[The Last Winter]
Plot:In the Arctic region of Northern Alaska, an oil company's advance team struggles to establish a drilling base that will forever alter the pristine land. After one team member is found dead, a disorientation slowly claims the sanity of the others as each of them succumbs to a mysterious fear.

Cast: Ron Perlman, James LeGros, Connie Britton, Kevin Corrigan, Jamie Harrold, Pato Hoffmann, Zach Gilford, Joanne Shenandoah, Larry Fessenden.

My Thoughts:Pretty good.

Review:"The Last Winter" follows an oil company's drilling team who trek to Northern Alaska to test the land for drilling purposes, and eventually to drill for oil to bring back to the states. Of course being that this is a horror film, something goes horribly wrong. Something they never counted on, supernatural forces who don't like people trespassing on their land begin to attack the crew mentally which results in eventual chaos for all and death for some. "The Last Winter" is similar to films like "The Thing", where we have a group of researcher types holed up inside one locale, battling against something sinister and supernatural, with the elements of snow and the cold not making the battle any easier for them.

In fact I personally think this film was inspired by John Carpenter's "The Thing" in some ways. Although the movie is also very different in that it's not nearly as scary, graphic, or well written as "The Thing". Still...writer/director Larry Fessenden manages to do an excellent job of building suspense throughout the movie, and hiding the monster so our interest can become more and more piqued as the pic moves along. The thing to like about "The Last Winter" is how it paces itself. It doesn't do things too quickly, yet it moves along at a nice pace where the viewer won't get bored too quickly, nor does the film use up it's bag of tricks too early, resulting in a flat finale.

The film uses it's characters to build up a sense of potential bonding at first, then a sense of cracks beginning to form in the teams foundation, before eventually...everything begins to come apart for the crew. It also touches on a few socio-political issues plaguing America right now such as global warming, and our constant need for more oil. Although Fessenden is very subtle with the references and doesn't drift into the realm of being preachy or beating the viewer over the head with one particular message.

If anything, this film further solidifies the age old horror movie cliche, which is that humans can get along fine until something out of the natural realm makes it's presence known to them. Then per usual, it all begins to come crumbling down...everything from relationships, to trust, and average human beings grip on reality. The cold, snowy setting of Northern Alaska also gives an ominous, and hopeless feel to the movie, especially during the night time scenes. "The Last Winter" also uses conflicting opinions from it's characters to plant an early seed of plarization among the crew. During the films early stages, certain opinions of the work they're doing, and differing opinions on other things keep a slight level of tension amongst the team in the movie.

The creature or whatever-is-out there, when it eventually decides to make itself known and begin attacking the crew, rather than tearing them apart on it's own, it sort of indirectly plays off of the already existing rift between the characters. Serving to split them farther and farther apart than they were from the get go...a move which ultimately becomes fatal for many of them. Ron Perlman gives an excellent performance in the movie, and really comes through in the end when the film reaches it's intense climax where alot of surprises are in store for the viewer. The genius of the ending is that the script is written so well that you still are not sure of the basics of what exactly attacked these people and why.

The movie really puts out alot of theories while at the same time, sort of leaving it up to the viewer to draw their own conclusions, even though it does give a significant amount of info and backstory as to the antagonist commiting the physical and mental attacks. Despite hardly containing any really bloody or graphic scenes, "The Last Winter" is still a unique stab at horror, a film which is well written, acted, and overall manages to be entertaining while not really trying very hard to be all that entertaining.

Positives:Good performances, great script, great setting, an ominous and eerie tone which was kept throughout the movie.

Negatives:Could've used a really bloody death or two.

Overall:Good effort.





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