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Written by Starring Presented by 101 minutes |
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THE
LAST WINTER Review
Global warming is a threat that we hear about every day, from former Vice President Al Gore’s impassioned presentation in his Oscar winning film AN INCONVIENT TRUTH to protests by Greenpeace against the many oil companies drilling into the Alaskan tundra. The recent climate changes have become alarming, as the United States still recovers from Hurricane Katrina and there were tornado sightings in Brooklyn and Long Island. These worst fears are realized in Larry Fessenden’s THE LAST WINTER, which not only is his best film to date, but the best horror film I’ve seen this year. The film takes place at an Artic station in Alaska, where a team of workers employed by oil conglomerate North Industries have been building a pipeline. They are observed by advocate and author James Hoffman(James Le Gros in an understated, fantastic performance) who makes sure they are following the rules accordingly. When team leader Ed Pollack (Ron Perlman) returns to get the expedition going, his nephew Maxwell (Zach Gilford), new to the team, begins to see something out in the barren snow at night, and begins a trek into madness for the entire crew, desolate and with very limited resources. Larry Fessenden has always impressed with his deep, thought provoking films, and THE LAST WINTER is no exception, giving Fessenden the mantle of this generation’s George A. Romero, providing social commentary with a pure sense of a creepy fear that gets under your skin and never lets go. Meticulously researched and intelligent, Fessenden gives us just enough information on the situation and gets the story moving, with excellently detailed characters. Perlman, as the abrasive Pollack, is a loyal company man who insists on going by the book and his stubbornness in accepting the situation around him is done with an underscored realism. It’s one of Perlman’s better roles. Le Gros gives the best performance in the film as Hoffman, a low key performance as he is aware of the dangers around him (and a scene suggests he may have been going mad before the rest of the crew) but he uses a calm demeanor because he is also aware of the group’s disdain towards his presence. He is the outsider of the group, even to his assistant Eliot (Jamie Harrold) and becomes the enemy to Pollack not only for that reason. Hoffman has also established a relationship with Abby (Connie Britton), the group’s second in command, and even she doesn’t take his warnings seriously. The film was shot over 34 days in Iceland and makes full use of the barren, gorgeous cinematography by G. Magni Agustsson. The crew looks like they really are in the middle of nowhere and provides tremendous atmosphere. The film has a sense of these are the last people on Earth and add claustrophobia by providing such wide landscapes. The tension also is due to the great script by Fessenden and Robert Weaver, with the story flowing nicely, with some excellent characters fleshed out by great performances. The music score by Jeff Grace combined with the ambient soundtrack by Anton Sanko really add to the beautiful cinematography, with sweeping strings and somber music at a peak when the crew are at their most desperate. The film will be widely debated due to whether or not what was out there was real or not, or just fabricated in their minds. These to me are the signs of a gifted filmmaker, who has the bravura enough to make the viewer have their own interpretations. I do get tired of having every single thing explained to me, but what Fessenden does here is brilliant: everything is explained if you look carefully. In the case of THE LAST WINTER, I feel that the “monster” out there was nature itself, reacting to the sudden climate change with an extreme ferocity. With the recent wrath by nature with Katrina, the tsunami, and earthquakes, this makes for the most frightening fear of all: the fear that nature itself will become inhabitable for man. The statement that Fessenden makes with THE LAST WINTER is that we are not far off from this happening, and a change can be made, like Gore did with his documentary. What he does where Gore doesn’t is make a completely entertaining film to boot with a gripping story of madness and survival. In all, THE LAST WINTER is quite simply one of the best films this decade, a harrowing account of the way we are going in our quest for oil while providing a creepy thriller that fans of intelligent horror will appreciate for times to come. I sense that Fessenden has predicted a grave future for us all, and that is the sign of a true horror auteur. THE LAST WINTER: 10 Out of 10 Maggots CLICK HERE FOR AN INTERVIEW WITH WRITER/DIRECTOR LARRY FESSENDEN!
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