6/18/18. It was ok at its start. Almost like a cross between The Thing, Event Horizon and Alien. Decent EFXs, and then POW! -Not a very good ending.

It took me two watches to finally come around and give this movie credit where it was due. The first time I didn't see it all and I judged it unfairly as a result. It may not have helped that I saw it on the Horror Channel, which I only flick through out of boredom! It's a well crafted tale reminiscent of The Twilight Zone and with hints of Lovecraft, but also mostly steeped in reality with good use of psychology and paranoia like John Carpenter's The Thing.You can't go wrong with it's cast, notably Ron Perlman, James Le Gros and even Kevin Corrigan and Jamie Harrold, who provide solid backing.The theme is notably environmental horror with a big hint of the paranormal, which you can't tell in the Alaskan wilderness without a couple of natives on board. That theme, when it all mixes up with escalating events proves very atmospheric, and so whether you like the ambiguous ending or not, there's little denying that this slow-thawing chiller does a good job!

To be honest I wasn't expecting much going into this film, yet was pleasantly surprised about it for about the first 45mins. As with all isolation movies, there is a profound sense of eeriness, and there are particular things (such as the box from the previous expedition, and a strange log book) which, I thought, were going to be good set ups for more mystery further on in the story. The acting wasn't by any means bad either. Ron Perlman was, well, Ron Perlman, and James Le Gros did fairly well as his opposite. It wasn't even that the characters were unlike-able or underdeveloped.But there certainly is a distinct point in the film where everything well and truly turns on its head. And from there it is all down hill.It actually baffles me completely that a film can go from eerie and interesting, to ridiculous and plain stupid like flipping a light switch. It was like the writers got to a point and said "hmm, we haven't killed many people yet. Probably should drop the storyline and do some character culling." Then proceeded to make completely irrational decisions that left you screaming at the screen in frustration. The biggest flaw in this film is that it never returns to the eeriness it started out with. Instead it decided it needed to go cliché and kill off characters in ways that were baffling. They never circle back to the set ups that they originally established, so leave you thinking 'well, what was the point'. And there is none!I am serious. The end of this movie has absolutely zero relation to the main storyline! And don't even get me started on the final shot. Whoever did that stroke of genius deserves a bullet. Overall my experience of this film went a lot like this: 'Cool. Oh yup. Hmm creepy. Oh yup. Ooo nice! Hmm, interesting. Wait, what? No seriously, what? WHY!? What the f**k. What the hell, just use the dead guys jacket!! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?? ....Are you serious. What,the,f**k. Let me guess, that's it? ...Yup damn. Well that was terrible.'As most people have stated, it was a film that showed serious potential but threw it all away by sticking its head up its own ass. Watch the first 45mins and walk away. At least the questions you have won't be shadowed by the unnecessary questions we are force fed at the end.

A joint American-Icelandic supernatural adventure in which a group of engineers in a remote Arctic survey station succumb to paranoia, delusions, and ultimately death. Is it a poisonous gas, a virus, a mythological wendigo, mother nature or just bad weather?Perhaps it's because writer-director Larry Fessenden is also an actor that he has such an interest in developing characters and it's refreshing to see a modern horror movie that hearkens back to the quality ensemble playing of 'Alien' and 'The Thing'. But whereas those movies built suspense and horror on the back of our compassion for well rounded characterization, 'The Last Winter' doesn't really do much with it at all. A promising set-up slows down to a glacial pace with very little actually happening for great stretches of time. The sporadic thrills, when they come, are well handled, and there are a few scenes that have a genuinely chilling quality. But events are so labored and drawn out that it takes real will power to persevere to the end. When we get there, we're rewarded with a climax that is just plain silly. I like my horror with a minimalist aesthetic, and few things are more minimal than a research station in the frozen wilds of the Arctic Circle. I love the look of the movie and the authentic and gritty realism of the production design and cinematography. It's all the more frustrating therefore that having created such a believable and detailed world, Fessenden fails to find a story worthy of it.