Sonno di ghiaccio

Chiller (1985)

** (out of 4)

Wes Craven's made for TV flick is frozen from the get go and never goes anywhere. In the film, a man returns to life after being frozen for ten years and guess what he does? If you guessed he goes on a killing spree then you've just saved yourself 80-minutes. Just looking at the film you can tell Craven didn't have much hope in the film because you can't see any of the typical Craven trademarks. The story itself is rather lame and it's nothing new so there's not much to get excited over. There isn't any gore since this was made for television but there's also no suspense, no humor and no good performances. Paul Sorvino has a small role but even he's sleepwalking.

Corporate executive Miles Creighton (Michael Beck, "The Warriors") is brought back to life after a decade of cryogenic freezing. But everybody watching this at home can tell that something is now missing from his personality: it's his soul. He's now a conscience-free creep who thinks nothing of slaughtering the family dog, peeping on his younger sister (the lovely Jill Schoelen, "The Stepfather"), or firing longtime family friend / employee Clarence Beeson (Dick O'Neill, "Wolfen"). A concerned Reverend (Paul Sorvino, "GoodFellas") comes to realize the truth about Miles, but Miles' mother Marion (the wonderful Beatrice Straight, "Poltergeist") has blinders on when it comes to her son.

A somewhat forgotten effort from fright master Wes Craven (of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" fame), this mid-80s TV movie lacks the intensity and impact this might have had, had Craven made it for theatrical release. Written & produced by J. D. Feigelson ('Dark Night of the Scarecrow'), this sci-fi / horror film is of course mild with its horror elements due to the nature of the TV medium. At its best, it's mildly involving, although it does boast some good makeup effects by Stan Winston ("Aliens") and presents a philosophical musing on the nature of the soul. It's still amusing to watch an entertainingly icy cold Beck do these horrible things. The supporting cast includes such other familiar faces as Alan Fudge ("My Demon Lover"), Craig Richard Nelson ("My Bodyguard"), Laura Johnson (Cravens' "Red Eye"), Anne Seymour ("Trancers"), Joseph Whipp (Cravens' "Scream"), and Brian Libby ("Silent Rage"), but Straight is the definite standout as the devoted mother in need of a wake-up call.

The tale is overall pretty routine, with the cliched use of the "one final scare" at the ending. It's watchable enough, but I would only really recommend it to Craven completists.

Six out of 10.

"Wes Craven's Chiller" is the latest addition to my collection of "Dollar Store DVDs," and at this point I think I'm going to have to seek professional help for this addiction, because I don't know how many more of these sub-par films I can stand before my brain explodes...

Anyway, "Chiller" may have a famous name director, Wes Craven, in the driver's seat (the back of the DVD I bought makes sure to mention that this film is "from the director of Scream and Red Eye!") and an interesting enough premise but the execution suffers due to its made-for-TV origins. It seems that rich old Mrs. Creighton's heart was in the right place when her beloved son Miles fell ill with a terminal disease, and she had him cryogenically frozen at an experimental lab until a cure can be found. Ten years later, Miles' tube malfunctions and he's thawed out a little early; fortunately, medical science has progressed enough that he is successfully revived. UN-fortunately for the rest of the characters, he's a little, um..."different" after his resurrection, though nobody can convince Mama of this for nearly three-quarters of the film's length. The family dog hates him (so it suddenly disappears), his teenage cousin is scared of the way he leers at her while she's swimming in the pool, and when he takes over the family corporation his underlings are shocked at his cut-throat business practices (the scene in which he forces the kindly old senior partner into a fatal heart attack in a stairwell would probably make Gordon Gecko of "Wall Street" proud). Eventually the family's priest (Paul Sorvino, in a mostly thankless role) realizes that while Miles spent a decade between life and death, he lost his soul (cue creepy music) and it's up to Mama to do something about it before more lives are lost. Though "Chiller" is only about 75 minutes long, it feels a LOT longer than that. The few bright spots for me were seeing a young Jill Schoelen (the young scream queen later seen in "The Stepfather," "Popcorn" and Robert Englund's take on "Phantom of the Opera" before she disappeared off the face of the Earth) and the final battle in the walk-in freezer between Miles and Mama Creighton. It should be noted that the DVD I watched (released on the Digiview label as a double feature with a 50s version of Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart") is absolutely god-awful... the picture is grainy and dark, the sound alternates between overly loud or inaudible, and the cheesy synthesized music, which probably sounded creepy in 1985, comes across as dated and annoying now. I was also left with this nagging question... whose soggy, defrosted legs are those that we see at the beginning of the movie, shambling around amongst the cryo-tubes? It's never addressed!!For a buck, "Chiller" was an OK night's entertainment, but truthfully, unless you feel the need to see absolutely everything that Wes Craven has ever had his hands on, I'd say that you could live a long and happy life without bothering with this one. You got it, "Chiller" should've been left in deep freeze where it belongs.

Miles Creighton, ten years after his sudden death, thaws unexpectedly from cryogenic stasis and is returned to the living, in mind and body but, according to the film's presumption, missing his soul. As his behaviour slides from the obnoxious to the abominable, a family friend, the Reverend Penny, ponders the whereabouts of Miles' better third, and experiences a crisis of faith. Good or evil, altruism or selfishness, existentialism or abstinence - these are the dilemmas given to us in the exchanges between the Reverend and the Sociopath.

This film is as detached, cold and humourless as its protagonist, but does provide a few shocks, and the acting is fine. I thought a chance for a droll swipe at Corporate America (or wherever) was missed, in that his employees noticed so quickly how appalling his new policies were - this was the Eighties, after all, and the lack of a soul was considered a prerequisite for success in some quarters. Gordon Gecko himself might have taken a dose of the liquid nitrogen, if he thought it would give him an edge.

Although, unsurprisingly, the metaphysical questions posed by this film are not answered, it did make me think twice about the rent on Uncle Vern.

Corporate bigshot Miles Creighton (Michael Beck) employs cryogenics to have himself frozen after his untimely demise. Ten years later, something goes awry and Creighton is thawed out prematurely.

Once revived, everything seems normal, until Creighton takes his place as head of the family corporation. Now a ruthless psychopath, no one is safe from his selfish, homicidal mania.

Director Wes Craven works fairly well within the confines of 1980's television. Like his other made-for-TV movies, CHILLER suffers from the limitations of the medium. Craven does his best work in the R-rated film format. Still, this movie is watchable enough with good performances and a decent amount of suspense.

Co-stars Beatrice Straight as Creighton's blissfully ignorant mum, and Paul Sorvino as a preacher who suspects that something isn't quite right...