Woolly Mammoths, Disease, Enviro-Horror!  Yes Please.

Reader Comments

1. Kurt Halfyard 11/08/2007 @ 6:52am

   Got a bit of an Alien/Aliens vibe going for it too, Where’s Michael Biehn when you need him?—“I say we take off. Nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”

2. Ard Vijn 11/08/2007 @ 10:40am

   “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” meets “The Thing”. This can go every which way, tone- and qualitywise…

3. crazybee 11/08/2007 @ 11:04am

   Last Winter is freakin’ amazing.

4. jandrew 11/08/2007 @ 12:11pm

   Crazybee, did we see the same movie?

   Last Winter was HORRIBLE.  It definitely held me interest for awhile, but between Ron Perlman’s ridiculous acting and (more importantly) being beat over the head by Fessenden’s totally silly environ-scare montages it was totally a let-down.  At least he’s trying I guess..

5. Kurt Halfyard 11/08/2007 @ 1:17pm

   I love how THE LAST WINTER splits its audiences!  Everyone has their own passionate reaction to it.  I’m really looking forward to seeing it.  May even have to order the UK DVD, as I missed it at TIFF06 and it’s recent (ultra-limited) theatrical run.

6. Swarez 11/08/2007 @ 2:30pm

   Kurt. Wait for the US DVD. It will be loaded with extras, the UK one is bare bones, much too Fesendens dismay.

   I loved The Last Winter, my friends didn’t like it and I haven’t really gotten in to Fesenden’s work before this but he was really in top form there.
   He’s a top guy as well.

7. Kurt Halfyard 11/08/2007 @ 2:46pm

   Thanks for the tip.  Extras are nice.  As I said before, The Last Winter really does seem to polarize its audience.  From everything I’ve heard and read about the film, I think I be on the ‘love’ it side of the fence.  I’ll get there eventually.

8. Caterpillar 11/08/2007 @ 3:23pm

   I have a woolly mammoth fetish too but you have to stay realistic. There will be a couple of them in the new Roland Emmerich flick as well and that looks like it may be his worst yet.

9. Simon Abrams 11/08/2007 @ 4:38pm

   I’m with jandrew on this one. It’s a step up for Fessenden since Wendigo but really not a good movie.

10. Swarez 11/08/2007 @ 5:19pm

    I don’t think there will be any Mammoths running around in this flick. Isn’t there just a mammoth carcass that the virus inhabits?

11. crazybee 11/08/2007 @ 6:11pm

    See Last Winter and judge for yourself.  The acting is great, despite what JAndrew says, and the story is like something Kiyoshi Kurosawa would do if he made a film that took place in the arctic.

12. Kurt Halfyard 11/08/2007 @ 9:06pm

    Crazybee:  Yum!  Yes Please!  Except for that Haunted Tree movie, K. Kurosawa is gold in my book.

    Swarez:  I know that.  For some reason seeing a huge Mammoth corpse is cooler than seeing a CGI/prosthetic/whatever thing running around.  I’m weird like that.

13. Swarez 11/09/2007 @ 2:32am

    Kurt. If I had kids I’d ask you to stay away from them.

    Looking at that poster it looks awfully like The Thing poster, especially the logo.

14. Simon Abrams 11/09/2007 @ 5:50am

    I’m a big Kiyoshi Kurosawa fan and find the reference a little strained.

    Kurosawa somehow manages to be creepy without being preachy and that’s something Fessenden could never do. Regardless of the acting, the story itself has a lot of bad dialogue propping it up and a number of scenes when the tension was strained by portents and threats that simply weren’t very scary or suspenseful (sometimes they were a bit laughable, just like “Wendigo").

15. Caterpillar 11/09/2007 @ 12:21pm

    WENDIGO is a goddamn masterpiece and one of only a handful of films that genuinely gives me the creeps.

16. jandrew 11/09/2007 @ 12:53pm

    Simon, your absolutely correct. 

    Where Kurosawa manages to nail the uneasy and creepy atmosphere beautifully in most of his films (Cure, Pulse, Charisma), Fessenden’s “objective” always shines through without restrain.  It’s great that he has these messages, but you’d hope that he’d give the audience the benefit of the doubt and not have to reiterate what he’s trying to get across OVER AND OVER again.

    As far as the acting goes, Ron Perlman really is bad in this movie.  It’s pretty apparent now that he’s perfect in other films as those over-the-top and hammy characters (which I like) but doesn’t seem to be capable of handling serious roles.  But then again, Fessenden acting in his own film Bad Habit was one of the worst acting performances I think I’ve ever seen.

    Don’t get me wrong, I really wanted to like Last Winter - I even talked 6 other people into coming to the theater to see it (all who also disliked it) with me!  I just think that people are capable of making better movies..

17. jandrew 11/09/2007 @ 3:40pm

    (note: that’s Habit not ‘Bad Habit’)

    Also, I should probably retract my statement of saying Fessenden’s acting was bad when it was more just really annoying

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