Hypothermia

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.

This movie wasn't that bad really. It had the potential to be a really good little film but even though it had some good bloody scenes the actual "beast" itself was not the best. In fact, for me it was what let the film down a bit. But in saying that it was not the worst creature film I've seen. Michael Rooker was not bad in this and he was the reason I wanted to see this movie. But I thought this film could have been much better if only they spent more time on the effects and the story as it was only 70 minutes long. Again, I liked this movie but it wasn't ground breaking, but it's the kind of film you would watch on a chilly weekend when there's not much else to see. So I give it a 7 out of 10.

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.

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.

It's always interesting to see how quickly a movie can go from promising to a great lump of awful. Hypothermia must have sounded pretty good as a pitch; a family is trapped on a frozen lake by a monster beneath the ice. There's a lot of possibilities there, not that any of them would be explored in the little more than seventy minutes that this movie takes to careen from potentially interesting, all the way down to sucky-ville where it crashes with a spectacular flopping sound. It doesn't just go there, it boards a roller coaster so the trip to Horrible is fast, and you're into before you know it. The movie starts out decently with believable, if uninteresting, family interactions; the quick introduction of the looming threat and then the insertion of obnoxious strangers to complicate the situation. But then...then comes the monster part. Where it degenerates to from there is best summed up by the moment when two women, bloodied and having witnessed multiple deaths, are walking across the ice with the monster threatening from beneath, and the older woman says "Just ignore it". And I kinda wish I was making that up...but I'm not.

It's great to see Michael Rooker being given a leading role, and he is always good, but Blanche Baker literally scowls, and glares peevishly through an undeveloped and underwritten role as his wife. It remains a mystery to me why she would act annoyed, or simply irritated, about her husband's interest in finding them a safe way out and she gets really miffed because, if possible, he wants to kill the rampaging fish-man-monster who is killing her loved ones. She looks seriously aggrieved that he is trying to do anything. As for Amy Chang, playing their son's girlfriend - the kindest thing I can say about her performance is that she gives "terrible" it's new poster child.

As for the monster... well I'll be charitable and guess they spent a whole seventeen dollars on the suit and then hired the first performer who said "I know how monsters act, they roar like this: Roar. Roar." It wouldn't be out of place in a super-cheap amateur film from the 1950's. The old Creature From The Black Lagoon looks like a hundred million dollar special effect in comparison. But Cheapy Fish-Man-Monster does roar. A lot. It flaps it's fish-lips and makes noise (okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration - it doesn't have lips; those would have cost an added fifty cents). Some of the bloody FX on the victims are quite good but then others are distractingly poor, like the effects artist was in the restroom and they didn't want to wait so someone's kid brother visiting the set took over. I'm sure the kid meant well, but still.

And how to describe the "dramatic" moment when the mom talks the monster out of attacking by explaining that they think of this place as "Home"; which, apparently, your average fish-man understands perfectly well so long as you talk to him like an adult; don't raise your voice, look slightly peeved, and tell him you know he's just protecting his natural territory (which they have no reason to suspect, and it's not his territory anyway). And I wish I was making that up...but I'm not. When they just get up and walk away I immediately thought that's what I should have done before I started watching this demoralizing catastrophe. And I wish I'd made this whole thing up...but I didn't.