BY EMIL TIEDEMANN
Similar to an evergrowing number of today's films, Larry Fessenden's The Last Winter borrowed a page out of the everyday headlines, tackling the topical subject of global warming as the backbone of its unconventional plot. Set in the isolated Alaskan tundra, The Last Winter is a different kind of horror-thriller, using the seeming spirits of caribou-like creatures as the foe (its not as bad as you might think), rather than psychos in masks or ghosts with grudges.Ron Perlman trades in his Hellboy get-up for winter boots and a parka, as the leader of a group of oil scouts who are each brought to the edge of sanity, one by one. A mysterious force infects the group--mostly made up of Hollywood nobodies--before it allegedly spreads to neighbouring towns, and possibly the rest of the planet, much like the repercussions of a global warming.
A "horror" movie in which the Earth is the bad guy doesn't exactly send shivers up your spine, but Fessenden (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth) somehow finds the terror of this very real possibililty and conveys it well onscreen, and with almost no special effects to speak of. He uses the bitter surroundings of Alaska's most unforgiving regions and the shortfallings of the relatable characters to provide us with one of the most original "horror" movies in recent years.
3.5/5 stars
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