Reel Politique: Movie Review, The Last Winter
The Last Winter is an unusual horror film. Though it delivers on the expected promised of its “and then there were none” premise, it is rooted in ecological concerns, and ends in a manner that is both paradoxically clear and ambiguous at the same time.
The film opens with Ed Pollack (the generally criminally underused or appreciated Ron Perlman) arriving at the polar base camp of a unit working for North Industries, an oil company that wants to extract valuable fuel from beneath the North Pole’s crust in territory that was formerly protected. The voluble Pollack descends on the camp like a Santa Claus, dispensing gifts and flattery but also a little fear. He’s the ramrod for the team, and his mandate is to get environmental impact clearances from the house environmentalist attached to the team, Jim Hoffman (James Le Gros). It’s Red State versus Blue State (or perhaps ice state versus liquid state) when these two go at it. There is also a personal animosity. In the three weeks since Ed has been at the camp, Hoffman has fallen into a romance with the token hottie, Abby (Friday Night Light’s terrific Connie Britton). Pollack has also imposed upon the team the son of a friend, a callow youth named Maxwell (Zach Gilford), who is intimidated by the landscape, but is also the first to perceive the newfound hazards they face.
In brief, these hazards are due to global warming, which has caused the thin ice sheath or permafrost to start melting, releasing biological entities of untold age. One entity might be a gas that causes its consumers to go mad. Another might be a herd of some mysterious primeval animal that runs at night. Maxwell is the first to see them, and also the first to be victimized by them.
The Last Winter is written and directed by Larry Fessenden, an actor, producer, and director who is associated with another cult horror director, Ti West, and whose previous horror film, Wendigo, is warmly regarded by horror enthusiasts. The film was shot partially in Alaska and in Iceland, and it’s an innovative thriller in that it helpfully elides or summarizes, through snappy editing, those scenes we’ve seen all too often in previous horror films of a similar vintage (such as John Carpenter’s The Thing), scenes such as the arguments about what to do and then those patented horror film reactions to the first revelations. In addition, the note of ambiguity at the end, residing mostly in a terrific last shot that evokes memories of both the beginning of 28 Days Later and the end of Resident Evil, bears more weight thanks to the intellectual weight that has brought us there.
The Last Winter, which is copyright 2006, opens December 14th at the Hollywood Theatre.