gavin6942 Ray Pelletier (Michael Rooker) just wants to spend a pleasant and relaxing weekend ice fishing with his family. Alas, Ray's plans are ruined by the unwanted presence of the obnoxious big city father and son duo of Steve Cote and Stevie Jr.I love me some Michael Rooker, and he does not disappoint here. This is not his funniest role, nor his most aggressive role, but he makes his presence known and I loved every frame of it.This film had great creature effects and gore effects, and one nasty venom sequence (perhaps Blanche Baker's finest performance). For being a relatively simple plot with few twists and turns, I thought it was quite effective at building an atmosphere and the characters.Dark Sky Films continues to be one of the better companies out there for horror films.

Robert W. 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

mjconway1 My wife and I were really getting into this movie, until we saw the monster. We love Michael Rooker (been following him, since he was a serial killer in HENRY) and the rest of the cast was decent. This movie has a great title, an interesting winter locale for a backdrop and some decent writing.What kills it is the monster. Interestingly, the documentary shows the crew marveling at how it looks, but the body looks a lot like a wetsuit with arm flaps and claws on the finned feet. The head has constantly exposed teeth and big eyes. Aside from the teeth opening and closing, it is very static. It doesn't help that the performer moves like a man, when on the ice. In the water, he swims like Patrick Duffy did in the MAN FROM ATLANTIS television show.I know I'm going on about the monster, but it really was laughable. My suggestion would be to make it a flesh color, with darker patterns mixed in. Cover it with scales and add some open/close lips to that mouth. Have it move on all fours and some seaweed type of appendages hanging from it.Guy in the suit aside, the movie was well made and had some nice CG shots of something big swimming under the ice where the actors were standing. The monster POV shots and title sequence were nice. What really worked was the idea of a family trapped in the middle of a frozen lake. I commend Michael Rooker for working on a small production, while giving it his usual strong effort. This could have been a minor classic.

Woodyanders 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.