The Thaw (2009)

Although it may resemble "The Thing" and "The Last Winter" the resemblance is superficial; those both relied on the audience feeling things (paranoia and dread, respectively)

Actually its closer to "Ghost Rig" and "Deep Freeze" and surpasses both easily. Gorehounds will probably be satisfied with many cringe-inducing scenes of which some almost enter gross-out territory. With critters burrowing into people that should be expected.

The characters however are almost caricatures and it quickly becomes apparent, with one exception I'm not spoiling, who will survive or die. That made the story kinda predictable but if you're into splatter flicks it might be worth renting.

Fmovies: A Ghosthouse Underground film with Aaron Ashmore from Smallville and Val Kilmer from Batman Forever. Batman, Jimmy Olsen and friends take on a prehistoric parasite that distroys every living thing in its path. A parasite that bites people and lays eggs under their skin. The parasite was frozen underground until now. N...ow it is unleashed and it will devour anything in its path including a pollar bear. With the threat of global warming is it possible for something like that to be unleashed. This film is a great companion peace to Cabin Fever with all of the infections, the big differerce is that people are infected by reanimated bugs not tainted toxic water. Both films are made to make statements about the polluted world around us. This film was amazing with all of the visual effects and make up. People cutting off limbs and getting strange infections after bugs have planted their eggs under their skin. A film full of scum bags and backstabbers fighting for their lives. A absolute guilty pleasure

Val Kilmer again plays an environmental scientist (as he did in The Chaos Experiment) this time doing research in Canada. Apparently the glaciers are melting quickly. A polar bear he and his crew are tracking is found lunching on the brains of the corpse of a mammoth no less, that is surfacing thanks to the thawing.

Later his crew is getting sick and crazy. He is filming some type of a confessional.

Meanwhile some students are sent to study with him and his daughter goes along for the ride- even though he begs her not to go. When the kids arrive, no one is at the base camp except for the body of the bear. The kids spend the night but problems surface. The helicopter pilot is bitten by something, and so is one of the students- all over her body. Suddenly one of Kilmer's colleagues appears but she is ends up dying in a few minutes.

The kids realize that there is some prehistoric bug that is infecting everyone. It went from the mammoth's brain to the bear to the crew and now to some of them. And from here things get annoying as the daughter takes charge of sorts since the males are as usual completely useless romantics. All sorts of fights ensue. The kids find Kilmer's research and tapes and discover that the helicopter has been disabled by someone and have to call for help. But they have to survive until help arrives.

Suddenly Kilmer shows up...but he has different plans than the kids. The ending is neat. And actually the ideas behind it of radical ecologists perpetuating eco-bio-terror is very interesting. The problem is the annoying teenies. Had this movie been cast with adults, it could have been a striking movie. Instead we get the usual teen team led by some girlie who's of course much tougher than the guys- so much so that when a guy can't hack someone's arm off she rushes to grab the meat cleaver. Hollywood's warped political/social agenda is undermining their own artistic work. When will this annoying fad be over? Overall, the movie is well done, has good special effects, somewhat of an original story that is pretty interesting, but is more interested in furthering grlpower than its own aims.

The Thaw fmovies. This is an enjoyable little horror movie and more a kin to the movies I watched growing up (horror with a lowercase h by todays standards) The film has a nice long run up to the action which gives you a chance to get to know the characters (which are fairly bland but that doesn't matter) A lot of the horror is creepy crawly based which is more disturbing that scary.

The characters act out in fairly realistic ways (no one pops up to the attic on their own to investigate that damn scratching noise) and there is a real sense of peril.

Don't expect big affects, gore, nudity, over the top action or paralysing fear. Do expect to see an intelligent movie based on a not so intelligent premises, well executed in good time.

Somewhere near the arctic circle scientists happen upon a mammoth, frozen in the ice. As it turns out the age-old creature itself maybe dead, but inside the mammoth there's something very alive...

"The Thaw" is following in the footsteps of "The Thing" (isolation scenario) and "Slither" (disgusting bugs). Clearly showing its low budget the movie still manages to get all its effects good enough to be convincing and its mostly unknown acting-ensemble pulls off their respective characters nicely. Val Kilmer does an OK job - something to be considered a pleasant surprise these days. If you are a fan of his, know that Kilmer gets only little screen time.

To me "The Thaw" really delivered. Just like "Splinter" it's one of those small productions that make you shiver and cringe by what you see on screen as much as by making you imagine how it would be to be confronted with the horrors they show you. Instead of "Highlight-Reel-Slashing" and a scare now and then you get constant terror till the end and a depressingly desperate and hopeless scenario.

Was everything great about "The Thaw"? No. But all it's shortcomings never hinder the emotional impact of the movie which is what I think movies are all about. I think the prominent (pushy) Global Warming theme of the movie has put some viewers off so much that they don't give this little gem enough credit.

After reading some of the comments on this movie, I was more than pleasantly surprised at how good this smart little bug feature was A definite step up from the usual B movie sci-fi horror crap that's been out in the cinemas this year. There were decent squirm effects and gore and a nice touch of tongue in cheek humour too. The cinematography was cool and eerie and the brooding atmosphere had echoes of The Thing and Near Dark (although it's nothing like The Thing) I thought the acting and direction were assured. I Liked the twist at the end too. Don't listen to some of the other reviewers on this forum as I doubt that they have actually seen the film.