Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Business man Miles Creighton, played by Michael Beck is cryonically, (not cryogenically - yes there's a difference), preserved for 10 years due to a medical transplant not being possible at the time of his death. One night his tube malfunctions and he is taken to hospital where his mother arranges for the procedure to be undertaken.The operation is a success and his mother is just happy to have her son back in her life and tries her best to continue life as normal and returns her son to the family company as CEO. To everyone else, Miles is just not normal and appears emotionally distant and ruthless with his decisions in the company and with people in general. The only one who dismisses this is his mother who brushes aside the nay-saying as simply a result of his long time in stasis and the impromptu revival. However it becomes clear that Miles has indeed changed and sparks the debate of whether a deceased person once revived is also revived with a soul. Miles becomes violent and sociopathic towards most people and only when he tries to kill the family priest by running him down with his car does the mother finally realise that what has been returned to her is not her loving son.Miles ends up being re-frozen in a large walk-in freezer and is then shot dead by his mother after he attacks a police officer revealing his demonic eyes to his mother just before he dies. The movie ends back at the cryonic facility with sirens sounding as more cryo-tubes start to malfunction.Chiller can be described as one of Wes Cravens' weaker efforts as this tries to go for a more atmospheric suspense over blood and gore. And as this was made for TV, the violence is quite low-key so even for 1985 it would be hard to consider this a horror movie and is instead more of a thriller. The quality of picture and sound is quite low, so in watching this you can be forgiven for thinking that this came out in the mid- seventies. Most of the cast performances in this are not the best but I felt that Michael Beck did a good job of portraying a soulless psycho where killing or hurting people isn't given a second thought. Chiller also came out at a time when cryonics was starting to regain interest in the early/mid eighties after the failures and legal scandals of the seventies, so the ethical, spiritual and moral implications were being discussed vigorously by religious, family and legal groups and whether cryonically frozen people should be brought back and this movie does briefly touch on that point. As yet a successful revival is still beyond the current technology levels so Chiller is pure fantasy and remains scientifically impossible. It's not the greatest movie by any means but if you manage to catch this on late night TV, then it's at least worth a look.

After his success with A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, director Wes Craven for some reason decided that his next project would be this TV movie. I'm not a big fan of this director on the whole; early exploitation flick The Last House on the Left as well as his modern slasher Scream sit well with me, but the rest of his work is very hit and miss and I'd hesitate to call him the master that others have labelled him as. The main theme here is cryogenic freezing, although it's more a springboard for the plot rather than an important part of the movie. The main influence here is obviously the excellent 1974 zombie film Deathdream and we focus on Miles Creighton; a businessman cryogenically frozen for ten years before an accident that means he has to be thawed out immediately. Miles is a part of a project for people that are ill; they pay to be frozen in the hope that they will be revived in the future when their illnesses can cured. Miles is successfully revived and it's seen as a miracle...but the person that wakes up is not the person who was frozen, as Miles returns without a soul.This film could actually have been quite decent judging by the idea behind it, but instead we're given a plot that doesn't really have a lot to it and it has to be said that Craven doesn't make the best out of the potential of the film. The 'soul' is the main focal point, but it would seem that not having a soul and simply having a murderous intent/no compassion are the same thing, which feels a bit unimaginative. The film was made for television so it's not particularly nasty and it's obvious that not a lot of money was spent on it as the whole production feels very cheap. Michael Beck never became a very popular actor and that isn't surprising judging by his performance here; while he is passable, he largely lacks charisma and is not formidable in the central role. The plot doesn't flow too badly but there's a real lack of suspense and/or tension and things slow down too much too often, which results in the film being rather boring on occasion. It all boils down to a predictable ending also. Overall, I have to admit that I was not impressed at all by this film and as far as Craven's filmography goes, Chiller would have to go down with Shocker, the Scream sequels and The Hills Have Eyes II as a miss.

Chiller (1985) ** (out of 4) Wes Craven's made for TV flick is frozen from the get go and never goes anywhere. In the film, a man returns to life after being frozen for ten years and guess what he does? If you guessed he goes on a killing spree then you've just saved yourself 80-minutes. Just looking at the film you can tell Craven didn't have much hope in the film because you can't see any of the typical Craven trademarks. The story itself is rather lame and it's nothing new so there's not much to get excited over. There isn't any gore since this was made for television but there's also no suspense, no humor and no good performances. Paul Sorvino has a small role but even he's sleepwalking.

Miles Creighton, ten years after his sudden death, thaws unexpectedly from cryogenic stasis and is returned to the living, in mind and body but, according to the film's presumption, missing his soul. As his behaviour slides from the obnoxious to the abominable, a family friend, the Reverend Penny, ponders the whereabouts of Miles' better third, and experiences a crisis of faith. Good or evil, altruism or selfishness, existentialism or abstinence - these are the dilemmas given to us in the exchanges between the Reverend and the Sociopath.This film is as detached, cold and humourless as its protagonist, but does provide a few shocks, and the acting is fine. I thought a chance for a droll swipe at Corporate America (or wherever) was missed, in that his employees noticed so quickly how appalling his new policies were - this was the Eighties, after all, and the lack of a soul was considered a prerequisite for success in some quarters. Gordon Gecko himself might have taken a dose of the liquid nitrogen, if he thought it would give him an edge.Although, unsurprisingly, the metaphysical questions posed by this film are not answered, it did make me think twice about the rent on Uncle Vern.