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Val Kilmer, Martha MacIsaac, Aaron Ashmore, Anne Marie De Luise, Kyle Schmid ... see more see more... , Steph Song , Anne Marie Deluise , Sebastian Gacki , Viv Leacock , Garry Chalk , William B. Davis

A team of ecology students led by a famous environmental advocate discovers that some secrets are better left buried when they unearth the perfectly preserved remains of a frozen wooly mammoth and dis... read more read more...cover that an ancient parasite has been incubating inside the beast for centuries. Dr. David Krupien (Val Kilmer) is examining a melting ice cap in the Arctic when he unearths a prehistoric specimen the likes of which researchers have never seen. Elated by the possibilities of such a remarkable find, Dr. Krupien hastily summons four of his brightest students to the base to take part in the excavation. But something isn't right; soon after extracting the massive prehistoric creature from the ice, the students are besieged by a swarm of unidentified insects that burrow deep into the flesh, and lay eggs in their host to reproduce. With each new infection, the prospect of containing the parasitic bane decreases. Now, stranded in the Arctic with their numbers quickly dwindling, the desperate students realize that their only hope of preventing the parasite from reaching the general population is to quarantine the base, even if it costs them their lives. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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25% liked it

1,808 ratings

R, 1 hr. 34 min.

Directed by: Mark A. Lewis, Mark Lewis

Release Date: December 1, 2009

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DVD Release Date: October 6, 2009

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Flixster Reviews (339)

  • drblood
    September 22, 2011
    drblood
    If you ignore all the boring ecological crap about global warming that seems to get spouted at length every ten minutes, "The Thaw" isn't a bad little horror film about parasitic bugs at all.
    Basically, the action takes place at a remote Arctic research station without much snow ... read moreto be seen anywhere (possibly due to this really being filmed in Canada) and has quite a few similarities to "The Thing" in terms of isolation and the need to quarantine the nasty little beasties.
    Unfortunately, most of the budget must have been blown on hiring Val Kilmer for his minimal screen time so, if you are expecting lots of gory nastiness, this is slightly disappointing for truly hardcore horror fans.
    The effects, although sparse, are nasty enough for most people especially if you have entomophobia as one of the characters indeed does. Various infestations and burrowing creepy-crawlies are shown in all their low-budget CGI glory so be prepared to sit there scratching at yourself throughout the movie.
    There's even a rather nice arm amputation scene which, although still somewhat ridiculous, is a lot more realistic than most that you'd see in a film of this nature.
    Of course, there's a little bit of a twist to this involving the motivation of Val Kilmer's professor character whose subplot lingers mostly in the background as the small team of thirty-something graduate "students" vainly fight against the bugs.
    Other than that, it's all formulaic stuff with one character being picked off after another in a typical slasher film style. As usual, none of the characters are particularly well developed or likable and seem hellbent on making you hate them even more by being absolutely useless apart from bickering with each other in most of the situations that they get themselves into. There's even the tired old cliché of self-sacrifice which you'll get pretty sick of hearing about or seeing by the end of the movie.
    The camerawork is nice and steady, not any of that shakycam crap, and, although the sets give away the budget in a few places, it still looks quite good. The location means that a claustrophobic atmosphere is severely lacking and, it almost goes without saying, that there's a distinct lack of tension throughout.
    Considering that "The Thaw" was released straight-to-DVD on the "Ghost House Underground" label, it's one of the better ones and fans of things like "Slither" (2006) or "Ticks" (1999) will enjoy it if they prefer something which takes itself a lot more seriously.
  • bbcfloridabound
    October 26, 2010
    bbcfloridabound
    One of the great movies from Ghost House Underground Series. This one is as good as they get. A research team in the Artic discover a Woolly Mammoth, but what they don't know is that they discovered much more, a prehistoric parasite that feeds on its victims. Excellent special ... read moreeffects and some terror sights but not in the class of a Halloween film, but still a thriller and horror, 4 1/2 stars
  • LitelBluHli
    April 29, 2010
    LitelBluHli
    For some reason, my boyfriend and I watched this whole movie and got somewhat into it. It was watchable and you wanted to know what was going to happen next to the students. Not the best, but we found humor in it and it was a decent tv movie about creepy crawling bugs.
  • briandeguelle
    September 24, 2009
    briandeguelle
    Well above avenge horror across between the thing and touches of cabin fever.Startes well and carrys on thru out leaving you with a satifying climax.Acting is well above par for this type of low budget fair.Any Val Kilmer fans will be disappointed as he as a short screen presents... read more.This to me is a rare and surprise find and recommand it to horror fans....
  • fb100002023516744
    June 9, 2011
    fb100002023516744
    A fantastic horror film. Very creepy\eerie plot.
  • danieljparsons
    May 3, 2010
    danieljparsons
    Appalling, badly written and even worse acted 'host' horror in the style of The Thing, that is populated by vacuous, frustratingly tokenistic characters that make stupid decisions. The writers try to justify the film with a fucking awful 'twist' wrap-around ending that ser... read moreves as a warning message about global warming that is likely to infuriate anyone with even the smallest of green sensibilities. The Thaw sucks. The Thing, Splinter, heck, even the X-Files episode Ice did this so much better.
  • John2223
    October 8, 2009
    John2223
    I enjoy the mixture of horror, and political commentary. The acting is good across the board. The premise is somewhat believable, and the tension is thick. The location lends to the creepiness, being such a remote location.
    Good effects, suspense and atmosphere.
  • juliantoepfer
    December 29, 2011
    juliantoepfer
    While certainly not the most original movie ever made (as it borrows from a number of sources such as 'Cabin Fever', 'The Thing', even 'Alien'), this film manages to come out pretty well.

    The acting is decently performed by a pretty unknown cast (save Kilmer, who has never bee... read moren one of my favorites) and it is filmed very effectively, with dark and edgy camera shots. The plot line isn't that out there, and actually fairly realistic when you think about it.

    Its definitely one of those horror movies where you have a hard time believing the characters actually want to survive, as they are constantly doing things that no one in this situation would do. Tries to give you a 'twist ending' which I think everyone can see coming 2 miles away. But mostly, this is a pretty well done low budget movie that offers alot in the way of edgy-ness and great horror cinematography.
  • iamthethinman
    December 2, 2010
    iamthethinman
    This movie couldn?t have been something that they eyed and said that it was going to be a blockbuster. Val Kilmer is a nice touch, but most B+ movies these days have that former A list star that still hasn?t completely tarnished their name and pops up in good fare from time to ti... read moreme. But this movie has an idea and sticks with it. It will aim to gross you out and give you the creeps and not exactly try to be the scariest or deepest movie out there. I have heard that is what Cabin Fever was like, but haven?t seen that one.

    This movie just lets it hang out and doesn?t try anything too grand. It give off a good atmosphere and subtle unsettling points. The acting by a couple of people could have been a lot better, but the point is made about environmentalism and the horrors we may face. And some nice gory stuff to. You won?t hate yourself for watching it if you are interested in these type of movies.
  • octoberskye24
    November 11, 2010
    octoberskye24
    "I used to believe that people couldn't change; that all we could do is just have as much fun as we could before it all came to an end. But now, now I don't want it to end."

    Favorite scene:
    Meh.

    Best performance:
    No one stood out to me.

    Random thoughts:... read more
    I have seen a lot of messed up shit, but this was almost too much. I'm pretty sure I have entomophobia.

    This movie was fairly interesting. I wouldn't call it horror; it's more like a creepy thriller. It had a cool twist. Not a great movie by any stretch, but it wasn't awful.

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Critic Reviews

Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton
October 7, 2009
Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton, Dread Central

The Thaw appears to borrow a tremendous amount of its plot from The X-Files. There was a good movie here that lost its way. Full Review

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The Thaw Trivia

  • In what move did the character Henry Hill say in narration: "When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff it took them three days to thaw him out for the autopsy."   Answer »
  • Which movie has this tagline : " Never thaw it coming "  Answer »
  • "I think you should send us the biggest transport plane you have, and take this thing to the Arctic or somewhere and drop it where it will never thaw." What debut film for a future Hollywood megastar was this line from.   Answer »
  • In The Movie Goodfellas - How many days did it take to thaw out Carbone from the meat truck freezer, so they could perform the autopsy?   Answer »
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