Who payed the critics

What makes it different from others?

That was an excellent one.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

You have to feel for Michael Rooker. He's a great actor, unfairly limited to the B-movie genre these days, passed over by the big name productions and stuck making what are, in effect, routine, low budget flicks. HYPOTHERMIA is such a production, a disappointingly cheap flick about an underwater monster. (At least Rooker's fortunes have started to change more recently, with a guest role in THE WALKING DEAD and an appearance in the blockbuster film GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. Perhaps people are starting to remember what a good actor he is.) Needless to say, Rooker is the best thing in this tale of a normal family who visit an iced-over lake to do some winter fishing. While there they encounter a couple of city slickers who have the potential to irritate, but before long everyone there is being menaced by a creature that comes out from under the ice. The creature is a guy in a suit that bears more than a passing resemblance to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, only looking about a hundred times worse.HYPOTHERMIA is only just about acceptable as a film. The title bears no relation to the plot and the cinematography is too dark and dingy. There are some cheap gore effects and a few scenes of menace but none of it means much. You just wonder why the whole group don't just get out of there; their isolation is self-inflicted, making the whole thing faintly ridiculous. Still, a solid performance from Rooker is always worth watching.

The acting from most of the cast on this was okay, the setting was suitably bleak and the basic premise of this film was good. The problem for me were the effects and especially the creature itself. The very basic quality of the effects took what could have been an okay horror to something that was, at times, laughable. I did actually laugh out loud when the "creature" ran across the ice looking strangely similar to an ungainly man trying to run in flippers. Considering at other points of the film, the creature's speed on the ice is an integral part of the plot, you would have thought somebody would have looked at the scenes of it running and said "that looks crap" but apparently nobody spoke up. It would have actually been better if the creature had never been shown at all. I realise that this film did not have a huge budget but there have been other small budget films where the horror factor has been huge with the use of suspense and without the use of fancy dress shop outfits. Overall, quite disappointing.

There are a few reasons to see and actually really enjoy Hypothermia. There are also a few good solid reasons to not even bother with this and why it gets some rather harsh reviews. The good to this film is Michael Rooker (more on that later), the setting for the film in the form of a cold, snowy, isolated lake, the suspense and the story are all pretty good. I was actually pleasantly surprised at these positives. The bad though is pretty bad. The supporting cast are barely passable actors, very cheesy and B-Movie amateurs. The run time on the film is just over an hour which usually raises immediate concerns about the quality of the film. If you can't come up with enough story to make a full length film, you have a problem. And finally and the biggest problem...the monster. They literally put a guy in wet suit with some felt glued to him. It was not even amateur, its childish and it just about ruins the entire movie. There are some good performances and tension runs high and you get excited and then this ridiculous looking clown monster comes out and ruins everything they've built. This movie could have easily been an 8/10 if not for that terrible costume.Michael Rooker single handedly carries this film and makes it worthwhile. Fans of his from Walking Dead will embrace this and you won't be disappointed in him. He buries his fellow cast mates and makes them look even more amateur. The difference in quality of performance from him to everyone else is night and day and then some. The film makers should thank their lucky stars he was involved. Imagine my shock that Blanche Baker, who plays Rooker's wife, is a skilled and experienced actress. She is terrible in this film. I had her pegged as one of the film makers mom's. She is obviously not interested in this film and cares very little about the character. Not surprisingly, the only performance worse than hers is Benjamin Forster as the son. He has very little to no experience in film and it shows in his monotoned delivery that sounds like a grade school play. Amy Chang is almost as bad playing his girlfriend. The two of them together are just extremely amateur and really drag the cast down. Don Wood gives a very good performance as the fast talking, obnoxious Steve Sr. He is actually really good and helps Rooker support this awful cast. Greg Finley is also decent as Wood's son although he doesn't get as big of a part as everyone else.The problem with this film is half the cast..Rooker, Woods and Finley are great to good, and the rest of the cast are so incredibly awful that they drag this way down. Indie film maker James Felix McKenney has a decent idea, an okay script and managed to land some good actors and probably doesn't even know it. He lets everything fall apart before the film can even succeed. The potential for this to be a good horror/monster flick is actually significant but he handles the making of his own film entirely wrong. Instead of using Rooker, hands down his strongest actor, he ends the film with this god awful melodramatic monologue from one of the worst actresses I've ever seen. The entire last part of the film is two of these terrible actors together on screen. McKenney blew this because there is a lot of potential here. I am even recommending this to horror fans or monster fans because there is enough here to really entertain but be prepared to be disappointed when you see what could have been and how it turned out. I'd like to even give this a 7 but I can't do it because the bad seriously outweighs the good. 6.5/10

Ray Pelletier (an excellent and convincing performance by the always dependable Michael Rooker) is looking forward to a pleasant and relaxing weekend ice fishing with his family. Alas, Ray's plans are ruined by the unwanted presence of crude jerk Steve Cotes (a hilariously obnoxious portrayal by Don Wood) and his son Stevie Jr. (neatly essayed Greg Finley). However, both squabbling families have to put their differences aside and work together to stay alive when a vicious prehistoric humanoid monster (Asa Liebmann in a gnarly rubber suit) awakens from the cold waters of the frozen lake they are fishing at. Writer/director James Felix McKenney relates the engrossing story at a snappy pace, takes time to develop the characters, stages the sudden and startling creature attack scenes with considerable go-for-the-throat flair, treats the potentially silly premise with admirably grim seriousness, generates a good deal of tension, and delivers a satisfying amount of bloody gore. The solid acting by the able cast holds the picture together: Rooker does his usual ace job in the lead, Blanche Baker excels as Ray's sweet wife Helen, Wood makes the most out of his colorfully boorish character, plus there's respectable work from Benjamin Forster as Ray's amiable son David and Amy Chang as David's cheery girlfriend Gina. The bleak snow-covered wintry landscape conveys a powerfully unsettling feeling of isolation, desolation, and vulnerability. Eric Branco's slick cinematography boasts lots of cool red-tinted monster POV shots. Sean Eden's spare ominous score hits the spine-tingling spot. The tight 73 minute running time ensures that this movie never gets dull or overstays its welcome. A real only the money little fright flick.