Review of The Last Winter (2006) by Megan W — 13 Apr 2009

This horror movie got my hopes up more than most. The first half is elegant, smart, and simpleâ?¦ There were interesting characters with actual dynamics going on. It was creepy, and sort of bizarre, and disquieting in the way isolation always isâ?¦.

But I don't know if the editor was a lazy drunk, or what... but this movie veered all over the place and finally just ground to a complete stop at "um... roll credits now? I guess? Raise your hand if you think the movie should stop?".

It's a shame - because for a moment I caught some glimpse that whoever was at the wheel had a good grasp on what is actually frightening about being human and what our fears really are on this planet which are all so fantastically simple yet missed by almost every horror movie out there... and it all boils down not to evil demons, or killer viruses, or government plots, or psychos with machetes, or ghosts from beyond the grave...

But it's being alone, it's wondering if you're going crazy, it's your friends not acting the way they normally do, it's people going missing, it's feeling small and out of control, it's finding doors open you could have sworn you'd shut, it's sensing there's something *really* wrong but not knowing what to do....

And this movie had it all so in its grasp. But then ... blah. I'm going to start stopping every horror movie 30 minutes from the end until someone can prove to me that there is anyone on this planet that knows how to end a horror movie. Just like I ended King Kong so I could go through life pretending Naomi Watts and that giant animal were going to ice skate in Central Park for all eternity... I'm going to pretend that horror movies are smarter than they are. Cause I want to. Cause it makes me happier that way. Cause I hate watching people make something interesting and unique and then just shrug and toss it over their shoulder cause they don't know what to do with it anymore.