Some things I liked some I did not.

Better Late Then Never

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

(The following review contains general spoilers.)I want to love "Blutgletscher" ("Blood Glacier"), an earnestly made independent German science fiction-horror film from 2013. I just can't ignore its flaws, however, and I've got to settle on a giving it a 6 out of 10.It has so much going for it. There's a freezing, arctic-like location. (This time out, we're in the mountains of Austria.) There's nifty/nasty sci-fi plot device. There's a variety of gooey monsters. It's creepy and atmospheric — a group of protagonists huddled in an isolated location while the wind howls outside on a cold night. There's a cunning everyman antihero. All of these are rendered by a reasonably intelligent script that lets "Blood Glacier" rise above the level of a horror-comedy.But its flaws make me hesitate to recommend it. It's poorly paced, for example, and is sometimes confusingly plotted. One person assailed by the creepy-crawlies emerges as kind of villain, but the character's motivations are never clear. Also, why is another character consistently a idiot? Is he just a really dumb scientist? And the ending shows otherwise intelligent people doing something incredibly ill advised.And I was puzzled by the special effects. At times, they were actually damn good! But at many points in the movie (as so many other reviews will point out) they were downright poor. I kept thinking that they looked like props in a high school play.Additionally, (and this can't be the fault of the filmmakers) the version of "Blood Glacier" that I watched had incredibly poor English-language dubbing. The actors on screen (especially Gerhard Liebmann and Briggite Kren) did a fine job, but their corresponding voice actors had … no talent or enthusiasm at all.Look, I don't think it's much of a spoiler if I tell you that this movie strongly parallels John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982). Any horror fan worth his or her salt should suspect as much if they read the preceding paragraphs. Our MacReady-like antihero drinks heavily and … he even looks like MacReady! And a dog and a helicopter are actually minor plot devices.But I liked this movie's thoughtful story device too much to call this film "a rip-off;" I'd rather think of it as a fairly skilled homage.Honestly? If you're fan of "The Thing," you might enjoy this as an interesting companion film. As another online reviewer bluntly forgave it, "It isn't TOTAL crap."If you hunt it down, its alternate title is "The Station."

FYI - a little bit of spoiler lies ahead. But it shouldn't matter, since I highly recommend you just skip seeing this movie, anyway.Honestly, they lost me at the very beginning of the movie, when the title scroll says that by the year 2014, "all skeptics were silenced" as global warming causes the glaciers to disappear. Give me a break. The people who wrote this tripe apparently don't keep up with current events.Add to that 3 selfish, liberal scientists who don't want any word of their discovery to get out to the public because the public isn't ready to hear the truth - regardless of the danger to everyone else.The acting is all-right, however the English voice over actors who dubbed it (saw dubbed version on Netflix) did a horrible job. Most of the voices were wrong for the characters, and much of the dialogue wasn't in sync with the actors lips moving.Creature effects look like something out of the 1990's, or maybe 1980's. Cheap, puppetry looking monsters.Don't waste your time - save yourself the hour and half for something else.

You know how things are. There you are in a scientific research station 3000m up a mountain when suddenly all sorts of horrific creatures start turning up wanting to eat you. We've all been there and laughed about it the next day.There's nothing really special about this film. It's a solid workman-like horror film that doesn't do anything wrong compared to other horror films, but it doesn't lift itself up to iconic-level cult status. The acting is good, the scenery is fantastic (or very bleak and forbidding depending on the mood required), the setup works as a way of isolating a group of people and the mechanism for creating the creatures, whilst being completely bonkers tripe, does allow for any crazy mix of chimeras that you care to think up in your worst out of body experiences.It's never explained where the 'organism' that creates the nightmare creatures comes from, and whether every chimera created survives to become a viable creature, or why this organism has suddenly appears and in such numbers. However, most horror films are just as bad at explaining things so I don't hold it against this film.Although the number of people is limited, there is a high death rate, most of them being suitable gory but, sadly, the one you really want to survive is the first to get it in the neck.The minister's character is superb. The minister is a woman, thankfully breaking the stereotype/cliché of useless women, and boy has she got guts, presence and a working brain. Anyone who says something stupid, does something stupid or just gets in the way are soon put in their place, hence the "Stop eating that banana while you're crying" title.Yes, there are the obligatory idiots, but you know they're idiots, as does the minister. As well as the minister there are three other capable characters. Sadly, the hunky body guard gets it in the chest before he has a chance to take his shirt off (boo), but the technician and his ex at least realise the danger they're in and don't stand around screaming, carelessly leaving doors open, or walking straight into the jaws of some nightmare creature.At one point a young woman appears being chased by a creature and she seems to then fill the role of screaming bint and incubation chamber. There seems to be no point to this character, and the role of incubator could easily have been given to banana-eating woman.The ending is a bit flat. There's the inevitable scene where we know that the crisis is only just beginning, there's the jump scare at the end, but you can spot it coming if you're paying attention, and everybody left alive makes it off the mountain. But there's no great feeling of achievement at the end. One of the survivors telephones for a helicopter, just like phoning for a taxi, and off home everybody goes.This is a competent film that stays well within its intended milieu and delivers a solid experience that many will appreciate, if not enjoy. I liked the film, but a little more attention to the plot, and a bit more slapping from the minister would have raised this film to an 8.

Walking through my local DVD shop I came across this title, "The Station". Quite plain sounding, but it was the comment at top of the case that caught my attention; "A slice of horror reminiscent of John Carpenter's 'The Thing' ". Being at massive fan of that film, I decided to take the chance and in some regards the Austrian made "The Station" comes close. Hey I even enjoyed it more than the prequel / remake that came out a year or two back. What it has in common with Carpenter's film is more so the ice setting, an unknown threat that is a single-form alien organism transforming the local wildlife into gigantic monster mutations and hybrids. It's like "Day of the Animals", but on steroids! Then there's the ending that only paints the apocalyptic mood playing out. This is a basic straight-face creature-feature at heart with a climatic cautionary warning, which tells a simple story that effectively lays it out with a strong grizzled protagonist (a very solid showing by Gerhard Liebmann), well timed suspense, gruesome thrills and a sense of mystery of mankind's fate. The final frame of the film is surprisingly effective in its suggestion, but they spoil it on an uncalled for tacky jump scare. The premise is far from unique and quite down-pat; a group of scientists/ technicians discover a glacier of blood (an inspired image when shown) high in the mountains, which after testing the liquid discover it contains an alien organism. As they try to survive and hold up against the effects of this organism, on a hiking trip to the station for an official visit is the Minister of the Environment. The feature is slickly photographed (despite some shaky camera movement early on) and makes excellent use of its vast, breathtaking backdrop. There's a definite sense of isolation and uneasiness, but never does it struck a feeling of claustrophobia and dread. The tension seems to unfold from threatening situations and the punctuated shocks. Its momentum is fairly sedate, but it becomes crazy, excessively so as it goes along and the director keeps a fairly tight hold. What I got a kick out of was that CGI was virtually little, if unseen, opting mainly for traditional special effects and they do pay-off. The creature designs are creative and horrific with beetle-fox hybrids, giant wood lice, flying crossbreeds. There's a whole range of beasties… and they're not friendly. Squamish moments are plentiful and there a creepy developments. While the generic script doesn't over feed itself, still it had some issues like an appearance of a sudden character for them to only disappear with a poor explanation. The performances are adequate, without anyone really standing out, other than Liebmann. Clichéd, but fun, strange sci-fi / horror monster romp.And the title "Blood Glacier" sounds so much better.