Review by: Monkey Fist
SCUM Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
This is Austria’s answer to John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982) and the director, Marvin Kren also integrated other elements from earlier horror films such as “The Fly” and “The Mist” into his latest effort pretty neatly too.
Four technicians and scientists at an alpine research station discover a glacier of “blood” in the mountains. Testing the red liquid oozing from the ice, they discover a new alien organism with the astonishing capability of morphing the local wildlife into horrific hybrids and mutated beasts. Things can more complicated when infections soon appear in human hosts which add to the terror and some of the life-and-death decisions that the group must make in an effort to stay alive. As with films dabbling on such subject matter (think “Splinter” and “The Thing”), you can expect some gore moments and there is no shortage of creatures lurking both inside and outside of the shack the survivors find themselves holed-up. And director Kren seems to relish in the freedom the genre parameters allow him.
The creature effects were generally quite good and I’m glad that they steered away from over-utilising CGI effects and stayed focus on the plot without the using tits and asses to sell the flick (as with most current Hollywood horror films)! Unfortunately I can’t help but compare this film to “The Thing” and “Splinter”, which to me, were better. From the plot to the acting to the special effects, “Blood Glacier” somehow fell short. For me “Splinter” had fewer actors and a simpler premise but they managed to keep the tension in place for most of the time and the creature effects were more terrifying and realistic. Having said that, I would still consider “Blood Glacier” to be a decent and pretty enjoyable horror flick. But if I had to choose between this and “Splinter”, the choice is clear.
