I've seen a lot of movies over the years. So, at this point, it's rare to run into anything original. Most movies fall into one of three categories -- the story is either original (very, very rare), unoriginal (this happens all the time), or it may take an old idea and add one new component to it. This approach is interesting as it takes something with which we are familiar and throws in a twist which off some surprises. Cold Sweat is a great example of this, as it brings in a weapon that I don't think I've ever seen.

Cold Sweat opens with Roman (Facundo Espinosa) and Ali (Marina Glezer) parking across the street from a house which is in the middle of a busy, but somewhat rundown, city block. Roman's girlfriend Jacquie (Camila Velasco) broke up with him over a week ago, and he hasn't seen her since. With Ali's help, he's learned that Jacquie has come to this house to meet a man whom she met on-line. Ali has now arranged to meet the man as well. She is to enter the house and bring Jacquie out. Ali enters the house and then doesn't come back out. Roman waits for hours and then decides to go in himself. He find a way in through the back and enters a house of horrors. Two old political radicals live inhabit the house and they are sitting on a cache of decades old stolen dynamite. They capture and torture young women, and use nitro glycerin to intimidate and punish. Roman must now find Ali and Jacquie and try to escape without exploding.

However, unlike Gorozuka, something actually happens in Cold Sweat. Now, let’s be clear, the movie isn’t the wacky, crazy movie which it could have been. For a movie where a naked woman is harnessed and tortured, Cold Sweat is actually pretty tame. The aforementioned scene comes fairly early in the film and nothing really crazy comes until the finale. Now, that scene in the finale is pretty cool and it’s clear that a lot of work went into it. However, in between, the movie slows down quite a bit. It does manage to create a bit of tension with scenes in which the intruders are hiding from the old men or when there’s a chance that the nitro could go off. But, given the somewhat simplistic story, one would expect the movie to really go for it.

Once again, the nitro glycerin thing is new, original, and shows a lot of potential. However, the rest of the story isn’t. The “we’ve broken into the wrong house and now we have to find our way out” storyline has been done before, and done better. (The makers of Cold Sweat are clearly fans of Wes Craven.) But, Cold Sweat suffers from its deficits. Some movies can skate by on a thin storyline, but this one doesn’t know how to fill in the gaps. There are a few cool scenes, but we’ve come to expect foreign thrillers to be nuts and this one falls short. I don’t know what the typical Argentinean film is like, but Cold Sweat clearly shows that someone there is trying to think outside of the box...even if it’s just a little bit.

Cold Sweat lets us know they have Facebook in Argentina on DVD courtesy of Dark Sky Films. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, showing hints of grain and no defects from the source material. There are few bright colors in the movie, and the movie has a slightly washed out look. The image does get a bit dark at times. The brighter scenes are fairly crisp and detailed. The DVD carries a (Spanish) Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which delivers clear dialogue and sound effects. The music sounds very good, filling the front and surround speakers. The few explosions in the film deliver some subwoofer effects. Most importantly, the track provides stereo effects that let us know what is happening in other parts of the house.

The Cold Sweat DVD contains a host of extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Adrian Garcia Bogliano. The DVD offers four DELETED/EXTENDED SCENES which run about 24 minutes. These include a deleted opening sequence (which runs over 7 minutes) which helps to further explain the vague plot. This would have certainly helped the film to feel less shallow. We are also treated to two more flashbacks here. "Behind the Scenes" (9 minutes) is simply "fly on the wall" video showing the cast and crew at work. "Cold Blood" (6 minutes) has Director Bogliano describing the true facts behind the film which may not be known to audiences outside of Argentina, focusing the politics which influenced the story. The DVD offers a TRAILER and a TEASER for the film, as well as three TV SPOTS and three RADIO SPOTS. The final extras are a POSTER GALLERY and panels from a comic book based on the movie.