Adapted for screen from John Lansdale’s novel of the same name, Cold in July retains its free-flowing pulp heritage, with violence and retribution galore. What sets Mickle’s latest apart, however, is just how he makes use of the pulp-afforded moral relativism which so readily runs rampant through his filmography.

With this often reinvigorating thematic device, Mickle creates a much darker, yet much more believable world in which his unlikely vigilantes choose to exist. As a result, July‘s sporadic sense of pace, location and subject is made all the more arresting; simply refusing to dwell in any one place.

Jim Mickle’s substantial thriller doesn’t waste a second of its own time; everything has a purpose, and everything is reacted to. Cold In July works to rebuff formula misdirection, developing fresh trust and involvement within a genre so commonly prone to deception. 

RATING: 4/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson 

DIRECTOR: Jim Mickle

WRITERS: Nick Damici, Jim Mickle (screenplay) Joe R. Lansdale (novel) 

SYNOPSIS: Upon killing a wanted thief during a home invasion, a protective father suspects others may come to avenge him.