Chiller
Chiller
| 22 May 1985 (USA)
Chiller Trailers

A wealthy industrialist arranges for his body to be kept on ice in a high-tech cryonic chamber. When the instructions are not followed properly, he emerges from the frozen crypt as an empty, soulless creature with an appetite for destruction.

Reviews
Alicia

I love this movie so much

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Intcatinfo

A Masterpiece!

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Deanna

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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Geraldine

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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AJSteele

This 80s film has a very good concept. What if you died and were cryogenically frozen immediately after, then thawed out years later. Would you be "soul-less?" Watch the film to find out.Some very creepy moments but it's basically a dated 80s TV movie. Why bother releasing a film to DVD if there is no desire to enhance it? To make money I know, but, it's just wrong. The picture quality is awful and that's enough to make you want to shut it off. The "film" could stand a remake with a much broader scope because of it's interesting premise. There are a dime a dozen horror films out there but I don't think this approach to terror has often surfaced. What makes the film all the more relevant is the fact that man-kind could actually come face to face with this issue for real.

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The_Void

After his success with A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, director Wes Craven for some reason decided that his next project would be this TV movie. I'm not a big fan of this director on the whole; early exploitation flick The Last House on the Left as well as his modern slasher Scream sit well with me, but the rest of his work is very hit and miss and I'd hesitate to call him the master that others have labelled him as. The main theme here is cryogenic freezing, although it's more a springboard for the plot rather than an important part of the movie. The main influence here is obviously the excellent 1974 zombie film Deathdream and we focus on Miles Creighton; a businessman cryogenically frozen for ten years before an accident that means he has to be thawed out immediately. Miles is a part of a project for people that are ill; they pay to be frozen in the hope that they will be revived in the future when their illnesses can cured. Miles is successfully revived and it's seen as a miracle...but the person that wakes up is not the person who was frozen, as Miles returns without a soul.This film could actually have been quite decent judging by the idea behind it, but instead we're given a plot that doesn't really have a lot to it and it has to be said that Craven doesn't make the best out of the potential of the film. The 'soul' is the main focal point, but it would seem that not having a soul and simply having a murderous intent/no compassion are the same thing, which feels a bit unimaginative. The film was made for television so it's not particularly nasty and it's obvious that not a lot of money was spent on it as the whole production feels very cheap. Michael Beck never became a very popular actor and that isn't surprising judging by his performance here; while he is passable, he largely lacks charisma and is not formidable in the central role. The plot doesn't flow too badly but there's a real lack of suspense and/or tension and things slow down too much too often, which results in the film being rather boring on occasion. It all boils down to a predictable ending also. Overall, I have to admit that I was not impressed at all by this film and as far as Craven's filmography goes, Chiller would have to go down with Shocker, the Scream sequels and The Hills Have Eyes II as a miss.

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BaronBl00d

I liked this made for TV movie about a cryogenetically frozen body being brought back to life. Michael Beck plays the cold-hearted lad who dies ten years ago and was frozen by his mother waiting for a chance for science to bring him back via new medical technology. His cylinder goes on the fritz and action must be taken quickly to see if science has the answers now that it did not have ten years earlier. Beck is revived but not the same person. It seems that whilst his body is living again, a chasm only fills the void vacated by his soul's departure. Beck comes back with no regard for human and animal life and only wants to appease whatever appetites he might have at that very moment. Now, this is some pretty absurd stuff I grant you, but director Wes Craven and some good acting save it from being terrible. In fact it does get one thinking about some things. The acting is uniformly good with Beck doing a good job and Oscar winner Beatrice Straight and Paul Sorvino as a cleric really bringing home the bacon. They both do stellar jobs with this material and give it some much needed credibility. Sorvino is very convincing in his role. Some good character acting by Dick O'Neill and Anne Seymour add to the mix, and the addition of beautiful Jill Schoelen doesn't hurt either. Kudos also to Craven for not going overboard as many others might be apt to do. Beck is a man with no supernatural abilities per se but rather just soulless is his approach to another chance to "live."

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James Miller

Miles Creighton, ten years after his sudden death, thaws unexpectedly from cryogenic stasis and is returned to the living, in mind and body but, according to the film's presumption, missing his soul. As his behaviour slides from the obnoxious to the abominable, a family friend, the Reverend Penny, ponders the whereabouts of Miles' better third, and experiences a crisis of faith. Good or evil, altruism or selfishness, existentialism or abstinence - these are the dilemmas given to us in the exchanges between the Reverend and the Sociopath.This film is as detached, cold and humourless as its protagonist, but does provide a few shocks, and the acting is fine. I thought a chance for a droll swipe at Corporate America (or wherever) was missed, in that his employees noticed so quickly how appalling his new policies were - this was the Eighties, after all, and the lack of a soul was considered a prerequisite for success in some quarters. Gordon Gecko himself might have taken a dose of the liquid nitrogen, if he thought it would give him an edge.Although, unsurprisingly, the metaphysical questions posed by this film are not answered, it did make me think twice about the rent on Uncle Vern.

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