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Movies / On DVD / The Last Winter
The Last Winter

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The Last Winter (2007)

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Reviews Counted:48

Fresh:37

Rotten:11

Average Rating:6.7/10

Consensus: Creatively and effectively uses horror tactics to shock, but never repulse, its audience.

Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Synopsis: In a cinematic world where most horror films are loud and flashy, it might be easy to overlook Larry Fessenden's quietly creepy THE LAST WINTER. But if they do, genre fans would be missing out on a... In a cinematic world where most horror films are loud and flashy, it might be easy to overlook Larry Fessenden's quietly creepy THE LAST WINTER. But if they do, genre fans would be missing out on a truly unsettling film that centers on the real-life chills of the changing environment. Ron Perlman (HELLBOY) stars as Ed Pollack, an oil company employee who arrives in Alaska. He's eager to take some of the tundra's oil bounty, but the rising temperatures have an environmental scientist (James LeGros, ZODIAC) worried about the irreparable damage they could do to the Alaskan wilderness. Soon things start to go wrong at their camp, and one of their one dies mysteriously. Whether it's cabin fever, poisonous gas, or supernatural forces, something is threatening the camp and the people who live there. Fessenden imbues the well-paced film with a frightening sense of menace, but he's not without help. Director of photography G. Magni Águstsson perfectly captures the isolation of the Alaskan landscape with his framing of the camp, and Jeff Grace's score adds to the sense of dread without ever descending into cliché. THE LAST WINTER also features a strong cast who ably communicate the growing confusion and terror. As in his work for directors such as Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Guillermo del Toro, Perlman is a highlight here as the gruff Pollack. As Pollack's former love, Abby, Connie Britton shows the talent that fans of her role on FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS have come to expect. Though this is his first film, Zach Gilford--also of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS--is excellent as the first of the team to feel the eerie effects of the environment. [More]

Starring: Ron Perlman, James Le Gros, Connie Britton, Kevin Corrigan

Starring: Ron Perlman, James Le Gros, Connie Britton, Kevin Corrigan, Jamie Harrold, Zach Gilford, Pato Hoffmann, Joanne Shenandoah, Larry Fessenden

Director: Larry Fessenden

Director: Larry Fessenden
Screenwriter: Larry Fessenden, Robert Leaver
Producer: Larry Fessenden, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte
Composer: Jeff Grace
Studio: IFC Films

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Reviews for The Last Winter

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Michael Atkinson
Michael Atkinson
Boston Phoenix

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
10/18/08
Marc Savlov
Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle

An eco-supernatural dreamscape companion piece to Al Gore's cautionary doc, An Incovenient Truth, and a thinking man's figurative and literal sub-Arctic chiller with a turbulent character-driven indie soul.

Full Review Source: Baret News | comment Comment
07/23/08
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
Baret News

As such terror is harder and harder to articulate, the film is most effective when it abandons dialogue and leaves the camera to do its very spooky work.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
10/19/07
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Last Winter does make good on its intriguing premise. And after a dandy beginning and a so-so middle, it delivers a knockout ending.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
10/19/07
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Fessenden, who directed, produced, cowrote, edited and even has a part in the film rightly values mood at least as much as he does delivering more abominable snow monsters.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
10/12/07
John Monaghan
John Monaghan
Detroit Free Press

The problem is that the ghostly culprit, some sort of nature spirit, isn't nearly as terrifying as the arguments that Pollack makes, or the fact that the ice in such places really is weakening.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
10/12/07
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News

Die-hard greenies may find this as unsettling as it's meant to be. For everyone else, it's closer to an atmospheric act of recycling.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
10/10/07
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

The film isn't very interesting because it isn't well made.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
09/28/07
David Wiegand
David Wiegand
San Francisco Chronicle

The Last Winter's heart is in the right place, but it isn't pumping any blood.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
09/28/07
Noel Murray
Noel Murray
AV Club

It works eerily well.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
09/28/07
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

Sure, global warming is scary, but chances are even Al Gore would be baffled by Larry Fessenden's moody, Arctic-set 'eco-thriller.'

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
09/28/07
Betsy Bozdech
Betsy Bozdech
Hollywood.com

This message hangs over the entire film... but Fessenden still manages to craft an intense and effective thriller.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
09/27/07
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Come for the eerie unworldly menace, but stay for the well-balanced currents of terror that manages to sustain itself throughout the film.

Full Review Source: Cinerina | comment 2 Comments
09/26/07
Karina Montgomery
Karina Montgomery
Cinerina

It's the imaginative background, and Fessenden's talent at insinuating it into the action, that counts -- and unnerves -- in this most chilling of global-warming movies.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
09/25/07
Nathan Lee
Nathan Lee
Village Voice

A well done low budget indie production that lets the viewers' imagination picture how bad it gets when mother earth is finally pushed past the breaking point

Full Review Source: Monsters and Critics | comment Comment
09/23/07
Ron Wilkinson
Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics

A horror movie about the consequences of global warming. Set in the Alaskan Wildlife Natural Reserve, the oil company is far scarier than the monsters that attack the movie's main characters.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
09/23/07
Louis Proyect
Louis Proyect
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Fessenden's best film to date is a horror movie built on eerie atmosphere and unspoken terror. Director of photography Magni Agustsson achieves beautiful visual textures and distances that allow hidden meanings to saturate the audience.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
09/22/07
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

A richly drawn, ambitious character piece both socially relevant and genuinely suspenseful... This is filmmaking both gorgeous and deeply unsettling.

Full Review Source: Premiere Magazine | comment Comment
09/21/07
Aaron Hillis
Aaron Hillis
Premiere Magazine

In the end, the scariest thing about The Last Winter is how few of its ideas seem truly fantastic or implausible.

Full Review Source: Reel.com | comment Comment
09/21/07
Jim Hemphill
Jim Hemphill
Reel.com
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Latest News for The Last Winter

August 22, 2007: Trailer & Poster review Opens in new window
More...

July 18, 2007: An eco-supernatural dreamscape companion piece to Al Gore's cautionary doc, An Incovenient Truth, and a thinking man's figurative and literal sub-Arctic chiller with a turbulent character-driven indie soul. Opens in new window
More...

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