MARVIN KREN

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBB

Original title:  Blutgletscher

Alternate title:  The Station

Austria, 2013.  Allegro Film, Filmfonds Wien, Filmstandort Austria, ORF Film/Fernseh-Abkommen, Österreichisches Filminstitut.  Screenplay by Benjamin Hessler.  Cinematography by Moritz Schultheiss.  Produced by Helmut Grasser.  Music by Marco Dreckkotter, Stefan Will.  Production Design by Alexandra Maringer.  Costume Design by Hanya Barakat.  Film Editing by Daniel Prochaska.  

Update of John Carpenter’s The Thing, with a team of researchers stumbling upon a depth of horrors when they discover a strange enzyme growing in Alpine snows that seems to be facilitating some kind of animal hybridism.

Mutated foxes and large insects begin attacking the research station, some of them incubated within human bodies who pay the toll for their hosting duties, all conveniently timed with the visit of a politician and her crew who have no idea that they are about to become gustative indulgences.

The gore factor is superbly high here, and achieved through expert visual effects, but despite all the wondrous efforts this one is strictly for fans of the genre.  It doesn’t equal the sum of its parts and takes itself a tad too seriously, with characters who never quite leap off the screen and action that is never diverting.  Still, you could do so much worse.

Toronto International Film Festival:  2013