Wonderfully offbeat film!

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

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

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Directed and co-written by Mark A. Lewis, the Thaw is an ecological horror movie set somewhere in the Arctic.Due to global warming, a parasite which threatens our very existence has emerged from the body of an extinct woolly mammoth.Val Kilmer is the scientist trying to warn the World of the danger. Complications ensue when his daughter, along with some students, arrives at the Arctic research station.The opening credits of this film were accompanied by what were supposedly various media clips concerning global warning. I found this so annoying that by the time the plot - what little there was - unfolded, I had already lost interest in both subject and characters. Suffice to say that I spent about an hour and a half (although it felt more like three hours) wondering why... Why were the students chosen so incredibly unintelligent? Why is Val Kilmer so famous? Why was the acting so abysmal? Why was the plot so awful? Other questions came to mind... One student went loopy, threatening to shoot the others, got knocked cold and woke up... with his gun still beside him - why didn't anybody pick up the gun? Talking of guns, how coincidental was it that when the girl wanted to shoot down the helicopter there was a gun handily placed on the ground beside her? I could go on but to be honest I'd just end up being as boring as the film. I will finish with three observations:-As is the case with too many of these films, there is a tagged on ending which hints at the possibility of a sequel. Please!Buried deep amongst the end credits is the entry naming one Paul Burke as Val Kilmer's Personal Trainer. I have no idea of what this could possibly refer to...I imagine the budget for this film ran into millions of dollars. Probably more than that cheap horror film with a similar scenario 'cabin Fever', which despite hardly hitting the cinematic heights of greatness, was still far superior to this drivel.

THE THAW is an unashamed rip-off of THE THING, with the action shifted to Alaska rather than the Arctic and a prehistoric parasite rather than a shapeshifting alien as the menace. Other than that, it's business as usual, with a small cast whittled down by an unknown enemy and paranoia erupting all over the shop.Given that this is a low-budget B-movie starring a mostly unknown cast, I thought it was surprisingly enjoyable. The director and writer focus on the sense of impending menace and the creepy atmosphere for the most part, and it works well; some parts are genuinely unnerving. There are the inevitable gross-out and medical scenes, but these are handled well; the gore effects are limited but more effective as a result. Even the expected CGI isn't too shabby.The idea of a parasitical organism has been explored quite a lot in recent years - such as in the memorably creepy found-footage horror, THE BAY - and it's always one I find pretty disturbing, and that's no exception here. Add in a value-for-money Val Kilmer and you have a decent B-movie for a change.

I read one of the one star reviews - unfair criticism, because the reviewer missed some of the plot points. Although there are still a few illogical and improbable bits! This is an average chiller, with panicking youths struggling to survive a threat that stalks them.Acting, pace and soundtrack are so-so. The heroine is a bossy little thing, could be annoying, but there's a good amputation scene where she takes over from the gutless man.The twist at the end is well hidden and worthwhile, so that increases the rating to 6/10.

This story if fairly entertaining. Certainly not boring and perhaps had a potential to be something even better. The acting is mediocre and the characters in this film are all forgettable. Nothing outstanding about any of them.If this film did raise one important and relevant point about ourselves it would be this. How willing would we be to sacrifice ourselves for the common good? For humanity,those we know, the environment,the earth etc. Or are we mostly too selfish to look beyond our own self-interests and our instinct for self-preservation? Or like one of the characters in this film would we be ruthless enough to sacrifice the lives of others in order to advance a cause we believe in?