When
the Big Freeze happens, it drives the few remaining survivors into underground
bunkers. Their biggest threat is the
common cold. With their numbers
dwindling and supplies running scarce, Bill Paxton takes it upon himself to
shoot anyone who gets sick, protocol be damned.
Leader Laurence Fishburne tries to put him in his place but must leave
basecamp to investigate why a nearby colony has gone radio silent. There, he and his team discover things have
gone horribly wrong.
After
seeing so many post-apocalypse movies that take place in the desert, it’s refreshing
to see one that takes place in the snow.
Director Jeff Renfroe sets a nice atmosphere in the early going and
gives Fishburne’s trek through the snow a decent amount of suspense. When the big twist occurs halfway through, the
plot veers more and more into horror territory.
This section is the weaker half, although only slightly. That’s mostly because it’s here where the
film stops being a post-apocalyptic survival movie and becomes another
variation on a modern zombie flick, albeit a sporadically effective one.
Fishburne
does a fine job, giving a sincere performance.
He easily slips into his role of leader and has a nice rapport Kevin Zegers
in their scenes in the frozen tundra.
The movie really belongs to Paxton.
Like many of his villainous roles, he’s not really the “bad guy”, but
more of a self-righteous asshole, which I appreciate. He has his own reasons for doing what he’s
doing, and you kind of sympathize with his actions, if only because they are coming
from a place of knee-jerk survivalist mentality. What I liked about the movie was that Zegers
keeps giving Paxton opportunity after opportunity to redeem himself, and he
always proves to be an asshole. You have
to admire that kind of stubbornness, even after the apocalypse.
AKA: The Colony:
Hell Freeze Over.
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