When I first saw the preview for The Thaw I immediately thought of the X-Files episode entitled Ice, which was somewhat of a knock off of The Thing. Regardless, both the X-Files episode and The Thing were great claustrophobic stories, however after I saw The Thaw and after I hyped it up I realized that it was an okay movie. It wasn’t anything special, some points were good but the rest was middling. The film follows a young woman who assembles a team to go her fathers research camp after he and his researchers disappeared. When they returned to the camp they discover a parasite that lived in the ice for thousands of years that was thawed out due to Global Warming. The parasite multiplies and begins to infect and devour anything that they touch. It doesn’t seem original but rest assured, it could have been something different.
The effects were pretty good for an independent movie and if and when you see the movie and you notice that the parasites look extremely fake, especially when they engulf the dead cow on the table but keep in mind the film was on a budget. I will not dismiss The Thaw just because of the CGI because the rest of the effects were pretty good. When they had to amputate one of the researcher’s arms, it was extremely painful and very gory… and I had to look away for a minute. I do not like little creepy crawly things especially when they are parasites, which is why I think that this movie got under my skin a lot. Har! Har! Har! It effectively creeps you out with the parasites and I think it bares a good resemblance to Bug.
I didn’t really like the characters that much and if I had to choose one character that I felt sorry for was the Entomophobic kid who went ape when the parasites went loose. Why? Because I felt for him; I would have fallen off of my rocker after seeing a bunch of slimy little bugs crawling around the place. The rest of the characters were bland and didn’t really have much of a personality. Val Kilmer plays Dr. Kruipen who goes insane and thinks that all of this is God’s will; I was fascinated by his character but the movie didn’t leave room for him to develop, which was a disappointment.
Personally, the biggest problem that I had with this movie is the obvious political and environmental statement. I am okay with movies having a subtext or a theme or a message in them, so long as they are buried under the movie’s layers. I don’t think the movie needs to beat the audience to death with the theme because it sort of implies that the audience is stupid. Also, I guess a majority of my complaining is due to the fact that I don’t think there is such a thing as Global Warming so perhaps my own personal politics are getting in the way of my judgment.
With that said, I guess this movie accomplished its goal… it made me talk about it after I watched it and therefore it’s a successful movie. I enjoyed the special effects, not much when it comes to scares but a lot of gross out scenes. The characters were not fully developed and the subtext wasn’t so ‘sub.’ When you add all that together you get an average film but I am sure some of you may like this. Don’t rush out and get it but if you have some time to kill or you want a corny movie, give this a watch.
