Review of The Last Winter (2006) by William R — 19 Jan 2011

I first got wind of this movie when it came out in 2006 and I really wanted to see it, but I had forgotten the name of it until the Best of Ron Pearlman list came out on this particular site. So it was in my best interests to watch this as soon as possible. Once I got it and once it was over I was left with some seriously mixed feelings about it, did it live up to my expectations? No. Was it a heady movie that would have me thinking about it for days afterwards? No. Were the creatures involved amazing, freaky and startling? No. So why then do you ask did I give it 60%? Well that's the funny thing about it, amidst all the disappointment I was feeling towards this film it was still quite entertaining and quite original, however my complaints are still not finished.

For one, the tension in the movie is great edge of seat type of stuff, but when it came down to the money shots I was left feeling deflated. Like most horror movies you wait to be shaken out of your seats or jump out of your chairs or feel totally creeped out, but here, you get a "that's it?" feeling from the "big scares", I was left hunched in my seat wondering why they would waste such great tension, on such uninspired "freak scenes". Secondly, Ron Pearlman's character Ed Pollack was so stubborn that his performance felt wooden and unrealistic, even with the entire world falling apart around him he still wanted to follow protocol, had to have it his way, and he didn't listen to a single good idea from anybody else. It was excruciating and maddening to watch, although Pearlman isn't technically bad in this role. I've never seen such an inflexible character in my life, but if it wasn't for him this movie wouldn't be possible. Thirdly, I know this is a low budget indie film but the creatures (ghosts) in this film left much to be desired, once you get a good look at them there really isn't much to be scared off, or impressed by, and they do not appear until the very end of the film, which really is a good thing, because using my imagination for what they looked like was much more fun than actually seeing the final product.

Now, I'll get into the positives about this movie. The real scare for me in this film comes from an extremely realistic place. Global warming, and the fact that we have no idea what is underneath all of that ice that is melting away, there could be poisons we've never seen, diseases that we haven't experienced and plagues that could be spread across this earth that would dwarf the great ones from the past. What is oil anyway? Its ghosts, its bones and bodies from creatures long gone, which, is awesomely pointed out in the film. What if Mother Earth is actually seeking revenge? How would she actually do it, what means would be used? And if that were the case is there anything we could possibly do to stop it? These are the aspects of the film that correlate greatly with the reality that we live in today, what from all the news on every channel predicting some kind of drastic environmental change that will invariably change our lives, quite possibly for the worse, forever! Now they are stating that we can't turn back, the damage is done, even Stephen Hawking said we have to find a new planet to live on, so yeah that premise is very frightening to me.

I also said that the tension was great, I loved the build up, I felt my stomach tighten and I even leaned in closer to the T.V. to get a better view of the money shots. On top of that the gore was done very realistically, not over the top, but just enough to make you cringe and feel a bit sick. I have to point out the one scene where a plane crashes and we are subjected to the damage that is done to the passengers inside, mainly the burned man whom stares lifelessly into the air with one eye. That, my friends is how you create jarring scenes in scary movies. Also, most of the acting is done well, aside from Pearlman who isn't bad; he is just stuck with such a one dimensional roll. The other cast members are good; Abby (Connie Britton) plays the younger and easily influenced second fiddle to Ed Pollack as employees for the K.I.C. Oil Corporation, while James Hoffman (James LeGros) and Elliot Jenkins (Jamie Harrold) are the one two punch of scientists doing the research to see if drilling in the area is safe. The real treat performances come from lesser characters like Maxwell Mckinder (Zach Gillford) whom Pollack is supposed to be looking after. It's amazing to watch his slow decent into madness, which is totally believable, I got the sense that anybody including myself could go down this road if put in the same situation. Max's decent spirals into the fall of each character one by one including Motor (Kevin Corrigan) who is the comic relief of this film of sorts, he really suits the quirky mechanic roll. Pato Hoffman is great as the silent yet strong Lee Means and Joanne Shenandoah is great as the polite Dawn Russel, whom transforms into a psychotic killer near the end of the film. This all leads into the fact that this film really gets claustrophobic; it's almost as good as the atmosphere that was created in The Thing.

So in the end, really there is much to like and much to dislike about this movie, it didn't reach my level of expectation, but was still entertaining none the less. It wasn't as scary as I had hoped, but still tense enough to keep me watching until the end (Which is totally W.T.F. You'll see when you watch it) and sometimes the character development hindered the acting of the film, but without some of these flaws the film couldn't be made in the first place, so here I sit on the cusp of recommending or not recommending this movie to my faithful readers, really it's your choice if you want to get a good taste of realistic gore and plot base then go for it, but if you're looking for great monsters and thought provoking story lines and scares then you'll be quite disappointed. This movie is really claustrophobic, however, and does a great job of creating the feeling more and more as the movie progresses, and the tension built is the best I've seen in any movie for awhile so do what you must, don't expect too much and you're in for a tense treat.