The plot:
Eileen Davenport's last request was to have her body cryogenically frozen upon death. This is fulfilled, and then six months later on Halloween Day, Joe and his goons try to rob a bank, but it doesn't go as planned. The goons are shot and killed, but Joe takes one to the chest and is rushed to the hospital. Come to find out, Joe is a Davenport, and his father arranges to have him cryogenically frozen too per his mother's request.
An overly flirtatious Mary (Linda Blair), who works as the PR for the lab, offers to help Mr. Davenport in any way she can. Unbeknownst to her, the doctor is selling the patients internal organs on the side. When Mr. Davenport goes to see his son to pay his last respects, and the doctor sends him to a different pod than originally assigned (keep in mind, all the bodies are wrapped in a foil-like bodybag, so you can't see their face), Mary feels that something isn’t right, but can't quite put her finger on it. A storm rolls through and lightning hits the main power unit at the lab causing an outage. The lead security guard decides it's best to move the pods outside until the power company arrives, so there is less chance of them thawing. Lightning then strikes the cryo pods, and out comes the freezer burnt occupants hellbent on killing anyone in their path.
After running for their lives, and a few lives taken, they realize that the only way to stop them is to refreeze them. So, they hook up a hose to a tank of liquid nitrogen, blast them, and escape, but soon they thaw, and continue their rampage. Luckily, the same source that started the problem, helps extinguish it, as lightning once again strikes the facility, catches everything on fire, and destroys all the cryonoids and pods. But, like an episode from Tales from the Crypt, it ends with one of the cryofreaks driving away unsuspectedly.
Realistically, this is a zombie movie, and a lame one at that. When the cryopods started opening, the first thing I thougt of was Tarman from Return of the Living Dead, which I recommend watching instead. But, it wasn’t all bad, and the coolest kill, alhough still pretty tame, was when one of the zombies gets speared by a forklift, is raised off the ground, and then transported.
The acting was mediocre, and not that she’s ever been a great actress, but even Linda Blair sucked. The gore FXs are so-so at best, the story was less than compelling, and to go along with the 80’s controversy over genetic research and cryogenics, this helps fuel the argument (although quite far-fetched) as to what could go wrong if research and experimentation continued. It's probably not something I'd watch again, unless it was on cable and I had nothing better to view, and I'm finding more and more how finicky my tastes are. I'm really struggling to find what will be his year's movie pick (last year was Antibodies), as I have yet to see anything that really moved me, but also have yet to watch Wizard of Gore or Mother of Tears, which are both hopefuls, but from Dimension Extreme, so you know my reservations. But, as we approach the critical month (October) where horror will be plentiful, I can only hope there's at least one gem in the slew of new or retro-releases that will do some justice, and maybe the 8 films from Ghost House Underground will give a good run. So, we wait and see...
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OVERALL RATING--2-- |
