3/10 (single viewing)I bought this DVD after a long search for the ultimate in film depravity, and boy did I get it.About a year ago I went on a mission to seek out just how dark and horrifying film can be. I did this for reasons I don't fully understand, although I've been a long-time (mostly mainstream) horror film fan and believe most of the junk coming out of Hollywood these days is terrible. Basically, I wanted to become a sort of detective like Nicholas Cage's character in "8mm", who was searching for a lost girl and, in order to locate her, had to begin an extensive investigation of underground "snuff" films, delving into its sick and twisted incarnations...My search led me to films (most of which I have not seen yet) like "Begotten", "Clean, Shaven", "Cannibal Holocaust", "Scrapbook", "I Pi$$ on Your Corpse, I Spit on Your Grave", "Man Behind the Sun", "Nekromantic", etc. Anyhow, I skipped these films and was attracted to Ice From the Sun because it sounded like it had a more interesting plot (and "Scrapbook" in particular seemed too intense based on some reviews I'd read).I viewed the DVD only once and have since gotten rid of it. Utterly vile, as I expected. But my criticisms have to do with sound and story quality. Unfortunately, the sound quality is horrible and I had trouble adjusting the volume level during several scenes. More importantly, however, I just don't feel like the story was told well. Parts of the film made me very uncomfortable, but other parts were just plain silly and goofy.**Spoilers Below!!!**During one segment, a character is running through the woods while another guy is digging a grave. He just runs around for a few minutes, going nowhere, repeatedly coming across the grave-site. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing it was so corny. Another segment has a vain girl transformed into a dog and sitting in a carnival booth while people laugh at her; only at the end of this segment when a shotgun is put to her head did I feel a twinge of disgust/fear. Another segment has a character leading 2 girls around on leashes, sitting in an empty theater, eating fried chicken. Each of these segments tried to represent base fears of the various characters but just came across as, well, stupid.I will admit, however, to feeling very uncomfortable during the truck-dragging sequence. The use of sound (or lack of it) in this segment was what made it truly horrifying to me, and also the lack of emotion on the face of the guy driving the truck, like he was just going down to the local 7-11 for a Slurpee...although I feel it could have been better if we hadn't seen the victim afterward, perhaps just her feet. Also, the worm-mouth/self-operation segment was sickening and well filmed. I wish the rest of the film had been presented this well.Overall, if you want to see something vile, check this out. Just be ready to wrestle with the audio and sitting through a rather long film, with the disturbing segments separated by some rather corny segments.

To anyone here who hasn't seen it, I strongly recommend this Eric Stanze film. Even considering its several flaws iny image, very uneven acting, sometimes-awkward dialog], it's still one of the best, most entertaining and thought-provoking micobudget independent horrors out there. I've heard it described from a cross between The Matrix and Lost Highway [not sure what that means, exactly ] to a Clive Barker film as directed by Trent Reznor, which is closer to the mark. The story can be summed up thus: an evil wizard takes his apprentice into an alternate universe of his own creation, and every few years they kidnap six people and torture-kill them, then take their souls, until the apprentice, now ultra-powerful and re-named The Presence, overthrows the wizard and takes over, prompting Heaven and Hell to recruit a female suicide victim as a sort of astral-plane assassin to pass through the wall of ice and destroy this "abomination of space and time" Gore, nudity, and lots of just plain unsettling images and sounds follow. I never thought I'd say this, but Ice From The Sun is not just a movie to be watched; it's an experience to be had.

1st watched 10/21/2001 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Eric Stanze): Although technically this is an amazingly complicated production and the story is just as complicated, the reliance on blood and gore deter from what could have been a very mysterious and well-done psychedelic fantasy/horror film. If it didn't have so much reliance on shocking us with violence and gore I believe I could watch this a second time just to understand it better. I would like to see what other efforts this filmmaker puts out just because of his wild visual styles, but hopefully his topic will not be quite as disturbing as this one.

Eric Stanze, who directed the enjoyable SAVAGE HARVEST, has gone one step further with his newest film, ICE FROM THE SUN - a work of amazing creativity and craftsmanship!With this film, he combines more traditional horror elements (as seen in his previous works) and expends them into an epic tapestry of dark surrealism and cinematic experimentation. The story focuses on the enigmatic Alison (wonderfully played by Ramona Midgett), a recent suicide victim who becomes the unwilling pawn in a cosmic struggle between the combined efforts of the angels in heaven and the devils in hell and the Presence (played by the equally excellent DJ Vivona), a murderous entity whose in control of his own dimension, a dimension of pain, death and chaos that can only be entered by someone of flesh and blood. Alison is given the task of wandering through this chaotic realm to find the Presence, and exterminate him. Her mission is masked by the arrival of six other humans, who are the latest players of the Presence's sadistic games of murder and mayhem. Who will survive?Besides its unique story, ICE FROM THE SUN has a lot to offer! Stanze's direction is energetic and solid, and gets rewarding performances from his entire cast, including Todd Tevlin as the drug-pushing Aaron and Angela Zimmerly as the strong and resourceful Dana.The editing is razor-sharp and wonderfully non-linear! The frame composition and the camerawork are equally stylized! The chaotic atmosphere is further enhanced by the moody lighting by Director of Photography David Berliner, who pushed the Super 8mm format to maximum effect! And to top it all off, Brian McClelland and Matt Meyer have created an amazingly textured soundscape, offering a wide array of dark sound effects and haunting musical compositions!The special effects are another asset of this production. Tony Bridges (who created the effectively gory effects in SAVAGE HARVEST) teams up with Tommy Biondo and Jeff Bergeron to create numerous splatter set pieces that have to be seen to be believed!All in all, this is a true work of passion and artistic exploration by everyone involved. Comparisons to films like LOST HIGHWAY, CLEAN,SHAVEN, BEGOTTEN are not out of place. It's films like these that aren't afraid to take chances and to step outside the boundaries of traditional formulaic filmmaking to break new ground! Fans of more mainstream entertainment may not enjoy this film (they'll probably be very annoyed with it), but people who are looking for something bizarre and original will be right at home here!