Review of The Last Winter

The American oil company KIC Corporation is building an ice road to explore the remote Northern Artic National Wildlife Refuge seeking energy independence. Independent environmentalists work together in a drilling base headed by the tough Ed Pollack (Ron Perlman) in a sort of agreement with the government, approving procedures and sending reports of the operation. When one insane team member is found dead naked on the snow, the environmentalist James Hoffman (James Le Gros) suspects that sour gases may have been accidentally released in the spot provoking hallucinations and insanity in the group. After a second fatal incident, he convinces Ed to travel with the team to a hospital for examination. However, weird events happen trapping the group in the base.

"The Last Winter" is intriguing, beginning like "The Thing" blended with "An Inconvenient Truth" in wonderful locations in Iceland. Then the story shifts to a rip-off of "The Shining", ending in a complete and disappointing ambiguous mess. Ron Perlman plays an unpleasant character, and it is impossible to feel any empathy for Ed Pollack. It seems that the unknown director and writer Larry Fessenden was also affected by the hallucinogen gas of the story and end the movie completely mad, showing a weak answer of the nature in spite of having a plot with great potential. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Colapso no Ártico" ("Collapse in the Artic")