Escalofrío mortal

Alright, well I had no idea this movie was from 1989, I just saw the DVD cover, and it looked interesting enough. Anything with zombies usually has my attention right away. So I picked this movie up and went home to watch it.

Now, cryogenics is not a bad thing in a movie, but in this? Wow, what where they thinking? I thought that it was common knowledge that when you freeze something it is preserved in its present state. Yet, however, the bodies in this movie were decaying and rotten when they came out of the cryo tanks. What was up with that? Were the tanks not properly closed? Leaking? What was up with that...

The movie took well over 35 minutes before anything real interesting happened. And during these 35 minutes you are just sitting around waiting for something to happen, and you are acquainted with a bunch of dull and personality-depraved characters.

Okay, lightning strikes and it is one in a how many thousand chance of happening? I am not sure, but for lightning to strike over 11 times in the same place in a 5 meter radius that is just ridiculous. When that scene took place, the movie went downhill, and it went downhill fast!

Alright, moving on to the revived frozen dead, or zombies (let's call them what they really were). Some of the masks actually looked decent enough. But why where they all a murky color of brownish-green? And what was up with the glowing eyes? I just didn't get that. Moving on, how come some times the zombies were only able to stagger and walk with a limping gait, but other times they were able to run and jump? Pick one and stick with it, wow! Still not done here with the zombies, the sound they were making? Again, wow! It sounded like a young elephant in pain or a horse in labor. It was terrible.

The cover had Linda Blair on it, and right enough for that, sure her name is legendary for her role in "The Exorcist", but come on, that was back then, and her name was on the cover here just to lure people in.

For a horror movie, then "The Chilling" is really boring and uneventful. And I am sure for a 1989 movie, it wasn't even really scary back then. I remember having seen horror movies from the 80's that were far more scary; "C.H.U.D." for example.

"The Chilling" might be worth giving a chance if you are a fan of Linda Blair, but otherwise, there is nothing interesting to be had from this movie. Except for the ending perhaps, that was the lamest ending I have seen in ages.

The combination of Dan Haggerty (Elves) and Linda Blair (Exorcist) is enough to make any horror fan excited about this movie. And once you see the cover art to this film of a frozen zombie coming out of their cryogenic chamber, you'll think you were in B-Movie Horror Heaven. At least that's the way I approached this film. But boy, was I in for a shock

I love horror movies. I love B-Movies as well. Nothing makes my day more than a cheesy little film about zombies, monsters, murderers, that sort of thing. But to say that this movie was lacking, is an understatement. This movie was pure trash. You'd think the zombies would look somewhat like what the cover-art of the box displays, but instead, you get actors with masks that are clearly sold at any Halloween display counter. Furthermore, the script is beyond pitiful. Our main character, Joseph, suffers the loss of his wife and son and seeks solace in the warm-hearted Mary, played by Blair. Not once do you see any sign of sadness or discomfort on the part of Joseph's character. Instead, we see the head of the cryogenic labs, a man named Dr. Miller, eager to get the dead bodies and experiment with their organs. There is no emotion or anything to make you believe you should give a damn about anyone in this film.

All and all, very disappointing. All the elements to make a great horror film were there. You had your zombies, your decent actors, and your story. But the lack of good writing and little if any sense of direction screwed this one up royally. Overall, 4 out of 10

As to be expected, there's a pretty good reason why this film is so obscure and unknown in spite of dealing with the always-popular premise of zombies and starring the 80's B-movie queen Linda Blair, namely: it sucks! "The Chilling" is trying enormously hard – way too hard – to be a story with depth and factual background, whereas it should have just been a light-headed and gore-packed horror flick about frozen zombies. It takes an incredibly long time before anything remotely interesting or significant happens. There's a lot of drivel about cryogenics, which I learned in my physics class is the study of products and their behavior at extremely low temperatures. So naturally, in this film a bunch of people are studying the behavior of human corpses when deep frozen. Needless to say this is extremely boring, until two dim-witted night watchmen decide, during an electric power failure, that it's a good idea to put the metal-constructed cool cells outside at the heights of a thunderstorm. The coolers are struck by lightening, obviously, and the bodies spontaneously defrost and come to live to go on a murderous zombie rampage. "The Chilling" is a boring and surprisingly (for a late 80's effort, at least) gore-free horror film that doesn't even use up a quarter of its potential. All the painful attempts to build up an atmosphere of suspense and eeriness fail tremendously and I can't think of any reason why the zombie-attacks had to be so bloodless. Even in spite of the low budget available, they could have done better. The set pieces, make-up effects and costumes are pitiable. The research lab, for example, looks like a proper apartment flat whilst the zombies couldn't look less menacing with their green faces and foil-wrapped outfits. How Linda Blair managed to get involved yet again in such an embarrassing low-budgeted horror flick is a complete mystery. She's attracted to lousy B-movies like bees are to honey.

The Chilling is a Very Low Budget Zombie movie that Pulls off Good Scares and a Well Developed Plot. Owes a Bit to "Night of the Living Dead". The Acting is not Very Good, but no one I Know could have done Better! The Make Up Effects are Very Well Done. This Movie is so Creepy and I Recommend it to Any Horror Fan.

6 out of 10.

People who Enjoyed this Might like: The Dead next Door, Night of the Living Dead, The Dead Hate the Living, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and City of the Living dead.

Linda Blair, plays an emplyee at cryogenic centre, where bodies are being defrosted, not long afterward they turn into zombies. The Chilling is a not a very good 80s horror, the acting is ok though, but the script is just useless.