A group of students are traveling to an arctic mission to study with a renowned scientist. What they find is an abandoned base of operations and the warmer temperatures have thawed out prehistoric critters that want to multiply.
Dr. Kruipen (Val Kilmer) is up at the arctic leading an expedition to study climate change. A group of students, Atom (Aaron Ashmore), Fredrico (Kyle Schmid), and Ling (Steph Song), will be flying up to Kruipen’s camp to help in his studies. His daughter Evelyn (Martha MacIssac) is supposed to be flying up with the students, but he cryptically calls her and tells her not to come.
She isn’t on good terms with her father and decides to go with the students anyway. When they arrive they find the base camp empty and Kruipen and his assistants at a distant dig site.
When one of those assistants stumbles back into base camp, she’s been infected with a prehistoric creature that is very happy with the warmer climate. So happy that it’s wanting to go forth and multiply.
The Thaw is another in a current line of eco-chillers that say that mankind is doomed on planet Earth, either from his own hand or from avenging nature. This time around, global warming has caused (wait for it) the thaw. The preserved remains of a wooly mammoth are uncovered and there are some nasty critters in the corpse.
I’ve come to think that Val Kilmer’s career is close to becoming a corpse because of some of the films that have been appearing with his name attached. Thaw actually turns out to be one of the better efforts of late.
The plotline isn’t exactly something new as killer creatures have been plaguing isolated expeditions for quite some time. That film actually reminded me a bit of the Thing, but set in a warmer climate. The bugs are legion and actually had my skin crawling.
Creepy crawlies have the ability to spook most of us, especially on the overrunning scale that The Thaw offers them in. The acting is quite good, but the message is a bit preachy. Better recycle or the bugs will get you!
The Thaw is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a 13 minute behind-the-scenes, the 3 minute Ghost House Micro Videos (clips from the other films set to rock music), the 2 minute trailer, and previews of other Lionsgate products.
I wasn’t expecting much from The Thaw, but it did offer some chills [insert rimshot here]. The plot is pretty old hat (add group to isolated area, insert killer monsters) but it does offer an eco-twist on the genre.
The bugs had my skin crawling so the effects did they’re work. Your mileage may vary, but it gave me a little hope for Val Kilmer’s career (until he stars in another dog and I go back to my original opinion, fickle me).
The Thaw is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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