That bleak entry, from the diary of an environmental scientist working with an oil company to clear the way for drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, foretells an apocalypse that spirals from personal to global in Larry Fessenden's most expansive, thought-provoking work to date, The Last Winter. A love-him-or-hate-him multi-hyphenate (he acts, edits, produces, co-writes, and directs here) whose films--built on shifting mixtures of genre trappings and deeply personal commentaries--have consistently polarized audiences since the early ‘90s, Fessenden's hot-button parable about the quest for "energy independence" and the price civilization must pay for ignoring nature's warning signs achieves a chilling, spectral tone amidst its understated plea for environmental awareness.

Trouble's already brewing at a small research station exploring the best way to mine the Refuge's untapped resources when crew chief Ed Pollack (Ron Perlman) returns from a sojourn at Corporate. Two new environmental engineers have arrived, one of them (Hoffman, played by James LeGros) is in bed with his ex--camp doctor Abby (Connie Britton), and his surrogate nephew Max has been botching assignments and seems increasingly distracted by… something. That "something" troubles Hoffman as well, who senses a change in the environment that seems perhaps greater than the sum of what has incited it. Max goes missing, the crew begins to splinter, and when a small plane crashes into the station Pollack and Hoffman are forced off on foot for help. Waiting in the "pure, white nothingness" that lies beyond base camp is something unwilling to allow them refuge.

While not exactly a "nature strikes back" film, The Last Winter does layer in a good dose of what ominous signs mother nature has to offer--bizarre patterns of weather, phantom footfalls in the snow, increasingly aggressive blackbirds--before really pulling the rug out from under mankind in its simple, pitch-perfect coda. When the film gives itself over to its ghost story core (what is oil, after all, except the remains of long-dead plants, animals, and people?) it does so in small, effective doses that smartly downplay major special effects sequences in favor of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it mentality (the few non-practical effects on display waffle from strong to less-than-convincing, always a hazard for such a modest production).

One thing The Last Winter's not--supplying further credit to the film and its creators--is polemic. For a filmmaker who's written books on green production standards and maintains a website on conservation (Running Out of Road), Fessenden offers a fair shake to the argument that whatever the consequences, people must do what they must to survive. Hoffman and Pollack aren't that different. Both are driven, to faults personal and professional, by their jobs (a recurring theme in Fessenden's work) and both want what they think is best for the rest of us, offering convincing arguments to back their positions. Not only shrewd in terms of maintaining a wider audience, this casts the film's characters and its central situation in a realist light. In the end The Last Winter's position on the topic is clear, but it's offered without strong judgment against either camp.

What makes Fessenden's films work for some and not others is their straddling of lines. They aren't quite this and they aren't quite that--they're a little of both, often wedging a third or forth ideology in for good measure. When done poorly these sorts of mish-mashed narratives tend to fail miserably, but with Fessenden's work each contrasting element perfectly informs the next and vice-versa. His disparities dance together instead of working against one another. The overtly horrific aspects of our running blindly into violent retribution for transgressions against Mother Earth are played subtly in The Last Winter, given a greater foothold each time something turns the screws on our characters.

The isolated team of experts pitted against a force it can't comprehend is old hat in the horror genre, so it's a credit to the filmmakers it here feel fresh, or at least doesn't play stale. The ensemble, lead by Perlman and LeGros, turns in excellent work. Pollack and Hoffman could easily have been drawn and played as Red and Blue, but both are shaded and the actors' grip on this notion shines through. Shot primarily in Iceland, tech credits from a mostly regional crew are uniformly strong. Music and sound design stand out. Fessenden's in full control of the medium here, executing a number of intelligently conceived set-ups (including a track around the facility helping to introduce the characters and a retreating bird's-eye-view of Hoffman's research tent).

Currently seen on-screen having his face blown off by Jodie Foster in the promo materials for Neil Jordan's The Brave One, Fessenden's own work might never receive the same level of exposure the man himself has garnered as an in-demand character player. Still scheduled for a day-and-date release in theaters and via on-demand cable and satellite systems by IFC Films September 19th, what audience it manages to ensnare won't likely leave The Last Winter feeling indifferent--it's a film meant to provoke thought and stir debate after it's entertained, which it does to impressive effect. The horror genre would do right by embracing Fessenden, a genuine heir to the throne built by the likes of Whale, Romero, and Cohen. Perhaps too small and personal a film to achieve such recognition for its creator, The Last Winter still further cements his reputation and above all else, tells a helluva creepy ghost story we'd all be wise to heed.

REVIEW:
With more money and a better script, Larry Fessenden attempts to make an apocalyptic take on the legend of the Wendigo. Now, I wasn't a big fan of his last movie, appropriately titled "Wendigo" but this actually turned out to be somewhat decent. The Last Winter is an apocalyptic supernatural thriller more or less where a team working for an oil company find themselves fighting against an unseen evil in Northern Alaska where hell has literarily frozen over. By no means does this movie deserve all the great reviews that it has gotten but I have to hand it to Fessenden this time, his directing is brilliant and the story is actually pretty entertaining. It's just a shame that he loves his slow pace so much. Seriously, I'm all for building up the story but you're not supposed to put the viewer to sleep (yeah, I had to pause the movie halfway through for a nap) and this is the main problem with The Last Winter. Other than that I actually kind of liked it - believe it or not.

Some minor spoilers ahead now as I'm going to describe the plot as good as I can. An oil company has sent a team up to the Arctic region of Northern Alaska to establish a drilling base. The team consists of people with very differing personalities which naturally causes a lot of disputes and disagreements. Things take a turn for the worse as it seems as if the permafrost is melting... quickly, causing people to hallucinate and go insane. Or so it seems. It turns out that a bunch of Wendigos (a trippy moose-like creature) have been in hiding underneath the snow and since the snow is melting, the Wendigos have been let free. Wendigos aren't very nice creatures though, and they're definitely not vegetarians. I'm not really sure what they are since they don't seem to eat on the bodies that they've killed, they mainly just kill people. We never got an explanation as to why people were going insane either but I guess the Wendigos have some sort of supernatural power or something. End of spoilers.

Larry Fessenden sports some very interesting angles and shots in here and I simply loved the cinematography and the beautiful shots of the cold, raw Arctic landscape. The movie is also packed with talented actors who really make their characters come to life. Not once did I get the feeling that they were unable to connect with their characters. The story is also really well written for most of the time and once it actually got going (but believe you me, it takes way too long before it does), The Last Winter is a really good movie. I'm sure Fessenden is really proud of this one. In the end, The Last Winter is a surprisingly good movie with an original story and a great cast but I wish that it had been more fast paced than it was. I do feel that it's time for Mr. Fessenden to move on from the Wendigo concept though as glowing killer elks isn't all that scary. Good movie but could probably have been better. Not a movie for everyone, especially not those with a short attention span.

GORE:
Some severe burn injuries and eyes gouged out.

SOUNDTRACK:
I really dug the score this time. It felt really well made and served the movie brilliantly. Top-notch.

BOTTOM LINE:
The Last Winter is an interesting and original tale of horror but it's definitely not without its flaws. I do like that Fessenden is progressing as a director though but did we really need another film about the Wendigo? I think not. In the end it's a decent time killer and I'm sure that some of you will love it but I just thought that it was better than I had anticipated it to be.

Larry Fessenden has always been an artist and a consummate professional, but there's a newfound commercial glaze to The Last Winter--however ironic its use of widescreen--that makes one feel somehow less inclined to coddle it. An ambiguous statement, I know; I guess what I'm saying is that if I have any reservations about the piece (and I had fewer about Wendigo and Habit), I don't really fear seeming anti-intellectual in voicing them. Fessenden's own private The Thing, The Last Winter unfurls at an Alaskan outpost, where the blustery Pollack (Ron Perlman, delivering another perfectly-metered performance) has docked hoping to kick-start stalled plans to drill for oil. He's pitted against environmental scientist Hoffman (James Le Gros), with whom his former girlfriend Abby (the lovely Connie Britton) has fallen into bed, giving Fessenden ample opportunity to exploit the alpha-male subtext of many a red state/blue state conflict. In fact, the Bush/Gore allegory is so compelling in and of itself that, while I wouldn't begrudge the picture its horror elements (Fessenden is the genre fan's salvation, after all), with supernatural as opposed to psychological forces taking out the team, The Last Winter builds to an apocalypse whose nihilism suggests equivocation. Too, the picture is kind of perched, teeter-totter-like, on a shocking Blair Witch set-piece, never to reach its lofty heights again. Still and all, an elegiac piece of filmmaking that transcends cheap thrills in each of its onscreen casualties; I'd love to see Fessenden try his hand at a war movie.