Chiller (1985)

Simply Perfect

An Exercise In Nonsense

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Miles Creighton passed away and was frozen cryogenically by the wishes of his mother Marion. One night his cryogenic chamber malfunctioned and he started thawing out. The security called for an emergency and Miles was rushed to the hospital, his mother notified and after some time he was revived - he lives again after 10 years frozen! He becomes the president of his father's company and he changes everything about, from policies to firing people. His personality is completely different - he's become very abusive, violent, hateful and willing to kill - he's downright horrible. The big question is: "Did Miles' soul/spirit reunite with his body after being dead for 10 years or is it someone else's soul/spirit within him?" I liked this film. It's a slow movie that feels more like a film from the 1970s than the mid-80s which is something I really enjoyed about it.7.5/10

Chiller (1985) ** (out of 4) Wes Craven's made for TV flick is frozen from the get go and never goes anywhere. In the film, a man returns to life after being frozen for ten years and guess what he does? If you guessed he goes on a killing spree then you've just saved yourself 80-minutes. Just looking at the film you can tell Craven didn't have much hope in the film because you can't see any of the typical Craven trademarks. The story itself is rather lame and it's nothing new so there's not much to get excited over. There isn't any gore since this was made for television but there's also no suspense, no humor and no good performances. Paul Sorvino has a small role but even he's sleepwalking.

~Spoiler~Wes Craven has had one of the most unusual careers of any genre director. He started out pretty late in life (33 maybe), made some classic exploitation and horror films, and then jumped into the dreaded realm of made for television flicks. Why I wonder? To pay the rent I suppose. The story of Chiller begins in a very atmospheric cryogenic chamber setting and it really got my hopes up. It was a creepy beginning and it was Craven at the helm. So why didn't I like the movie? Production values for starters. They really hindered this project. Also, the made for TV quality was really hard to get past. The story was lacking something too. I think Craven was exploring ideas here which would have been more suited for the big screen. In the story, Michael Beck (The Warriors) awakes from a cryo-sleep after being dead for quite some time. Many can immediately tell there is something different about him. But his mother, the one who put him in stasis, refuses to believe them. A priest (Paul Sorvino from Goodfellas) becomes our hero and the question of the human soul comes into play. Beck's character is quite evil and we are presented with the possibility that he lost his soul when he died. Not a bad premise, but nothing is ever resolved. Many questions the film poses go unanswered-which may or may not be a good thing. I think the film's main message is "Don't play God" or maybe just "Let sleeping dogs lie." Scream queen fans may appreciate an early appearance of Jill Schoelen who went on to star in The Stepfather, Cutting Class, Popcorn, and When a Stranger Calls Back. On another note, this features some of Stan Winston's early F/X work, and it's quite good. The DVD has a funny trivia game to make sure you were paying attention to the movie. Sadly, that's about all the DVD has to offer because the transfer (what transfer?) is horrible. While I don't think you should go out of your way to see it, Chiller was certainly better than Vampire in Brooklyn.

Miles Creighton, ten years after his sudden death, thaws unexpectedly from cryogenic stasis and is returned to the living, in mind and body but, according to the film's presumption, missing his soul. As his behaviour slides from the obnoxious to the abominable, a family friend, the Reverend Penny, ponders the whereabouts of Miles' better third, and experiences a crisis of faith. Good or evil, altruism or selfishness, existentialism or abstinence - these are the dilemmas given to us in the exchanges between the Reverend and the Sociopath.This film is as detached, cold and humourless as its protagonist, but does provide a few shocks, and the acting is fine. I thought a chance for a droll swipe at Corporate America (or wherever) was missed, in that his employees noticed so quickly how appalling his new policies were - this was the Eighties, after all, and the lack of a soul was considered a prerequisite for success in some quarters. Gordon Gecko himself might have taken a dose of the liquid nitrogen, if he thought it would give him an edge.Although, unsurprisingly, the metaphysical questions posed by this film are not answered, it did make me think twice about the rent on Uncle Vern.