Rating of
2/4
A Weak Version of "The Thing"-ish
Franz Patrick - wrote on 10/22/08
I’ve heard many scintillating reviews about this picture, mostly from professional critics, but I was less than impressed. Since the entire movie was set in the Arctic, it’s impossible to not compare it to John Carpenter’s horrifying “The Thing” and a brilliant season one episode of “The X-Files” called “Ice.” Those two are probably five or six times better than “The Last Winter” directed by Larry Fessenden. I’m not saying that I didn’t see any talent or moments of brilliance in this picture. It’s just that those truly chilling scenes were immediately followed by blase dialogue and trite scenes that have nothing to do with the bigger picture. I say get rid of the romance angle between two (or three!) characters and focus more on the idea of wendigo, hallucinations, and isolation in the Arctic; the love triangle greatly slowed down the first half to the point where I rolled my eyes out of frustration. But the second half had its scary moments. I saw this film about one o’clock in the morning and I actually had to turn on the lights because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to sleep after the movie ended. I would’ve definitely given this film at least three stars if the entire picture was focused on peeling off the mystery and delivered thrills one scene right after another. There were two scenes which I thought stood out: the videotape and the helicopter landing scenes (and their repercussions). I was at the edge of my seat during those scenes and actually caught myself saying, “Oh, my god… That’s so crazy!” A lot of people have been saying that this film had a lot of implications regarding how people neglect our environment. I hardly noticed any of it and was more interested in character development (which didn’t happen). “The Last Winter” reminded me of “The Ruins”–so much potential to be great but had poor execution.
