Essentially a six-person play, the film by writer/director James Felix McKenney concerns two groups of people ice-fishing and a creature lurking underneath that sheet. One is a family fronted by Michael Rooker (TV's The Walking Dead) and Blanche Baker (Sixteen Candles); the other infringes on their territory, so you know one of them will be the first to go.
There's simply not enough to Hypothermia to make it work. It gets going quickly, but feels underdeveloped. The gore effects are good; the rubber-suited monster is a nice throwback; and yet soon hits serious drag — all the more remarkable since the flick barely cracks the hour mark. It is neither awful nor incompetent — just without much spark to hook even its intended audience.
Dark Sky Films' DVD release includes reversible cover art, the other side of which plays up its early-'80s inspiration; an 11-minute segment that compares the two groups' ice-fishing shelters, which is as riveting as it sounds; and a four-minute short titled "Ron & Reel" that is unendurably pointless. —Rod Lott
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