Chiller
Chiller
| 22 May 1985 (USA)
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A wealthy industrialist arranges for his body to be kept on ice in a high-tech cryonic chamber. When the instructions are not followed properly, he emerges from the frozen crypt as an empty, soulless creature with an appetite for destruction.

Reviews
AJSteele

This 80s film has a very good concept. What if you died and were cryogenically frozen immediately after, then thawed out years later. Would you be "soul-less?" Watch the film to find out.Some very creepy moments but it's basically a dated 80s TV movie. Why bother releasing a film to DVD if there is no desire to enhance it? To make money I know, but, it's just wrong. The picture quality is awful and that's enough to make you want to shut it off. The "film" could stand a remake with a much broader scope because of it's interesting premise. There are a dime a dozen horror films out there but I don't think this approach to terror has often surfaced. What makes the film all the more relevant is the fact that man-kind could actually come face to face with this issue for real.

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BaronBl00d

I liked this made for TV movie about a cryogenetically frozen body being brought back to life. Michael Beck plays the cold-hearted lad who dies ten years ago and was frozen by his mother waiting for a chance for science to bring him back via new medical technology. His cylinder goes on the fritz and action must be taken quickly to see if science has the answers now that it did not have ten years earlier. Beck is revived but not the same person. It seems that whilst his body is living again, a chasm only fills the void vacated by his soul's departure. Beck comes back with no regard for human and animal life and only wants to appease whatever appetites he might have at that very moment. Now, this is some pretty absurd stuff I grant you, but director Wes Craven and some good acting save it from being terrible. In fact it does get one thinking about some things. The acting is uniformly good with Beck doing a good job and Oscar winner Beatrice Straight and Paul Sorvino as a cleric really bringing home the bacon. They both do stellar jobs with this material and give it some much needed credibility. Sorvino is very convincing in his role. Some good character acting by Dick O'Neill and Anne Seymour add to the mix, and the addition of beautiful Jill Schoelen doesn't hurt either. Kudos also to Craven for not going overboard as many others might be apt to do. Beck is a man with no supernatural abilities per se but rather just soulless is his approach to another chance to "live."

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callanvass

This is a fairly decent little flick, however it's a bit too slow paced at times, and after a great start, it becomes a tad tedious,and a bit too silly for my liking. It has some creepy atmosphere at times, and the score is good, however, it can't rise above average, due to the slow pacing, and, unlikable characters. This was another movie i got from a DVD called Psychotic Connections. The Directing is decent.Wes Craven does a decent job here, great use of colors, some decent overhead shots, a very effective stalking scene at the beginning,some pretty cool zoom in's however the pace, is awful at times, and extremely inconsistent. There is no gore. The Acting is so so. Michael Beck does a decent job here, and seems to be having fun with his role, and was sort of menacing. Beatrice Straight is good as the Mother, and was okay in the dramatic sequences. Laura Johnson is very pretty and does what she has to do well. Dick O'Neill is okay here, and did what he had to do adequately. Paul Sorvino is so so, here and terribly miscast,he was amusing at times though. Jill Schoelen is beautiful!, and does great here, and is one of the great horror scream queens!. Overall worth a rental, but not much more, since it's only average at best. ** out of 5

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rsoonsa

With this endeavour, director Wes Craven will not, in all probability, please many enthusiasts of his other films, the majority of which involve a good deal of violence and bloodletting, but he does a workmanlike job with this account of storage cryogeny which goes awry. Wealthy Marian Creighton (Bernice Straight) has kept her son Miles (Michael Beck) in cryogenic suspension for ten years since his death from a liver disease, and when a computer failure results in his sudden thawing, his mother decides upon immediate liver transplant surgery for him, a procedure not available at the time of his demise. Although this surgery is successful, and Miles resumes his former station as CEO of the family corporation, an issue arises as to how one might know of the possible lack of his spirit, or soul, whereas the other two elements of life, body and mind, have plainly been restored. The destructive behaviour of Miles is such that his mother and her clerical friend Reverend Penny (Paul Sorvino) begin to doubt that they should thank a higher power for delivering Marian's son to her, and a metaphysical inquiry becomes dominant in the film. Beatrice Straight gives, as ever, an excellent performance in her role, Paul Sorvino is tastefully nuanced as the troubled prelate, and Michael Beck obviously savours his part as the fulsome Miles, but Craven cannot seem to distance himself from his cinematic terror bromides, most of which become red herrings for a scenario which largely focusses upon ontology.

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