Taking a few elements from both versions of ‘The Thing’ as well as the minuscule threats that populate ‘The Andromeda Strain’, writer-director Mark A. Lewis uses global warming to power a smarter-than-usual dtv genre flick that still never manages to live up to its central story potential.
Head and shoulders above your typical crappy Syfy movie of the week however, ‘The Thaw’ also sports a decent cast including a small role for Val Kilmer whom the film’s storyline revolves around.
Kilmer plays Dr. David Kruipen, a scientist and all-around Earth advocate, well-known for some of his past antics like taking a stand against oil pipelines that are driving away wildlife. Kruipen is leading an expedition in the arctic when they uncover a thawing mammoth (due to global warming, the various news feeds of theories and doubters ominously splash across the screen during the promising opening credits).
A great find, they establish a camp at the icy mammoth site to do research. Meanwhile, three college students get the chance of a lifetime to join their hero in the arctic for a little first-hand research and along for the ride is Kruipen’s estranged daughter Evelyn (Martha MacIsaac).
Yet when Evelyn arrives to be flown to the site via helicopter, Kruipen has left strict instructions for her not to come to site (presumably not caring about the college students?)
Evelyn and her father don’t quite see eye to eye so she finds this cryptic instruction as yet another excuse for a father that seems to be somewhat of a flake so she accompanies the college students and the helicopter pilot to the site against her father’s wishes. Women just never seem to make good decisions during horror films, eh?
When they arrive at the site, no prizes for guessing that they find it abandoned and spooky with a dead Polar bear draped across a table. Apparently that thawing mammoth has been housing a dormant parasite that froze along with everything else and humans seem to work just as well for their needs of laying eggs and slipping in and out of nasty little sores. Completely isolated, who can they trust? And is there a bigger plan being set in motion?
The film works better as an idea than an actual horror film posing some strong, if certainly heavy-handed questions, and the ending is particularly a gray area, posing a real head scratcher of who is right or wrong.
As our populations spiral wildly out of control, are these diseases that keep popping up nature’s way of keeping us under control? And might the same thing have happened ages ago?
The film gets an average 1080p AVC encode shot in 2.35. Clearly dealing with a small budget, there’s some ample grain and the whole film has been given a blue hue to accentuate the coldness and isolation but detail and color is fine.
There’s not a whole here to either complain or brag about. The same for the English DTS-HD Master Audio track although it fares better with the creepy subject matter.
Special Features include a 13-minute ‘Behind the Scenes’ , ‘Ghost House Micro Videos’ which include some footage from the trailers of these Ghost House Underground pics set to some heavy metal music and a trailer gallery featuring other Lion’s gate pics.
This comes recommended for the curious as it sports some nice ideas and cool location footage but you’ll just need to keep your scare and gore expectations in check.
The Thaw [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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