Strikingly enough, New Yorker Fessenden started on the story of The Last Winter soon after 9/11, at a moment when terrorism seemed the most important problem of our era. But, as he says, terrorism seems to be a case of temporary and solvable nature if you take a moment to think about climate change. This worry evokes feelings of melancholy and nostalgia among many people – after all, the future of our way of life is threatened – but others react by rejecting the idea, as if it is all a strange plot against our way of life. In the film, situated at a remote drilling research centre in northern Alaska, these attitudes are personified by James LeGros, as environmental researcher who has to keep an eye on the cowboys of the oil companies on the one hand and Ron ‘Hellboy’ Perlman, on the other hand, as the rowdy professional. What does it mean when the temperature doesn’t even want to drop in early February? Is the inexperienced crew member who sees strange things just a victim of the darkness of the polar night? Inspired by great genre examples such as Ridley Scott’s Alien and John Carpenter’s The Thing , the most worrying thing about The Last Winter may be the subtle way in which the situation gets out of hand. The essence of the horror genre – ignoring warnings – acquires a global significance in this context. The beautiful polar landscapes, the tension and the wonderful CGI can do nothing to change that. (GT)
