October Horror 2011: Day 28 - The Last Winter

The Last Winter, released in 2006 was directed by Larry Fessenden.  It stars Ron Perlman and Connie Britton.

As the final movie of the official horror viewing season this year I was really expecting something fun, especially with Ron Perlman in the lead role.  Unfortunately the movie ruined itself in the last act deciding to be preachy instead of just presenting a cool story with the message they wanted.  I'm aware it's a bit of a hot-button issue, but they could've taken the high road and just presented things without the soap box.

The basics here are that an American oil company is trying to build an ice road to a remote spot in the arctic circle so they can open a well.  The oil reserve they're trying to tap is apparently large enough to secure U.S. energy independence for quite some time.  The project leader, played by Ron Perlman immediately begins butting heads with the environmentalist who's been assigned to the base to report to the government with environmental impact assessments.  Effectively, the government sold the land to the company under the condition that they operate an environmentally sound operation on it.  The environmentalist won't let Ron Perlman build the ice road because it's not cold enough for the road to be safely built, but Perlman's character just doesn't care and is going to find a way to get this oil.

The movie itself is actually really good for the most part.  The characters are pretty genuine, if a bit difficult to distinguish.  Ron Perlman's character is a bit one note and inappropriately angry, which plays into the obvious preachiness because he represents the company and we're supposed to hate him.  Everyone else seems like real people just trying to do their jobs in a stressful environment.  What they really do well here is that the tension is mostly accomplished through the behavior of the characters: They act strange, they don't quite behave normally or as they used to.  It's very unnerving.  This is amplified by how isolated the cast is to begin with, and then by how much time each of them spends alone.  You hear things happening off camera, the characters see things that the camera doesn't show and since no one else is around to verify you just don't know if it really happened or if it was in their head.  The tension is supremely built for the first 80% or so of the movie.

Then in the middle of the 3rd act they start showing us far too much.  Instead of leaving it nebulous, they make it obviously clear what's happening, and what's happening is just stupid.  If you can forgive Larry for hopping on the soapbox right at the end there it's actually a pretty good supernatural suspense movie.  If you can't, it's still a good movie that got ruined at the end by obnoxious moralizing.

With this, Horror Viewing Season 2011 is over.  We only planned 28 movies instead of 31 since it's easier to divide into 4 categories and also for a bit of buffer.  I may fill the remaining 3 days by adding some additional movies I liked or really good movies from 2009's crop.

--PXA