|
The Arctic
region of Northern Alaska is slowly melting
away due to global warming and for a team working for
an oil company, this will have disastrous consequences.
As the permafrost is melting away by the hour, the evil
that has been hidden below for thousands of years is
finally let free. When one of the team members is found
dead, panic starts spreading among the others. What's
really out there? And will anyone be able to survive
this last winter?
With more money and a better script, Larry Fessenden
attempts to make an apocalyptic take on the legend of
the Wendigo. Now, I wasn't a big fan of his last movie,
appropriately titled "Wendigo" but this actually turned
out to be somewhat decent. The Last Winter is an
apocalyptic supernatural thriller more or less where
a team working for an oil company find themselves
fighting against an unseen evil in Northern Alaska
where hell has literarily frozen over. By no means does
this movie deserve all the great reviews that it has
gotten but I have to hand it to Fessenden this time,
his directing is brilliant and the story is actually
pretty entertaining. It's just a shame that he loves
his slow pace so much. Seriously, I'm all for building
up the story but you're not supposed to put the viewer
to sleep (yeah, I had to pause the movie halfway
through for a nap) and this is the main problem with
The Last Winter. Other than that I actually kind of
liked it - believe it or not.
Some minor spoilers ahead now as I'm going to describe
the plot as good as I can. An oil company has sent a
team up to the Arctic region of Northern Alaska to
establish a drilling base. The team consists of people
with very differing personalities which naturally causes
a lot of disputes and disagreements. Things take a turn
for the worse as it seems as if the permafrost is
melting... quickly, causing people to hallucinate and
go insane. Or so it seems. It turns out that a bunch
of Wendigos (a trippy moose-like creature) have been
in hiding underneath the snow and since the snow is
melting, the Wendigos have been let free. Wendigos
aren't very nice creatures though, and they're
definitely not vegetarians. I'm not really sure what
they are since they don't seem to eat on the bodies
that they've killed, they mainly just kill people.
We never got an explanation as to why people were
going insane either but I guess the Wendigos have
some sort of supernatural power or something.
End of spoilers.
Larry Fessenden sports some very interesting angles and
shots in here and I simply loved the cinematography
and the beautiful shots of the cold, raw Arctic landscape.
The movie is also packed with talented actors who
really make their characters come to life. Not once
did I get the feeling that they were unable to connect
with their characters. The story is also really well
written for most of the time and once it actually got
going (but believe you me, it takes way too long before
it does), The Last Winter is a really good movie. I'm
sure Fessenden is really proud of this one. In the
end, The Last Winter is a surprisingly good movie with
an original story and a great cast but I wish that it
had been more fast paced than it was. I do feel that
it's time for Mr. Fessenden to move on from the
Wendigo concept though as glowing killer elks isn't
all that scary. Good movie but could probably have been
better. Not a movie for everyone, especially not those
with a short attention span.
Some severe burn injuries and eyes gouged out.
I really dug the score this time. It felt really well
made and served the movie brilliantly. Top-notch.
The Last Winter is an interesting and original tale of
horror but it's definitely not without its flaws. I do
like that Fessenden is progressing as a director though
but did we really need another film about the Wendigo?
I think not. In the end it's a decent time killer and
I'm sure that some of you will love it but I just thought
that it was better than I had anticipated it to be.
|
|
