Independent British filmmaker Charlie Steeds is back with his second film of 2022, with the period sci-fi horror Freeze.
A crew on a rescue mission to the North Pole become stranded after an unexplained incident plus they have the small matter of killer fishmen to deal with.
Steeds has previous with killer dwellers from the deep with his 2017 feature The Barge People, but instead of a more urban location, here we go deep into the ice.
He also brings along plenty of familiar faces in the Dark Temple Motion Pictures camp, including David Lenik, Tim Cartwright and Rory Wilton.
Steeds is clearly a fan of the lore of Lovecraft, with his monsters plucked out of one of the legendary author’s works.
The issue with them is that we see them in the first reel so it does alleviate some of the tension and threat to them.
Where Freeze does shine is creating human monsters alongside our fishy villains, with our crew not on the same page even before disaster strikes.
The film also insists on plenty of gory practical effects and some stunning locations for some of the North Pole sequences.
Steeds continues to carve his own path within the independent horror circuit, and while not everything in Freeze works, there’s plenty to admire here.
Freeze is coming to Digital Platforms on 12 December 2022.
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