Hypothermia

An American horror; A story about a man hoping to spend a relaxing holiday fishing by a frozen lake with his family finds the peace and quiet shattered by beasts both human and marine. The film starts with some promise with an eerie and mysterious setting, good photography, and growing tension. However, the characters are a bit flimsy and when a boorish ice fisherman appears, exaggerated to bad effect, it rapidly descends into creature feature territory and low budget design and the tension dwindles. The ending dodders to a dud.

This had potential. Could have been decent. Unfortunately the awful creature design/outfit singlehandedly ruins the film. Decently directed, and Rooker is fun. Not even a 'so bad it's good' type. SKIP.

"Hypothermia" was somewhat of an adequate movie. It turned out to be rather interesting and promising, as it had a great storyline and it was good at building up suspense. But, in my opinion, it all came tumbling down to the ground hard and fast when the creature was actually revealed.

The story is "Hypothermia" is about the Pelletier family who lives in a cabin out by a big lake. They are out for a family outing of ice-fishing when they discover that there are no fish in the lake, and something big and fast is swimming underneath the ice.

Storywise, then "Hypothermia" is actually interesting and quite good. I was thoroughly entertained by the story and the plot. And the movie was helped along a great way by some good acting. The people they had put in the movie for the various roles were doing good jobs with their given characters. Especially Michael Rooker and Amy Chang were doing great jobs in carrying the movie and bringing their characters to life on the screen.

However, the movie really halted when the creature was brought out and shown to us. It looked like a cheesy 1970's rendering of an Innsmouth creature straight out of a Lovecraft homage. It was an eyesore and it appeared more like a joke and laughable than it did scary and menacing. Unfortunately that creature brought down the movie overall for me.

If you enjoy creature flicks, then "Hypothermia" isn't perhaps the best of choices, unless you are a die-hard fan of anyone on the cast list. There are movies available with far better creature effects. But then again, if you are looking for a movie in which the creature will have you laughing, then perhaps this might just be the right choice.

I know I would be scared if I was being chased by a guy in a horribly fake creature suit like that.

This film is a throwback to old school creature features from back in the day. This film stars fellow Alabama native Michael Rooker as Ray Pelletier. Ray is a humble family man, and ice fisherman. Blanche Baker (from The Girl Next Door) co stars as his loving wife Helen.

The Pelletier clan plan on a relaxing weekend with their son David & his girlfriend Gina. The relaxing ice fishing weekend comes to an abrupt stop as the Pelletier family is introduced to the very obnoxious Steve Cote and his son Stevie (played by The Flash's Greg Finley). The two families eventually team up in a act of survival as night falls.

In the of cover darkness, something BIG has awakened from the cold waters of the remote frozen lake beneath them. The aquatic creature begins to stalk both families. There is a few great scares from the creature and some nice gore effects. That sadly comes to a end as the creature finally rears its ugly head. The monster itself reminds me of a sleestack monster from the LAND OF THE LOST series back in the 80's.

The film itself has a Runtime of 73 min. So, it doesn't have much time to delve into the creature or create a backstory of said monster. Nor does it go into the dynamic of either of the families.

The dialogue is somewhat simple as it mainly consists of LOTS of F Bombs & Profanity from Don Wood's character. Don Wood who plays Steve Cote perfectly creates a very unlikable character. So much in fact, you want him to die first.

I'd also like to mention to those film aficionados...there is a cool lil homage from JAWS in there when one of the actors says "We're gonna need a bigger hole."

Rooker and Baker do a great job as always especially with what they have to work with. I would have liked to see more story and better creature effects. As I mentioned before, it's a independent creature feature. That being said, it's a fun flick but don't expect too much from it.

You have to feel for Michael Rooker. He's a great actor, unfairly limited to the B-movie genre these days, passed over by the big name productions and stuck making what are, in effect, routine, low budget flicks. HYPOTHERMIA is such a production, a disappointingly cheap flick about an underwater monster. (At least Rooker's fortunes have started to change more recently, with a guest role in THE WALKING DEAD and an appearance in the blockbuster film GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. Perhaps people are starting to remember what a good actor he is.)

Needless to say, Rooker is the best thing in this tale of a normal family who visit an iced-over lake to do some winter fishing. While there they encounter a couple of city slickers who have the potential to irritate, but before long everyone there is being menaced by a creature that comes out from under the ice. The creature is a guy in a suit that bears more than a passing resemblance to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, only looking about a hundred times worse.

HYPOTHERMIA is only just about acceptable as a film. The title bears no relation to the plot and the cinematography is too dark and dingy. There are some cheap gore effects and a few scenes of menace but none of it means much. You just wonder why the whole group don't just get out of there; their isolation is self-inflicted, making the whole thing faintly ridiculous. Still, a solid performance from Rooker is always worth watching.