good film but with many flaws

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This film is a throwback to old school creature features from back in the day. This film stars fellow Alabama native Michael Rooker as Ray Pelletier. Ray is a humble family man, and ice fisherman. Blanche Baker (from The Girl Next Door) co stars as his loving wife Helen. The Pelletier clan plan on a relaxing weekend with their son David & his girlfriend Gina. The relaxing ice fishing weekend comes to an abrupt stop as the Pelletier family is introduced to the very obnoxious Steve Cote and his son Stevie (played by The Flash's Greg Finley). The two families eventually team up in a act of survival as night falls. In the of cover darkness, something BIG has awakened from the cold waters of the remote frozen lake beneath them. The aquatic creature begins to stalk both families. There is a few great scares from the creature and some nice gore effects. That sadly comes to a end as the creature finally rears its ugly head. The monster itself reminds me of a sleestack monster from the LAND OF THE LOST series back in the 80's.The film itself has a Runtime of 73 min. So, it doesn't have much time to delve into the creature or create a backstory of said monster. Nor does it go into the dynamic of either of the families.The dialogue is somewhat simple as it mainly consists of LOTS of F Bombs & Profanity from Don Wood's character. Don Wood who plays Steve Cote perfectly creates a very unlikable character. So much in fact, you want him to die first.I'd also like to mention to those film aficionados...there is a cool lil homage from JAWS in there when one of the actors says "We're gonna need a bigger hole." Rooker and Baker do a great job as always especially with what they have to work with. I would have liked to see more story and better creature effects. As I mentioned before, it's a independent creature feature. That being said, it's a fun flick but don't expect too much from it.

Ray, his wife Helen, their son David, and daughter-in-law Gina are setup in a cabin by a frozen lake. Ray scouts the lake in the twilight for a good fishing spot for the next morning. He spies a dead coyote, and goes to investigate. Something goes bump in the evening, and Ray falls through the ice. Ray is a man of considerable strength and stamina; he is able to pull himself out in the dark with no tools, but the effort leaves him flat on top of the ice. The rest of the family soon think he's been out too long. David finds him and walks him back to the cabin. They are still going ahead with the next day's fishing; they will just have to be more careful about weak spots in the ice.The setup for fishing goes without a hitch. On the other hand, there are no fish. Another family drives a truck and a trailer out onto the ice. The Pelletiers are a bit skeptical of all that weight even further out on the ice. Later they drive the truck away in a rush, leaving the trailer behind on the ice. The idiots return on ice-mobiles of some sort. The large whatever moves through and catches all of their hooks, but they do not bring it in.The new people are Steve Cote and Steve Jr, who are intent on catching the big whatever. The initial guess is that it might be a sturgeon of some sort. Steve Jr. gets pulled in, and the monster cuts him. Steve cleans him up, and lets him sleep. He offers the Pelletiers steak dinners. During the meal, Steve Junior starts feeling some sort of effects from his cut. Definitely an infection, but it looks like an infestation as well. The Pelletiers think Steve Jr needs to go to the hospital; Steve insists not.Steve and Ray go out to catch the beast. Steve starts a generator to charge batteries, provide light, and hopefully attract the beast. Steve Jr. gets up instead of resting; the beast comes back, and drags Steve Jr. away. Steve Sr. takes a shot at the beast, misses, but manages to fall into the drink. The beast manages to cut Steve Sr, not as deep, but a long laceration. Steve Sr also gets an infection. Steve Sr is determined that something is going to die before the night is over. He gets his wish.The Pelletiers wait for the dawn to go back to their cabin. Unfortunately, the monster gains partial access through the capped fishing holes in the trailer; David gets a fatal cut on the neck.-------Scores---------Cinematography: 6/10 Several of the long shots were rather poor: fuzzy, low contrast, too dim. There was a fair amount of camera shake on the closeups in the interiors.Sound: 7/10 Pretty good.Acting: 5/10 Michael Rooker, Blanche Baker, and Amy Chang were fine. Don Wood, Greg Finley, and Benjamin Forster I could have done without.Screenplay: 2/10 The story has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and the exposition from one to the next is not that bad. However, there were so many opportunities for the fate of the family members to come out much better. The case for all decisions to be bad ones was rather weak. The ending sucked rocks and made no sense at all.SFX: 0/10 The monster is the only SFX, and it looks really cheesy. This was a major detriment to the film. Its silly appearance shut down the suspense.

There are a few reasons to see and actually really enjoy Hypothermia. There are also a few good solid reasons to not even bother with this and why it gets some rather harsh reviews. The good to this film is Michael Rooker (more on that later), the setting for the film in the form of a cold, snowy, isolated lake, the suspense and the story are all pretty good. I was actually pleasantly surprised at these positives. The bad though is pretty bad. The supporting cast are barely passable actors, very cheesy and B-Movie amateurs. The run time on the film is just over an hour which usually raises immediate concerns about the quality of the film. If you can't come up with enough story to make a full length film, you have a problem. And finally and the biggest problem...the monster. They literally put a guy in wet suit with some felt glued to him. It was not even amateur, its childish and it just about ruins the entire movie. There are some good performances and tension runs high and you get excited and then this ridiculous looking clown monster comes out and ruins everything they've built. This movie could have easily been an 8/10 if not for that terrible costume.Michael Rooker single handedly carries this film and makes it worthwhile. Fans of his from Walking Dead will embrace this and you won't be disappointed in him. He buries his fellow cast mates and makes them look even more amateur. The difference in quality of performance from him to everyone else is night and day and then some. The film makers should thank their lucky stars he was involved. Imagine my shock that Blanche Baker, who plays Rooker's wife, is a skilled and experienced actress. She is terrible in this film. I had her pegged as one of the film makers mom's. She is obviously not interested in this film and cares very little about the character. Not surprisingly, the only performance worse than hers is Benjamin Forster as the son. He has very little to no experience in film and it shows in his monotoned delivery that sounds like a grade school play. Amy Chang is almost as bad playing his girlfriend. The two of them together are just extremely amateur and really drag the cast down. Don Wood gives a very good performance as the fast talking, obnoxious Steve Sr. He is actually really good and helps Rooker support this awful cast. Greg Finley is also decent as Wood's son although he doesn't get as big of a part as everyone else.The problem with this film is half the cast..Rooker, Woods and Finley are great to good, and the rest of the cast are so incredibly awful that they drag this way down. Indie film maker James Felix McKenney has a decent idea, an okay script and managed to land some good actors and probably doesn't even know it. He lets everything fall apart before the film can even succeed. The potential for this to be a good horror/monster flick is actually significant but he handles the making of his own film entirely wrong. Instead of using Rooker, hands down his strongest actor, he ends the film with this god awful melodramatic monologue from one of the worst actresses I've ever seen. The entire last part of the film is two of these terrible actors together on screen. McKenney blew this because there is a lot of potential here. I am even recommending this to horror fans or monster fans because there is enough here to really entertain but be prepared to be disappointed when you see what could have been and how it turned out. I'd like to even give this a 7 but I can't do it because the bad seriously outweighs the good. 6.5/10

Ray Pelletier (an excellent and convincing performance by the always dependable Michael Rooker) is looking forward to a pleasant and relaxing weekend ice fishing with his family. Alas, Ray's plans are ruined by the unwanted presence of crude jerk Steve Cotes (a hilariously obnoxious portrayal by Don Wood) and his son Stevie Jr. (neatly essayed Greg Finley). However, both squabbling families have to put their differences aside and work together to stay alive when a vicious prehistoric humanoid monster (Asa Liebmann in a gnarly rubber suit) awakens from the cold waters of the frozen lake they are fishing at. Writer/director James Felix McKenney relates the engrossing story at a snappy pace, takes time to develop the characters, stages the sudden and startling creature attack scenes with considerable go-for-the-throat flair, treats the potentially silly premise with admirably grim seriousness, generates a good deal of tension, and delivers a satisfying amount of bloody gore. The solid acting by the able cast holds the picture together: Rooker does his usual ace job in the lead, Blanche Baker excels as Ray's sweet wife Helen, Wood makes the most out of his colorfully boorish character, plus there's respectable work from Benjamin Forster as Ray's amiable son David and Amy Chang as David's cheery girlfriend Gina. The bleak snow-covered wintry landscape conveys a powerfully unsettling feeling of isolation, desolation, and vulnerability. Eric Branco's slick cinematography boasts lots of cool red-tinted monster POV shots. Sean Eden's spare ominous score hits the spine-tingling spot. The tight 73 minute running time ensures that this movie never gets dull or overstays its welcome. A real only the money little fright flick.