IN COLD LIGHT (Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Maxime Giroux
At her mandatory social worker meeting, Maya (Maika Monroe) is asked, “What do you want from all of this? (i.e., how do you want to see your life go?). This is the hard part.
Ava, just released from prison after a drug bust, is considering either making a new, clean life for herself or continuing with her drug-dealing business, the one she was forced to leave behind since she has to serve time. To make matters worse, she is hunted down by a crime boss as well as the police. She was beside her twin brother in their car when he got shot, and she i prime suspect.
IN COLD LIGHT is a fast-moving crime thriller centring on Ava and her need to manoeuvre her life after prison. The film is at times difficult to figure out, as the story never makes that clear. When the price first chased her during a drug bust and arrested her, the segment looks as if he was entering a drug den to make a purchase. The reason the other drug lords want her out of the picture is also never made clear.
The film, a Canadian production shot in Alberta, features plenty of ranch and rodeo scenes.
The introduction of her deaf and mute father, Will, into the story adds a welcome difference to the story. Like many other points in the story, the deaf and mute man is only revealed to be her father after they have already appeared in a few scenes together. The man who picked Ava up after her prison release and hung out with her for a while is only revealed to be her twin after a cop stops them in their car and asks them for identification. The cause of the brother’s death is also only revealed much later in the story.
The relationship between Will and Ava is emotionally complicated and marked by old wounds.
This aspect adds depth to the thriller as Will slowly becomes both an emotional anchor and a liability. Given their complicated relationship, Ava must decide whether she can trust her family. The story explores cycles of damage and survival.
Most of the action takes place at night. With the neon-lit buildings and cool colours, the mood reflects the cold nature that Ava has to adapt to survive, in the cold light.
Maika Monroe is sufficiently apt inhere role of Ava. Monroe is an American known as a scream queen, being in films like LONGLEGS and IT FOLLOWS, two highly successful horror films. Maxime Giroux is a French Canadian director whose third feature, Félix & Meira (2014), a love story between a forty-year-old loner and a young Hasidic wife and mother, received international acclaim. This is his first English-language film.
The film also has a mystery element. The mystery element is how Ava will outmaneuver the forces closing in, though it is difficult to root for a druggie and former drug queen.
Still, the film could do more of the thriller element.
IN COLD BLOOD opens in theatres February 27th, 2026.
Trailer:
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