The Last Winter (2006)

That was an excellent one.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is one of those movies that builds, quite effectively to a suspenseful setup and then, disappoints. This repeats a number of times until the end and then it really disappoints.It's as though the Director knows how to create an atmosphere of apprehension but fizzles on the finish line every time. There is enough here to keep you watching but ends up being a frustrating film filled with an unresolved feeling and a wanting for some sort, any, explanation for at least some of what is happening. The final shot has to be one of the most bland, what the? finishes in film history.Ambiguity is a fine thing and can foster thought and search for insight. But here we have an Eco-terror film with a muddled message and worst of all an unconvincing, unresolved plot that is neither a convincing thesis or an entertaining ride to the edge of the tundra.

You may choose to see this simply as The Thing recast into contemporary eco-anxiety; the monster rising up from ancient ice as the land itself, perceived from the human point-of-view as a supernatural emanation. Or wholly disregard as such for the unimaginative rendition. Plot and acting, the stuff most viewers immediately take notice of, are largely mediocre.But there is more, I think. What I saw, takes its cues from The Shining instead; so, the drilling compound secluded in glacial wilderness as the mind-screen – a key trope in the haunted house film, where old rooms creaking with secrets map to rooms of the mind – where, once locked inside, paranoid visions project. Outside and inside become one, each the other's projection, so that the very point-of-view is challenged. Now seeing and what is seen are inextricably bound, so that efforts to render the supernatural vision objective threaten to destroy perception.Oh, but it's captured on camcorder footage, a huge blunder. There is more of this. So much, to the extent that I wonder; is this the work of a promising filmmaker in control of his images, or merely the rehash of a filmmaker keen to rework a bunch of stuff he likes, now and then tapping by accident into an intriguing motif? So the white box in the middle of nowhere – where the earlier drilling expedition tapped into cosmic veins – should we regard it as that axis mundi from where the energies flow and which shatters human consciousness that approaches unprepared - a man returns mad from it - or are we stretching to interpret? Hard to tell.Story-wise, it's all a bit helter skelter. Relationship stuff – past and present – as meant to ground the whole thing in human drama, but the friction they provide is flat. And a bunch of theories thrown around to explain the phenomena. Eventually a plane crashes in the compound, and the leaders set out on foot for the rescue.Once out there in the wilderness, we're treated to the revelation. Here, I think, is where a lot of viewers will be put off – and have. At the sight of the supernatural. But take a look at the scene again where the spirit makes his appearance by the campfire; the vision unfolds by, ghostly spectrum, almost in slow-motion, and one of the characters is completely oblivious while the other screams for him to see and open his eyes.It doesn't help that the first has been an obnoxious, boorish presence for the entire film – and I think this is the notion the filmmaker expects us to entertain, that the materialist person is blind to the manifestations of the hidden energies of the cosmos, we have, after all, first seen the spectrum in camcorder footage that should render its existence objective - but still; was there anything to open the eyes to in the first place except for what the mind conjured? So, the part of this that resembles The Thing, with a bunch of people growing paranoid together in close quarters; ordinary stuff. But the part that visualizes mind narrative, even in this wonky, semi-conscious way, makes me glad I rented.It's all tied up to seeing – and failing to. The dead bodies of those subsumed by the otherworldly encounter have their eyes removed by crows. This is good stuff, and it would be a strange coincidence if the motif was randomly chosen.There are is some aerial photography of Alaska that is pretty good, bird's eye views – the crows again – snowblind. The final image is also from a bird's eye level, except tilted down so we don't see. The apocalypse – meaning in Greek a revelation – has now been transferred to the world at large; except we're not privy.I'd like to see the filmmaker disentangle himself from cinematic knowledge alone – 'how would Kubrick shoot this?' – and plumb, ground deeper; study, for example, Japanese woodblock printing from the 19th century to see how masters at work guided vision; how the bird's eye can offer glimpses of a fleeting, floating world. Even better, to meditate on what it means to see from a bird's eye.

I've never really understood why the concept of environmentalism rubs so many out there the wrong way, especially when it concerns the search for oil. We all know that oil is a non-renewable resource. We know it isn't going to last forever. We know that the pursuit of it has led not only to vast environmental damage, but also numerous wars and countless deaths. And most of us realize that some time in the near future we are going to have to adapt to using an alternate fuel source whether we like it or not. But for some unknown reason, we refuse to move forward. We won't be satisfied until every single inch of the Earth has been drilled and every single drop of oil is used up. We could care less what's being done to the Earth, our atmosphere or our fellow man as long as we have reasonably priced gas to fuel our vehicles.Environmental concerns seem to split people right down the middle, at least here in the U.S. You have those who side with oil companies and feel there is no reason to change, at least not right now. These people typically encourage drilling wherever there is oil (regardless of whether or not it's a federally protected nature preserve or park) and view those opposed to this as being paranoid "tree huggers" and anti-capitalist. The other side seems to want to cut our dependence on oil (both foreign and domestic) and go ahead and start implementing an alternate fuel source immediately. The same split between the population can be seen for issues of global warming/climate change. There are those who believe it's needless paranoia with no solid scientific data to back it up, while others believe there's either enough evidence on hand to be concerned and ultimately we're better off being safe than sorry. And all shades of gray in between, I'm sure.The above issues are what fuel this movie. We really don't know for sure what the extent of our damage will be when all is said and done. We also don't know what interesting ways mother nature may react to what we are doing...The film is set in Northern Alaska at the remote site of a future oil drilling installation. Ron Perlman plays Ed Pollack, who represents the corporate side of the fight; a man excited about the prospect of a huge untapped oil reserve located within a wildlife sanctuary. Jim (played by James Le Gros) represents the other side of the struggle; an environmentalist who worries about the damage being done. His concerns are brushed off by Ed and most of the others until strange events begin occurring. The group seem to have unleashed either a supernatural force or some type of hallucinogenic toxic gas that leads to paranoia, madness and murder.Director/producer/co-writer Larry Fessenden (HABIT, WENDIGO) does an excellent job exploiting the desolate snowy landscape and sense of icy isolation in a way comparable to Carpenter's THE THING. For the first hour he also does a good job keeping the threat obscured and dealing with our fear of the unknown. We have no idea whether we're dealing with something supernatural or natural (which may be one in the same, actually). The production values, cinematography and music are all good, as is the dialogue and acting.Unfortunately, I felt the entire film was undermined by several wrong turns along the way. Blast it! Through some typically lame CGI, the off-screen menace is finally visualized as big, stealthy, silly-looking dinosaur/ moose hybrids (wendigos?). If we were able to fall back on the toxic gas scenario, with the monsters simply being hallucinations, this might have been forgivable. However, several occurrences - strange animal footprints seen in the snow, a plague of crows feasting on corpses, video evidence of the creatures, etc. - do no allow us to draw that conclusion. If the filmmakers had kept this more ambiguous and let we, the viewers, decide for ourselves, I'd probably consider this one of the better horror films of the decade. As is, it's an interesting, well-made, well-meaning film with a good concept, but they failed to pull it all together at the end.Still, this one did make me think. And I'm still thinking about it a few hours after watching it, which is - to me - always a good thing.

A film that splits people in to two groups indeed. first of all lets look at the bad reviews, well to begin with there are no ghost moose's. The tension and horror in this film does not look to supernatural or alien things to scare us. Their might be a hint of that but when it comes down to it its about our imaginations, our superstitions and beliefs that trigger our responses to situations. The exorcist had a massive audience compared to this but it was all made up hokum and mostly hysterically funny. At least "The Last Winter" tried to take in to account cause and effect from a scientific point of view. it may not do it very well at times but the film has consistency. Apparently most Americans don't even believe that global warming is happening let alone that humans are contributing to it so its not surprising some of the films messages are dismissed. A gas that causes hallucinations and paranoia? We have made them so I'm sure nature can. If you are not a gore fest carnage freak then this is a film for you