3/5 Can go either way
  by HMAN (CT)
Finally saw this one last night. The long and short of it is I can see where some love it, and where some hate it.

On the positive side, the movie does have a feel that reminds me of a combination of Session 9 and Carpenter's The Thing, as another reviewer stated. The director using sweeping cameras on the ground and air to show the vastness of the environment and create a sense of stillness and isolation. And it works, and feels generally unsettling. I love Ron Perlman, and thought he and the supporting cast did well, and were convincing.

The biggest problem in my opinion was that ultimately, the movie didn't know what it wanted to be......in other words, did it want to have creatures and make that more of a focus, or did it want to be the unseen horror, that is never fully revealed. I think maybe this film attempted to do both and that hurt it. I would have liked it more if you were left wondering whether it was the climate, or some evil, or the minds of the characters or all of these that caused everything to transpire.....the movie was building very well....and then, as others have noted, we got that spirit creature...while I am not as down on the creature as others, it was more the fact that it was revealed at all that hurt the film, at least in my mind.

Anyway....a decent movie that could have been great. If you're into this genre, give it a try. While I remain on the fence, I certainly have no regrets about watching it and will probably watch it again.

4/5 Very good movie
  by M. J. Palmer (Queensland, Australia)
This is a mesmerising, beautifully shot film with one of the best scores I have heard. I bought it as soon as it became available for sale. Forget about the 'scariest movie of the year' label which is just a marketing hook (the main reason I suspect why it has been criticised by some) and not appropriate: this is a timely movie designed to make you think but with a very sinister element as well. Good performances by all the cast.

1/5 The last Director
  by D. M. Kiser (ST. Louis)
Incredible bad movie, the Last Winter should clearly be the last movie that Larry Fessenden directs. Never heard of it and hope never to see it again. Slow boring and pointless. A hundred and one minutes I will never get back and that makes me very sad!

4/5 Snowblind...
  by Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein (under the rubble)
THE LAST WINTER is a cold, hopeless creeper of a movie. I enjoyed its sense of mounting, inescapable doom! Does it wear its politics on its parka sleave? Yes. Is it rather preachy at times? Sure. However, I just watched it as a well-told horror story, without worrying about the "message". If I want to see a good documentary on global warming, I'll watch the Discovery channel. THE LAST WINTER is a dread-inducing work of fiction, much in the same vein as SESSION 9. The one quibble I have w/ it is the use of CGI ghosts. I think the movie was doing fine without showing the critters behind the mayhem. If the spectres had been left out, this would have been a superior chiller (less is more). Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Desperation, Alien Resurrection) is always a kick to watch. He is quite an imposing figure! His Ed Pollack character is strong-willed / dedicated to the point of lunacy! He must get the job done no matter what. THE LAST WINTER held my attention right up to the final frame. I only wish they had left out those silly caribou!...

4/5 A flare is shot
  by J from NY (New York)
First of all, there seems to be a misconception of this movie among some reviewers that will put quite a few fans of subtle horror off: there are no monsters in this movie. There is no huge, callous revelation in the movie where we see an FX created ghoul rushing around. I won't describe what you do see because that would be a spoiler.

Whatever your "opinion" on Global Warming (not sure how anyone could have a negative opinion of Gore's book, since it simply illustrates an objective reality), this is a solid indie horror flick. Larry Fessenden doesn't strike me as the future of horror on the whole as he does to some: "Habit" was a great take on the vampire myth, but he also wanted to make a commentary on HIV and unprotected sex. "Wendigo" was frightening at times but is really nothing more than a commentary on primitive myths and nature avenging the innocent. Social commentary in horror is a time honored tradition but it needs to be a little more subtle than Fessenden does it.

"The Last Winter" is his crowning achievement. A North American Oil company makes the dire mistake of charting unexplored areas in an area previously protected by the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The advance team for an oil company waits for temperatures to drop so that it can start drilling in the formerly protected wildernesss preserve.

Mother nature is not cooperating, though. The climate is uncooperative and the team, led by an arrogant and oblivious Ron Perlman, begin to experience discord within the group and the most innocent of the crew is taken early on. Nosebleeds, insomnia, empty boots, the catalogue of madness marches on.

The message of this film is noble. The possibility of something like this occuring when you consider the film's subject matter is not all that preposterous if you have the slightest belief in anything but science.

A must see.