This film debuted theatrically June 19th as part of Cineplex Odeon’s Sinister Cinema series that spotlights the best in the Independent Horror scene. Fans who have missed this screening may find encore performances in select cities or locate it through VOD
By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
Charles Darwin might not survive naming the horrors found in Blood Glacier (Blutgletscher), an Austrian film by writer Benjamin Hessler and director Marvin Kren. Together, they are known for films like Rammbock (2010) and Schautag (2009). If his last film is any indication, perhaps this filmmaker has a fondness for creating terrors formed by self-mutilating viruses. In the Alps, just what may lurk underneath the snow is definitely not the Abominable Snowman! Instead, as the title implies, there’s a glacier that is shrinking and revealing a red like algae that’s going to spell doom for the scientists studying the effects of climate change.
The theme of eco-horror is light in a tale that seemingly wants to borrow from Dennis Feldman’s Species and H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. Part of the dialogue certainly ventures into that realm with an interesting theory that leads back to the origins of hybridization. But instead of discovering a lost civilization, all these scientists find is a mysterious cave with a few dead animals. The familiarity keeps on coming, especially with certain tropes plaguing this film — isolation, man with dog, men going berserk, and monsters popping out of nowhere. That lends itself well to creating a predictable film to watch, but in terms of originality, it feels like a step down from past memorable works Kren and Hessler have made.
Continue reading “Stirring the Melting Pot of Terror in Blood Glacier, A Movie Review”