The concept for Cold Road is well-worn, but it does have a hook that you’d hope would elevate it.

At a time where the investigations into missing and murdered Indigenous women just don’t have the manpower they deserve, inequities and racism in our justice system could have been highlighted here.

It follows Tracy, who is terrorized and followed by a semi-truck driver on a cold Canadian highway. The stranger tries to push her off the road, and she feels like she has no one to turn to.

When she stops and tries to get help from police, they assume she’s drunk. She has no one by her side, largely due to the injustices Indigenous people face daily.

What could have been an intense, incredible thriller that evoked important discussions instead becomes a one-woman monologue, and not in a good way.

Roseanne Supernault is downright awful as Tracy, as she tells us every little emotion and motivation she has, as if the audience can’t discern on their own. Cold Road as a film assumes that those watching need to be talked at the entire runtime.

Taylor Kinequon is a supporting character here as Eve, Tracy’s sister. The former is trying to get home to see her ailing mother before she dies. Tracy is in a race against time as this strange 18-wheeler driver stalks her on the road. Kinequon is miles better than Supernault, and maybe the two should have switched.

Writer-director Kelvin Redvers has good intentions, and the film does get entertaining in the last 15 minutes. But it’s not enough to save this one.

1.5/5 Stars