Hypothermia 2010 - REVIEW

The term "Creature Feature" can be traced way back in the annals of film history. It's a generic title used to describe a horror sub-genre and can most effectively be attributed to the Japanese "giant monster" movies from the 60's and 70's. Since then others have jumped on the creature bandwagon, including the Syfy channel. Admittedly, that's one of my soft spots though. I could veg out on Syfy originals all weekend without ever batting an eye.

Ray Pelletier (Michael Rooker) just wants to have a peaceful weekend getaway with his family. Their usual spot... Shadow Lake where they spend most of their time relaxing and ice fishing. Now, those aren't really two things that, in my opinion, really go together but ya know.... to each his own. Not long into their day on the ice, the quiet is shattered with the arrival of the overly obnoxious Steve Cote (Don Wood) and his son Stevie Jr. (Greg Finley), who blaze onto the ice dragging their high-tech mobile fish house (RV) behind them. After a series of strange events i.e. a huge fish getting away and them seeing something under the ice, Cote decides to show off his extravagant fishing hole by inviting the family back to his fish house for dinner. Things take a turn for the worse when Stevie Jr. is pulled under the ice by an unseen force. The two feuding families must band together to survive what's beneath the ice.

As you might expect, the performances in this one are way above par. After watching Rooker as Merle Dixon in The Walking Dead for so long, it's hard to imagine him as the laid back family man type but, as usual, he plays it well. Blanche Baker rounded out the mother/father duo with believability. Together they made you wish your parents were this cool and laid back. Amy Chang and Benjamin Forester made a cute college age couple intent on changing the world for those less fortunate. Chang's skills were under utilized here. She has the potential to do so much more if given the right avenue to do it. I don't recall seeing anything else from Forester but he did manage to keep up with rest of the cast. Wood is the character you love to hate. The character that has so much testosterone you expect him at any minute to start walking around pissing on everything to mark his territory. The manliest of men and he plays it frighteningly well. Finley plays Stevie Jr., the polar opposite of his despotic father who really wants nothing more than to please him. It's a big change from his stint as Jack Pappas on The Secret Life of the American Teenager but at least he's branching out.

With the cast attached to this film, you'd be likely to hinge your bets that this would be a solid, fun filled film that just didn't get enough recognition... but you'd be wrong. There are so many awesome elements to this film that should've made it great but somewhere in between conceptualization and completion, it all got lost and what ends up on screen is really nothing more than a Syfy original that completely missed the mark. Writer/director James Felix McKenney tries too hard to resurrect the days of old. It's not enough anymore to just throw an obscure, unfamiliar beast at your audience and expect them to buy it. Most are gonna want some kind of explanation. What is it? Where did it come from? How are they gonna kill it? None of these questions are answered. And since the whole film revolves around this "beast" I must tell you that NEVER have I been so annoyed with a movie monster in my life. Further proof that McKenney tried to bring back that nostalgia of the "creature feature" and failed. In fact, I had a little chuckle when I first saw it because no way was I really seeing what I was seeing... ya get me?? This creature ends up being some kind of weird cross between the Land of the Lost Sleestaks and a mutated piranha.

If all that doesn't throw you off and you're curious enough to make it till the bitter end... I'm just gonna go ahead and apologize now. I'm sorry that this film has let you down, not only with a laughable antagonist, but also for a story that lacks even the basic, fundamentals of horror. There's no built up. It's clear from 30 or so minutes in that most of these characters will meet their demise. I'm sorry that this dialogue is drab at best. I'm sorry that most of you will write this creature off as some guy in a latex suit with a giant head, plastic teeth and bat wings. I'm sorry that this vast location wasn't used to it's potential and I'm sorry that the ending was so horribly unsatisfying. I don't apologize very often so just take it and walk away. If by some chance you're just dying to take in a Glass Eye Pix production, may I suggest Stake Land? Granted I haven't seen every film they've put out but Stake Land rates heads and tails higher than the others.

AMCtv.com Interviews Steven Yeun

Steven Yeun, who plays Glenn on AMC's The Walking Dead, talks with AMCtv.com about post-apocalyptic romance and his expertise at being a hostage.
 
Q: Season 3 Episode 7, "When the Dead Come Knocking," is intense. Was this your first time ever being taken hostage? 

A: You know, I'd been held hostage the first year, and then I was held hostage by my own people going down into the well last season! But this year, it was cool to show a little bit of mettle to Glenn, to see what he'd become.

Q: Do you feel like you're now trained to be able to escape from a similar strapped to a chair situation, if one ever arose?

A: It wasn't as difficult as it seemed, luckily. Turning over the chair on your back isn't easy, but standing up on it while being strapped to it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was a blast. I hope I'd be as good. But if anyone is smart, they'd strap my legs to the chair as well.

Q: Do you have a favorite walker kill from this season? 
 
A: Having the experience of choreographing that whole struggle of chair breaking and then coming alive and having to hit that walker in the head with a jagged chair was satisfying. That was awesome.

Q: The group gets to kill lots of walkers this season. Was it an actor's dream come true?
 
A: It was awesome. Trying to figure out new ways to kill these things is fun, as well as choreographing all that stuff. It's satisfying to kill one. People get into it. When we're filming and the responsibility comes to you to kill a walker and you're like, "Everybody trusts me to do this," it's a feeling that permeates from the character to the actor.

Q: Melissa McBride (Carol) talked about how the prison offered some comfort from the Georgia heat. Did that make it difficult to look like a survivor of a zombie apocalypse? 

A: Being outside in the heat is always nice when you're trying to look miserable, but air conditioning is always good. You have to sit there and readjust to the surroundings, but somehow the set crew designed the inside of the prison to be just as disgusting as the outside. I don't know what they did, but it sucked in there too.

Q: In the moment when Glenn and Maggie get taken prisoner by Merle in Season 3 Episode 6, "Hounded," were you hoping they'd be able to get away?

A: I think they made a mistake in that moment and let their guard down. That's what happens when you have love in the apocalypse! The stakes aren't as high in the real world -- if you were to go shopping for baby formula, I don't think someone would come up to you and steal your girlfriend. But in that situation, it's almost terrible to have that attachment.


VIDEO: Talked About Scene, The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 6, "Hounded"

Q: Is Michael Rooker as frightening as he seems?

A: Michael Rooker is quite the character, he's in it. He's Merle. We just played it real. There's a lot of trust with us that's awesome. You just kind of have us play out something, and just film it. It's not such a grand process; it's just everyone's game and everyone's down to try something new and make it look good. It's a collaborative effort that goes surprisingly fast.

Q: Were there any sort of personal adjustments that you added to that scene? 

A: Just kind of the whole feeling of what happens when you're pummeled. I tried to play up how painful it would be to get around when your ribs are almost broken, your face almost broken, and all. Also, I tried to incorporate what you do when you're in that much rage -- it was a whole process.

Q: Glenn and Maggie have a scene where they wake up in the guard tower. How'd you get up there?

A: They build out everything on the prison, it's crazy, but the only thing they didn't do was build steps up to the guard tower! So we had to take a crane up there, which was a fun experience.

Q: Glenn has emerged as one of the leaders of the group. Is this a situation you've ever been in yourself?

A: For me personally, the challenges of this season were about filling the holes left by the people that we lost. There are a lot of amazing actors that aren't there any more. As that happens, a little bit more responsibility is put on you in the weight you carry. So I feel like I've been dealt the same amount of responsibility on the show that Glenn has been dealt, and that growth has been almost one to one as each season has gone.

Source: AMCtv.com