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Great Film overall

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of the finest TV movies of the 1970s, A Cold Night's Death (AKA: The Chill Factor) pitches Robert Culp and Eli Wallach at the Tower Mountain Research Station. They play research scientists who are investigating what has happened to the researcher who was working there, he was doing altitude tests on primates, but all has gone quiet and when the two men get there, they find a bizarre set-up, but more tellingly things start to happen to shake them into a state of paranoia.In this day and age of multi million pound blockbusters, of intricate sets and big buck production design, it's refreshing to come across a TV movie that shows you don't need those things to make a successful film. With just two actors, a minimalist set-up, and a smartly written script, you can achieve great unease and a sense of foreboding atmosphere. Culp and Wallach are polar opposites of the male scale, they are like some long term married couple, which amplifies when suspicion and mistrust starts to take a hold.Jerrold Freedman directs and he has a skill that utilises the sparse sets for maximum impact. The murky corridors of the research station tingle the spine, the snowy exteriors seem to hide terrors unknown, whilst his camera work (jarring angles) and the sound work are perfectly in keeping with the suspenseful and mysterious flow of the narrative. Complimenting the story's tone is Gil Melle's score, which blends synth pulse beats with electronic shards of shock. The resolution to the mystery isn't exactly a surprise, but it delivers the requisite whack, enough of a jolt to raise the hackles. 7/10

What a terrific little film this is. Made in 1973 on what was presumably a very low budget, this two-hander about a pair of research scientists experimenting on apes in a remote mountain science station is a lean and mean horror-thriller, put together with maximum conviction, a haunting atmosphere and stratospherically good performances.Robert Culp and Eli Wallach brilliantly portray the disintegrating relationship between the two men, as each comes to suspect the other with tampering with the heating systems, despoiling the food, and generally fouling things up.Having discovered the previous lone occupant of the research outpost frozen to death, it seems something very sinister is haunting the men. What could it possibly be? I won't spoil things by revealing the solution to the mystery - it works extremely well, and the moment when the nearly frozen Culp manages to get back into the station and confronts Wallach, axe in hand, is one of the classic scenes of horror, t.v. or otherwise.It's a film which draws you in gradually, relying on small moments to unsettle and rivet the viewer. This in its own way is as good as Spielberg's Duel. A treat for a first time viewer.Please, please, please somebody somewhere get this released on DVD. One of the best things ever produced by the medium, it deserves remastering preservation on a grand scale.

What could be so frightening and irrational that a scientist would choose to freeze to death rather than confront it? You'll find out.While we think of scientists as being unflinching heroic seekers of truth, they can be pretty nutty people in denial of reality (it's true!). The movie is about two different types of scientists who are trying to complete some research involving monkeys in a remote freezing mountain environment. The experiment was left uncompleted by the death of a scientist who seems to have gone insane, and died freezing to death. Regardless of the fact that the audience can more-or-less figure out who the culprit is, the last 30 seconds are incredibly chilling to see. Imagine characters debating if a shark was involved in the deaths in JAWS, but only in the last minute of film you finally see a fin circling the hero. Or a ventriloquist who insists his dummy is alive, and at the end you see it move. Worth watching in the dark for the very creepy climax. Kudos for the director's long-takes and Gil (Andromeda Strain) Melle's unsettling score.

During the 1970's the three major networks (mostly ABC) made a slew of Made for TV movies. Many of them were junk, some were imitations of Hollywood hits at the time, and more than a few were excellent films. This is one of them. I'm fortunate to own this movie and watched it just last night. I won't recant the plot, for you can find that here. but I will say this - this movie holds up very well as the years have gone by. The look and feel of it really captures the isolation and situation. The script isn't filled with old 70's clichéd dialog, and is very well paced. It's very well shot, and very well acted by two solid actors. Gil Melle's synthesizer score, while dated, fits the film quite well. Some of the effects are old, but there aren't very many, and don't detract from the story. If you are fortunate to get a look at this old movie you won't be disappointed. Although I see the point of another reviewer who stated this movie's obscurity is part of it's charm, ABC (and the other networks) need to dig into their archives and re-master and release some of the good old TV movies to DVD. This one, A Short Walk to Daylight, Dying Room Only, many others.