Hypothermia

This movie has just started on the Horror Channel. It seemed familiar and it was. I suffered the pain of this dark (lighting) bleak (Plot and script) a couple of years ago and I am still wearing the plasters. The three stars are Michael Rooker who was ever reliable but what he was doing in this cheap drivel? I will never know. New furniture?? The icy desolate waste is probably a metaphor or the commissioning suits minds although adequate for the movie.

I cannot go too far into all the performances but the supporting cast were keen if nothing else.

I have also have seen some pretty cheap effects when watching Z rated creature features, and some are very good, but this one really had me in stitches. Spend £20 and make it look like £9. Someone is missing a wet suit and flippers.

Even for hard core horror fans (we have watched some rubbish) give it a wide one unless you want to chuckle at the rubber beastie.

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 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.

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.