The Chill Factor

As far as acting go, this movie was the pits. HOWEVER, the story is slightly original because the characters get around on snowmobiles and are stuck in blizzard-like weather. I am always happy to see snow and freezing, bundled up actors instead of bright sun and greased up, bikini clad actors. There is too much California weather in movies, I must say, so this is a nice change. And you could tell that the snow and northern woods were real and not made up on some California ski slope.

It was also pretty creepy how they added the Christian memorabilia into the plot. A giant statue of Jesus on the cross or a crying face of Jesus are both really creepy. Much more creepy than a made up Satanic demon or something, which most movies usually use when dealing with the occult. Although, I don't understand what Jesus has to do with the occult, but it still added a lot of overall insanity/craziness. When people have Jesus things all over the place, sometimes you feel like they will act without thinking because Jesus told them to or something. This is the feeling I got from the old camp in the woods.

However, the "devil eye" ouiji board thing didn't seem to fit. They should have kept with the Jesus theme instead of entering Haitian voodoo into it. That seemed to come out of nowhere.

Tom, the character that gets in the snowmobile accident, had a funky look about him. When he has sex with the ladies and they show his snarly face, I thought it was pretty gross and hard to watch. Good job with the ugly faces.

Did anyone notice that nearly every person in this movie has giant, oversized front teeth like rabbits?

The waitress at the bar in the beginning was really life-like and typical. I thought she was a neat character, though a bit over-acted.

I could have done without the old lady voice narrating it. That was too much unneeded cheese. It would have been better without it.

Overall, terrible acting but a good story that keeps you wondering what is going to happen and succeeds in using effective props/sets. And they get an extra point for using real snow.

Whoa, whoa, wait a sec, this is actually a really cool movie. Maybe it's because I've seen hundreds of poopy horror flicks and my standards are lower, but if you're a true horror fan, you should have low standards, too! Of all Evil Dead inspired horror fare, this has got to be one of, if not the, best. It's got a good (original, well-thought out) story and compelling characters, two things lacking in most modern horror films. Okay, yes, it has the whole cabin-in-the-woods thing going on, but it uses the set-up well, for twists and turns and flashbacks and all kindsa crazy stuff you don't always find in the demon subgenre. If I was Leonard Maltin, which I am not, I would give this two and a half stars. Fer reals, yo. AIP 4eva!

Supernatural type slasher set out in the snowy wilderness. Three couples find themselves in a spot of bother when out racing on their snowmobiles one has a serious accident and they take overnight refuge in what looks like a creepy, abandoned summer camp. They discover an unusual type of Ouija board and soon an evil spirit takes hold of the injured man. This scenario did remind me somewhat slightly of Evil Dead, only that is a horror classic and this one certainly is not. The first part of the movie is taken up by snow mobiles etc, gets a bit slow. The opening scene is one of the worst bar fights I have ever seen. Looks like they roped in some of the locals judging by the serious lack of acting ability. The killings are OK but none are very gory, there is some sex but this movie is tame enough for a UK 15 certificate. I think The Crap Factor would be a more appropriate title, however I still prefer this to the bulk of 21st Century horror movies though. There is a creepy musical rendition of the nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice", that was pretty cool. AKA Demon Possessed.

This capsule review was published - in an actual newspaper, remember those? - on October 15, 1993, when it was first released on home video by AIP Video (not the same as American International Pictures, by the way) four years after being made:

• - - - -

DEMON POSSESSED (R) - AIP Video: EVIL DEAD's 'spam-in-a-cabin' routine and WITCHBOARD's ouija board antics are mixed to not-bad effect as six snowmobiles (this has to be the world's first snowmobile horror flick) take refuge in an abandoned children's camp where they are systematically chunked up by an in-house shadow demon (or something like that). Shot in 1989 as THE CHILL FACTOR, this ultra-low-budgeter falters a bit in the logic department (especially when an otherwise eerie narration doesn't connect with the film's Twilight Zone ending), but showcases some tame-but-effective gore and a cast and crew of ambitious amateurs.

• - - - -

Short stuff, for sure. When I reviewed this in '93, my weekly column focused on direct-to-video titles, particularly schlock like this, which could routinely be found filling up shelf space in video stores (especially mom 'n pop shops) but which was rarely reviewed outside of the back pages of horror mags, assuming you had access to them, and big-city fanzines, assuming you had access to those (the internet, still in its infancy, was essentially useless in this regard). Now, 30 years later, I'm tagging this old review to an IMDb listing in which most of the other reviewers have the advantage of Arrow Video's supplements-laden Blu-ray edition of Chill Factor. As they say, things were different back then, but the spirit of stumping for (or dumping on) b-movies hasn't changed much at all. We're just conditioned by the likes of Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome, Severin et al to believe that all of these films - no matter how crappy and opportunistic - are somehow unheralded classics deserving of special editions loaded with supplements and collectors' booklets. It does get to be a bit much, but if it introduces new fans to old junk, what's the harm?

This movie was extremely awful. The cover looks cool. I will never again do that rent a movie just for the cover, they probably spent more money on the cover than the movie itself. The acting, storyline, and everything else is painfully awful. Everything you expect in a B-movie. This movie wasn't too bad, it's funny. It's just plain BAD!!!!!

I give this film 0 out of 10