I knew these people were actors, but I liked the back-and-forth dialog, especially when it came to Steven Chase’s Sheriff Joe.
Is that a devil shirt you’re wearing? Are you smoking the devil’s lettuce?!
Sheriff Joe (Chase), Cold Blooded Killers
Of course, with all movies there are fucking awesome parts and pretty terrible parts. On the bad side, we have moments of underdone acting (one scene in particular was a man taking torture pretty lightly), instances where I got characters confused, and an ending that I think could have been resolved both easier and quicker than what we got. But on the good side, we hear plenty of quotable dialog, get wild action scenes (including one with a chainsaw) and creative text-on-screen, and perfect use of scenery.
Speaking of scenery, one thing I’d like to point out was how Cold Blooded Killers expertly portrayed a small desert town. Every set fit in the movie exactly how it should have. The diner scene, both inside and outside, was my favorite by far. It’s a weird thing to say, but there are scenes of cars driving along the highway (what looks like northern Texas). The shots aesthetically aren’t too great — sun glare and washed out — but they remind me of family trips driving across country. It makes the movie feel more “real” because those shots look like they were taken straight from my memory, as opposed to a super clean and stylized shot like a bigger-budget movie would have. The filmmakers played off of this well too, probably utilizing drones to get shots from above.
I’m not going to lie and say Cold Blooded Killers is the best movie ever. It’s clearly a film coming from a smaller production company and it definitely shows. But it has a lot of heart, something that shouldn’t be taken lightly with the plethora of waste-of-time movies out there on the internet. Not only do you get a heart-filled action-horror story, you also get a movie you don’t have to take too seriously, perfect for a group of friends on movie night.
Watch Cold Blooded Killers today! Now available on DirecTV, AT&T, FlixFling, Vimeo on Demand, VUDU, Fandango, Hoopla, iTunes, Amazon, InDemand, and Google Play.
The movie is an unfinished mess and there’s good reason for that.
If you had been on set or read the original script, it was far different than what was released.
2 directors had their hands on this project that’s why scenes didn’t edit well, color grading didn’t match, character names were changed several times, and gunmen waved their guns aimlessly at nothing.
Some of what Rickey wrote and filmed made it into the film, but there’s a lot of good things and great actors who were left underutilized in this final cut by someone else.
What you watched was not Bird’s vision at all.
“Killer Rose” was meant to be a grindhouse action film, but “Cold Blooded Killers” is not.
#ReleaseTheBirdCut
See for yourself straight from the man who filmed the originally planned – Killer Rose –
https://rickeybird.com/f/killer-rose-aka-cold-blooded-killers