Cold Light of Day (1989)

Day 72 of Sobriety.

Cold Light of Day is based on the real-life British serial killer Dennis Nilson. I was curious about the film because had read a couple of things describing it as a British version of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), and because it was released by Arrow Video, who put out a lot of excellent films.

Even when I don’t particularly like a film, I usually try to find some redeeming feature about it that I can appreciate, but that was difficult in this case. One remarkable thing about Cold Light of Day is that its director, Fhiona Louise, was a twenty-one-year-old acting student when she made the film. There is no doubt that directing a fully-fledged feature film at such a young age is very impressive, but unfortunately, it really does play like a student film project.

Nearly every aspect of Cold Light of Day is markedly amateurish, including most of the acting. (Although from what I understand the acting roster does include a few reasonably well-known British TV actors.) I am no expert on the subject matter, Dennis Nilsen, but he does seem to present enough of a bizarre character to make an good subject for an impactful and  thought-provoking film. Cold Light of Day, however, does not really seem to have much to say about him. Striving, I suppose, for a kind of unvarnished realism, the film opts to depict the events in an almost mundane “matter-of-fact way.” While it does succeed in being suitably dour, drab, and unsettling, it also doesn’t really provoke or provide much in the way of reflection or commentary about the events it portrays, and ultimately, any feeling of realism is largely squashed by poor acting performances.

I can appreciate the idea of not wanting to glamorize a serial killer, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the intention of the film was. It didn’t seem to have much to say about Nilson himself, the society around him, or the unfortunate victims.