Director: Charlie Steeds
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Attempting an expedition to the Arctic, the crew of a ship trying to find the Captain's long-lost friend gets stranded in the ice and must seek shelter in a series of local underground caves where everyone finds their target but must also escape a race of human/fish hybrids under his command.
Review:
Overall, this one manages to generate a lot to like. Among its finest aspects comes from the rather enjoyable setup that works incredibly well at bringing together several fine elements. After initially seeing the determination of the captain to find his missing friend and the means through which he’ll drag the others along on the quest, this all gives the first half quite a lot to like. It serves us well enough to know the crewmates onboard before being stranded in the Arctic so that when it happens and the revelations made about the origins of the creatures and their connections to the stranded sailor they’re trying to rescue which ties in some Lovecraftian mythos amongst everything else. Altogether, these provide a stellar setup to everything which is all fun to see play out.
That gives us a great setup for the creature action to be highly enjoyable and entertaining. The first encounter with the creatures in the ship when they attack and drive the crew from the ship to the icy tundra is a solid first encounter that lets their surprise presence run this one quite nicely. The later scenes involving the race of creatures hunting and stalking them through the underground caverns and tunnels feature a lot of solid creature interactions providing some great gore in the kills as well as the fine practical creature costumes. In addition to all this, there’s a highly creative and unique means of finally stopping the creatures that have some fun energy involved to bring about some fine twists as well as the action featured, all providing this with some fun aspects overall.
There are some issues to be had with this one. One of the main factors to be had with this one is a disconcerting storyline structure that strands the group on the ice incredibly early in the film and has some bizarre choices as a result. The pacing stalls considerably as a lot of the conversation derives around means of staving off hunger or the wounded rather than dealing with the fish creatures. The numerous interactions with the possessed target clearly show him to be in league with them yet wastes plenty of time trying to unnecessarily reason with him so there are too many obviously misaligned speeches ignoring the creatures to make the misguided captain the villain at the expense of the fish creatures so they disappear for a pretty big section of the film for no reason. These are the main drawbacks of this one.
Overview: ***.5/5
An enjoyable enough indie creature feature that has a few minor problems, this one comes off incredibly well with only those few issues here bringing this one down. Give this a look if you’re intrigued by this one, appreciate the style of indie effort or are a fan of the creative crew, while those that don’t enjoy and of those factors should heed caution.
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