Customer Reviews

The Thaw

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This movie was quite a satisfying 'isolation / paranoia / suspense / gore' movie! It's not a classic but it is very well done and should meet (and in some cases exceed) viewers' expectations. Inevitable comparisons to John Carpenter's 'The Thing' will arise (and indeed the initial setup is similar to 'The Thing'), but hopefully people won't attack this film because of that, as that wouldn't be entirely fair. The movie plays out differently than 'The Thing' and some of the sequences are truly unnerving in their own right. There is a major 'squirm' factor that permeates the movie with the parasites really 'getting under your skin' during some of the more disturbing infestation shots. It remains sufficiently suspenseful and unpredictable all the way to the satisfying conclusion. Val Kilmer is great as the obsessed scientist but he isn't in the movie very much, however this isn't a hinderance to the movie because the rest of the cast are quite capable themselves. The 'making of' documentary is entertaining and reveals many scenes that were apparently more difficult to shoot than they appeared in the film. Overall it was exactly the kind of movie I was expecting. Not a classic but very good and entertaining.

The Ghost House Underground line of direct-to-DVD releases continues for a second year, only this time around we only get four films compared to last year's eight. The most notable of which is The Thaw, which boasts some pretty decent production values and some chilling scares as well. Martha MacIsaac (Superbad and The Last House on the Left) stars as the daughter of an environmental scientist (Val Kilmer) who accompanies a small group of students to a remote location where her father has discovered a well-preserved frozen woolly mammoth, and the parasitic bugs that lay dormant inside it as well. Naturally, it isn't long before said bugs are on the loose and spreading. Packed with gross-out moments and some brief shots of gorgeous cinematography, The Thaw is surprisingly good and definitely creepy. It doesn't offer anything you haven't seen before in any random horror flick, but for what it's worth, The Thaw is worth a look.

This is one creepy movie! Set in a desolate Canadian landscape, THE THAW is a warning about global warming and how it might just affect mankind. An eco-research team led by a dauntless Val Kilmer uncover a thawed mammoth that is host to a virulent vertebral parasite that quickly devours its hosts. Enter three students and Kilmer's daughter and let the "fun" begin. The bugs which look like big earwigs soon start their attack and it's relentlessly disturbing.
This is a pretty dark movie featuring tight direction and good performances. A good horror flick.

Digging up things in the artic sometimes yields unexpected results. The mammoths we find, for example, show us exactly what the past might have looked like, just as the bodies of people have done for us in the past. Still, there have to be things that would be better off lef to the snowdrifts, and what if one of hose were dug up and found? Could we close Pandora's box before it closed the worldwide chapter on this thing we call humanity? This seems to be the paradox that we might one day be faced with as we take pick and shovel to the snow, not really thinking about something nightmarish that could have been left behind.

As far as movies go, this is nothing new. It involves an outbreak in an isolated community, people trying to cope with the impact on themselves and on the world around hem, and just what they are willing to give up in order to stay alive. The problem the movie has is the fact that some of it is unbelievable and that it has been done over and over: the part that is hard to comprehend is the rate at which the "thing" spreads from person to person, and the overdone part is something that is bothersome because it shows just how much movies rely on plot recycling. Add to this some bad acting, some deaths that are horrible but that should have numbered in the "everyone" category (really, if you look at the station the people were in, you can see how easily it would be for something like this to get out and get everyone), and how the entire area that the dig as in would be considered a death zone. This sort of gets left on the backburner and leaves major holes in the story, but the movie is a B-movie in disguise and is hard to blame for these mistakes.

If you want to see some snow and some out breaking little legs that follow, then this could be something you might like. I personally enjoyed it but was surprised by the B-movie nature of it considering how it was billed, and this led to a little disappointment on my part. I know that expectation plays a role in this as well, but I'm not sure if hat is my fault or if it is the fault of the way the movie was presented to its audience. So, if expect nothing in the beginning and watch the movie, you might find it entertaining. I did on the second go in the middle of the night, but that was after I shrugged off the first screening and knew what I was getting into. I can't say I recommend it with good conscience to anyone but those who enjoy B-movie terrors, so know what you are getting into before watching the film.

This movie had potential, but falls short. Val Kilmer had a small part and I think he must have just lent his name and on screen face time as a favor to the writer or director, or the guy is just hard up for work. This is a limited film and spends most of its time harping on global warming. It has its good points but more nap time moments and of course no skin shots at all which would have at least held my interest. Worth watching but not buying, rent if you can.

The Thaw (Mark A. Lewis, 2009)

Here's something I'm not sure I ever thought I'd see: a movie that shows up on the Chiller network that I hadn't heard about before the Chiller network started advertising it that actually doesn't suck. Don't get me wrong, it's a fur piece from great, but considering this is the station that brought us such unbearable crap as Zombie Town, this isn't a step in the right direction, it's a quantum leap.

In any case, the plot: there's a bunch of scientists and their helpers hanging out in the Arctic Circle headed up by Dr. Kruipen (Val Kilmer), a noted climate scientist and former crazy activist. He's up there with his assistant Jane (Anne Marie DeLuise, recently of the Black Christmas remake), their handyman Ed (Horsemen's John Callender), and their native guide-type person Nuti (Sleep Murder's Lamech Kadloo). They're in the midst of tracking a polar bear when they stumble upon a woolly mammoth encased in ice. Fast-forward two months and three university students are chosen to go up to the site and help them out with their research. They are Atom Galen (Smallville's Aaron Ashmore), Federico Fulce (A History of Violence's Kyle Schmid), and Ling Chen (Dim Sum Funeral's Steph Song, the Sexiest Woman in the World, according to FHM a few years back). There's some history between Fulce and Chen, but we don't know quite what until later in the movie. Also coming with them is Evelyn (Superbad's Martha MacIsaac), Kruipen's daughter, who was expressly warned to stay away but has a thing for not listening to her dad, and the helicopter pilot taking them out to the site, Bart (Hot Tub Time Machine's Viv Leacock).

First off: you will hear, in other reviews, all sorts of silliness about how, for a film that's supposed to be set above the Arctic Circle, there's very little snow and no one's breath plumes. That can't be realistic, right? Well, the movie was shot on location. You tell me, bub. Then there's Val Kilmer's performance. Which was bad, true, but compared to some of his other recent flicks (Moscow Zero, Alexander, MacGruber) it wasn't all that awful. What happened to the Val Kilmer who made Real Genius and Tombstone (and was great as recently as Wonderland)? I don't know, but you won't find him in any Val Kilmer movies from the past six years. And okay, William B. Davis is in the movie for about ten seconds. I'll give you that one. And the movie has set off all kinds of crazed global warming fanatics on both sides of the fence, which is irritating. So if I were you I'd ignore the global warming stuff, which isn't nearly as heavy-handed as one would expect given the debates that have been raging since the movie was released, and just take it as a bad horror flick. In which case, it's fun, the acting is at least average, and it has actual, honest-to-god bugs, or CGI good enough that I couldn't tell the difference (as opposed to every Sci-Fi Channel killer-bug movie from the past five years). Sure, there are plot holes and general low-buget horror-movie silliness. If you're expecting a Michael Bay movie, go elsehwere. For those of us who appreciate bad horror movies, this is no Lockout, but it has a lot more to offer than most. (And did no one but me catch that the final scene--and no, this isn't a spoiler, given the opening montage--was a straight-up homage to Cabin Fever? I thought that was hilarious...) ***

Long-dormant bug-like creatures, now awake because of global warming, attack the researchers and college students on the Arctic tundra. Except the brief opening sequence where a disaster of enormous scale is implied, "The Thaw" remains a typical low-budget B horror movie with a new trick or two. In this case its trick is Val Kilmer's character, Dr. Kruipen, who is seen dictating something before the camera, or the nasty horror poised to make a huge impact on human beings. Well, that's what he thinks.

Maybe this is not exactly a very original concept, but still works as a serviceable plot. It is a familiar situation where unsuspecting characters, ethnically diverse and mostly young, are trapped in a remote location with unwelcome parasitic creatures. In "The Thaw" the creatures can attack from inside your body, and things only get worse when you have to deal with people who start behaving erratically.

The creature effects of "The Thaw" are fairly impressive, which means those who don't like bugs or worms crawling on the skin should stay away. The film also uses the beautiful location of British Columbia, effectively creating isolated atmosphere. Unfortunately, the narrative is predictable, sometimes preposterous, with the cardboard characters doing exactly what we know they do. Also, though the acting of Val Kilmer (who appears as a support) is not bad, obviously this is not his best, either.

Not a terrible movie, but not great either, with some nice effects.

Okay, so this movie was pretty well produced... there are some pretty good scenes.. the cinematography is even pretty good in parts... but overall the acting stinks, and the plot requires the characters to make dozens of stupid decisions that no one would make. Its also a bit heavy handed on the whole ecology thing, which is not something I am even against... its just not done that well. Still, its the best thing Val Killmovie.. uh sorry.. Kilmer has done in a long time.

Liked this little movie. The comparisons are to "The Thing" but I would also include "The Last Winter" starring Ron Pearlman. The latter being a smaller movie with minimal special effects and an eco-message though they all share the same type of setting. The political overtones are a bit much but the creepy effects [some gag value] are effective because they seem old fashioned [due to limited budget?] w/complementary CGI. It was worth a look. Actually got this on Video on Demand and saw it twice. Found the second time bringing a little more clarity to the movie's timeline, since it was not entirely linear. Characters were good but one-dimensional. Another aspect is the upside down authority figures. The students grow to be more in charge, while not being more qualified. Meanwhile the adults seem to be the ones who are becoming more irrelevant and accepting of this as the plot mosey's on. Still, it delivers the goods on some really skin crawling.

This was actually a better movie than I thought it might be. This selection showed up when I was selecting movies from a Redbox, and it promised to be fairly entertaining. The opening sequence (with the news, reporters, etc talking about a epidemic and that lady with the bug in her forehead) piques your interest and you wonder what is happening, and then the movie starts. At first it seems like your typical polar research station set up, but it quickly unfolds into something creepy.

The special effects and the characters were well-done to me, with various people freaking out about infections and the like - I know I would be freaking out big-time. The only thing that really bothered me about this movie was the prolonged sex scene between Fed and his on-and-off girlfriend, it was a very, very unneccessary scene especially because it went on for like, a good ten seconds with the thrusting and all and it was not relevant to the plot. However, things get really good as the young'uns are trying to figure out what the heck is going on as the infections start to appear and Jane shows up.

The ending isn't your stereotypical happy ending where the guy and the girl make out and everything's dandy, and it actually leads up into the opening scene, making for a movie that is creepily realistic. Vampires and werewolves and giant anacondas are fun, but this movie really hits home because there are already parasitic bugs in this world, and I've seen pictures and read stories of these nasty infestations. This movie does a great job with the special and infection effects, so if you want to watch this movie, I warn you... once you see it, you CANNOT unsee it.

CRAWLING UNDER MY FLESH THESE WOUNDS THEY WILL NOT HEAL

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After watching this movie, I felt the intense urge to check my own body and take a shower because the movie was so creepy!