An unexpected jewel feeling like the Thing. Val Kilmer did not have much of a role in this but the other unknown actors and actresses did a really good job. A must watch!
William J. (billystan3) from AUBURN, NY Reviewed on 11/21/2015...
Two things made this movie viewable over and over again 1) the high quality of acting and 2) the pertinence of the story with some of today's headlines. I'm not a huge or even minute foreign film fan but from the first time I saw this on television until this very moments this film has been a standout. The storyline is well written the actors are very well placed in their individual roles, and it is intense from one scene to the next. This is one horror film that in its due time will go down as a classic and a trend setter. I highly recommend this film to anyone-just not my copy, I'm keeping it. 41/2 out of five stars easily.
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Movie Reviews
Creepy, crawly eco-horror
N. Durham | Philadelphia, PA | 10/06/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The Ghost House Underground line of direct-to-DVD releases continues for a second year, only this time around we only get four films compared to last year's eight. The most notable of which is The Thaw, which boasts some pretty decent production values and some chilling scares as well. Martha MacIsaac (Superbad and The Last House on the Left) stars as the daughter of an environmental scientist (Val Kilmer) who accompanies a small group of students to a remote location where her father has discovered a well-preserved frozen woolly mammoth, and the parasitic bugs that lay dormant inside it as well. Naturally, it isn't long before said bugs are on the loose and spreading. Packed with gross-out moments and some brief shots of gorgeous cinematography, The Thaw is surprisingly good and definitely creepy. It doesn't offer anything you haven't seen before in any random horror flick, but for what it's worth, The Thaw is worth a look."
VERY ENTERTAINING! A DECENT MIDNIGHT MOVIE!
Explorator | Los Angeles, CA | 10/10/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This movie was quite a satisfying 'isolation / paranoia / suspense / gore' movie! It's not a classic but it is very well done and should meet (and in some cases exceed) viewers' expectations. Inevitable comparisons to John Carpenter's 'The Thing' will arise (and indeed the initial setup is similar to 'The Thing'), but hopefully people won't attack this film because of that, as that wouldn't be entirely fair. The movie plays out differently than 'The Thing' and some of the sequences are truly unnerving in their own right. There is a major 'squirm' factor that permeates the movie with the parasites really 'getting under your skin' during some of the more disturbing infestation shots. It remains sufficiently suspenseful and unpredictable all the way to the satisfying conclusion. Val Kilmer is great as the obsessed scientist but he isn't in the movie very much, however this isn't a hinderance to the movie because the rest of the cast are quite capable themselves. The 'making of' documentary is entertaining and reveals many scenes that were apparently more difficult to shoot than they appeared in the film. Overall it was exactly the kind of movie I was expecting. Not a classic but very good and entertaining."
CREEPY
Michael Butts | Martinsburg, WV USA | 11/02/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is one creepy movie! Set in a desolate Canadian landscape, THE THAW is a warning about global warming and how it might just affect mankind. An eco-research team led by a dauntless Val Kilmer uncover a thawed mammoth that is host to a virulent vertebral parasite that quickly devours its hosts. Enter three students and Kilmer's daughter and let the "fun" begin. The bugs which look like big earwigs soon start their attack and it's relentlessly disturbing.
This is a pretty dark movie featuring tight direction and good performances. A good horror flick.
"
Digging in the sandbox of time
TastyBabySyndrome | "Daddy Dagon's Daycare" - Proud Sponsor of the Lit | 11/05/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Digging up things in the artic sometimes yields unexpected results. The mammoths we find, for example, show us exactly what the past might have looked like, just as the bodies of people have done for us in the past. Still, there have to be things that would be better off lef to the snowdrifts, and what if one of hose were dug up and found? Could we close Pandora's box before it closed the worldwide chapter on this thing we call humanity? This seems to be the paradox that we might one day be faced with as we take pick and shovel to the snow, not really thinking about something nightmarish that could have been left behind.
As far as movies go, this is nothing new. It involves an outbreak in an isolated community, people trying to cope with the impact on themselves and on the world around hem, and just what they are willing to give up in order to stay alive. The problem the movie has is the fact that some of it is unbelievable and that it has been done over and over: the part that is hard to comprehend is the rate at which the "thing" spreads from person to person, and the overdone part is something that is bothersome because it shows just how much movies rely on plot recycling. Add to this some bad acting, some deaths that are horrible but that should have numbered in the "everyone" category (really, if you look at the station the people were in, you can see how easily it would be for something like this to get out and get everyone), and how the entire area that the dig as in would be considered a death zone. This sort of gets left on the backburner and leaves major holes in the story, but the movie is a B-movie in disguise and is hard to blame for these mistakes.
If you want to see some snow and some out breaking little legs that follow, then this could be something you might like. I personally enjoyed it but was surprised by the B-movie nature of it considering how it was billed, and this led to a little disappointment on my part. I know that expectation plays a role in this as well, but I'm not sure if hat is my fault or if it is the fault of the way the movie was presented to its audience. So, if expect nothing in the beginning and watch the movie, you might find it entertaining. I did on the second go in the middle of the night, but that was after I shrugged off the first screening and knew what I was getting into. I can't say I recommend it with good conscience to anyone but those who enjoy B-movie terrors, so know what you are getting into before watching the film.